Beck Didn't Need Mainstream Help to Oust Van Jones

Fox News shifts towards center, plays up GOP's 2012 conflict

(NEWSER) - Is Fox News going moderate? Not exactly, but Roger Ailes has consciously made a “course correction” from hyper-partisanship back toward the center, sensing that the public has grown weary of the Tea Party, he tells Howard Kurtz of Newsweek . Glenn Beck’s inflammatory rhetoric in particular “became a bit of a branding issue for us,” he says, as did Sarah Palin's use of her Fox platform to promote herself as a possible GOP savior. More»

Beck dismisses challenge from former White House official

(NEWSER) - "I’ve had all I can stand, Fox TV, and I can’t stand no more," former White House "green jobs" czar Van Jones said in recent tirade against the Glenn Beck and his soon-to-be-ex-employer. Jones, who resigned in 2009 after being targeted by Beck, has challenged the host to debate him before time runs out on his Fox show at the end of this month, and has threatened to take Fox to court over "a series of sensational and inflammatory charges" made against him on its shows, reports the Huffington Post . More»

Administration bemoans death of bully pulpit

(NEWSER) - Even if it seems like the president is constantly on TV and in the press, the White House says it’s struggling to get its message out: the “bully pulpit” is no more, writes Howard Kurtz for the Daily Beast . “There’s an alternative story here that we’re trying to tell,” says the president’s communications director. "But there’s an element of spitting in the ocean.” More»

Or is it really a beatnik art joke?

(NEWSER) - Glenn Beck has jumped into the online news game with “The Blaze.” Will it live up to the hype? Here’s what people are saying:

• The Blaze is a great move for Beck, because it allows him to expand his media empire “without simply serving up more Beck” and risking overexposure, writes Lacey Rose of Forbes , recalling an interview in which Beck proclaimed his admiration for Walt Disney. “Right now, I’m Walt and Mickey,” he said. “I’d like to just be Walt.”

Simpson trial established mold for overblown stories

(NEWSER) - The media’s collective freakout over Shirley Sherrod was just the latest rerun of its freakout over the OJ Simpson trial, “a grotesque Groundhog Day set of conditions that occur all too often,” writes Mark Halperin of Time . Both were brimming with the kind of disputed facts, compelling characters, and hot-button issues that the new media—cable TV, talk radio, and the Internet—thrive on. Both allowed endless speculation and angles, and could cheaply fill virtually any news hole. More»