The Perfect Storm: Cable News and Glenn Beck

Cable news is a for-profit business driven by entertainment. The entertainment factor influences how the news is packaged and who delivers it. Through the medium of television, the news is absorbed differently than through other mediums. Cable news is adapting to the speed of the internet, but entertainment is far more important than information. Glenn Beck emerged as a entertaining pundit, who crafted his ideology into a successful brand. This work explores how the commercial nature of the news media affected the career of Glenn Beck. Beck's message and ideology grew more powerful after the election of Barack Obama. Beck's TV message was one of postracialism, one where racial equality has been achieved in the U.S. Beck's performance and rhetoric of American Exceptionalism is explored through the the TV show "The Glenn Beck Show" on Fox News.