So it begins.
Hannity, the fact-challenged arrogant loud-mouthed ignorant bully, is jealous that fact-challenged unhinged, race-baiting hate-monger Glenn Beck is stealing his spotlight. IT'S ON!!! Delicious.
Thank you HUFFPO:
Yesterday afternoon, The Plum Line's Greg Sargent posted a speculative bit of Fox News palace intrigue, wondering if Sean Hannity's recent targeting of Kevin Jennings, the current director of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, was driven by Hannity's fear of the sudden rise of Glenn Beck. Sargent's premise is that Beck's infamy is growing by leaps and bounds because of Beck's recent "scalpings," and that he'd better go out and get one of his own to guard his prime-time flank.
So Hannity desperately manufactures yet another smear job (Jennings, this time).
As Sargent points out, the numbers are compelling:
So what's driving Hannity's jihad? One wonders whether it's driven by the fact that Beck is experiencing a ratings surge that has to have Hannity spooked big time. The just-released Fox News third quarter ratings show that Beck's surge dwarfs Hannity's by a wide margin.
Now Sean - you know full well that most of Beck's viewers come from people who hate him. It's the "can't look away when driving past a nasty car accident" thing. People love watching flaring nostrils and flying spittle - and Beck's double-chin reverberating with faux righteous Democrat-hating anger. They love it the same way they love watching to see if Chuck Norris' Toughskins jeans are going to split during one of his "high-kicks".
75,000 for the national, Fox-sponsored 9-12 rally? That's less than your average college football game. But you can never to be too careful, Sean, when your multi-million dollar sinecure is at stake.
Fox News viewers occasionally voice their dislike of Shepard Smith, for example, because Smith has this tendency to speak his mind and not reflexively spit paleoconservative cant. I suppose that you could bring Beck to that hour, and unleash Fox's Four Horsepersons Of The Apocalypse: Death, Famine, War, and Scientology. The problem there is that Smith is an actual news anchor and, without him, Fox News loses someone who can package stories downmarket to affiliates.
...
Back when Beck was announced as Foxy-to-be, Hannity offered him a big showy welcome, which felt, even at the time, a little like a territorial pissing. Since then, Beck's been the superstar: making waves, taking those scalps, and getting the cable news network to come fully behind his Teabaggy 9/12 Project.
What will happen next, as the tension at the Fox "News!" studio escalates?