Glenn Beck Ending Fox News Program
COOPER: Glenn Beck announced today he'll be leaving the Fox News show later this year. Here's how he explained it.</s>GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm not sure if you've seen the news yet today, but I want to verify something that is true. I am going to leave this program later this year. Paul Revere did not get up on the horse and say, "I'm going to do this for the rest of my life," he didn't do it. He got of the horse at some point and fought in the revolution, and then he went back to silver-smithing. We will find each other. I'm developing other content for Fox, through specials and other things, on television and beyond.</s>COOPER: In a joint statement, Beck and his employer said Beck would transition off his daily program but stressed that he and Fox News have reached a new deal as he said, for future projects. Neither Fox nor Beck are commenting beyond their statements today. A lot of other people are certainly talking about it. I spoke to Howard Kurtz, Washington bureau chief for "Newsweek" and "The Daily Beast" and host of CNN's "Reliable Sources".</s>COOPER: So Howard, I think, you know, most people who hear that Glenn Beck is leaving Fox News are going to be surprised. People who weren't following the TV business religiously, you know, he's got huge name recognition. He has huge audience numbers. He's really defined that network in many ways and brought people in and created a great line-up and great, you know, huge numbers for everybody who follows him. So why is he leaving?</s>HOWARD KURTZ, CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Well, when you say that he defined the network, Anderson, that is part of the problem. Glenn Beck became so huge, such a cultural phenomena, and so incendiary and so radioactive in my view, that he almost overshadowed the Fox brand. So the disagreements between the two sides -- Beck wasn't happy with Fox. And Fox was increasingly uncomfortable I think having to deal with Beck's various conspiracy theories and apologies for statements going over the top. This was a divorce that's been brewing for some months.</s>COOPER: So, it wasn't -- I mean because a lot of people pointed to well, his ratings have slipped. The ratings go up and down, it ebbs and it flows. You're saying it's more about kind of branding and kind of impact on the network that it was having.</s>KURTZ: Even by the opinionated standards of Fox, Glenn Beck who would compare Reform Judaism to radical Islam, he apologized for that; of course, he famously called President Obama a racist. I don't think it was about numbers. It didn't help that his ratings were down about 40 percent. But he's still almost at two million viewers. At 5:00, that's a phenomenal number. I would like to have that number.</s>COOPER: Right. At any hour of the day, that's an incredible number.</s>KURTZ: At any hour of the day. But I think there was a sense among Fox executives that he couldn't be controlled, that he was getting deeper into darker conspiracy theories that were turning off some of his audience, and at the same time, many of the journalists at Fox, the straight reporters, they really didn't want to be associated with Beck. So there was a lot of internal pressure, I think, for them to part ways.</s>COOPER: Internally, you said this has been coming for a while.</s>KURTZ: Well, even Ailes once told me just a few months ago that he had asked beck to tone it down. He says you're trashing everyone. Clearly, you know, Fox tolerates some of the controversies; but when Beck starts talking about a Middle East Caliphate that has ties to or is in the mold of left wing groups in America -- that's pretty heavy duty stuff. And as pure TV, yes, he was a phenomenon. He would stand up there at that chalk board and he would spin these dark tales. But after a while, I think it got to be less compelling television because he was sort of repeating himself doing the same thing, and I think even Beck came to realize that.</s>COOPER: So do we know what he does now?</s>KURTZ: Well, look, he has a very passionate following; he's not going to be going on food stamps any time soon. He still got the syndicated radio show. He gives speeches, you, of course, remember the big crowd at the Lincoln Memorial that he drew. And he has a new Web site called The Blaze. So he has plenty of ways to reach his followers, but he'll have to do it now without the platform of Fox News which built him up into this cultural superstar, whether he likes to admit it or not.</s>COOPER: Do you think, though, he loses his influence, his power?</s>KURTZ: There is no substitute if you want to be part of the daily conversation for having a daily cable show. So I don't think the Beck phenomenon that we've all witnessed as a white hot comet streaking across the media landscape in the last couple of years -- I don't think a year from now it will burn quite as brightly because of the loss of Fox. Fox News will do just fine, with its line-up of personalities and its big ratings, but I do think that Fox is getting very uncomfortable with having Glenn Beck in the eyes of some, be the face of the network. That will no longer be a problem from this point on.</s>COOPER: You know, beyond what he's saying, whether you agree with him or disagree with him, like him or don't like him, just as a broadcaster, you know, to make standing in front of a black board compelling television is an extraordinarily difficult thing and he has done that. I'm trying to think of somebody to compare him to and I can't.</s>KURTZ: And he's pretty</s>COOPER: All right. Howard Kurtz, appreciate it. Thanks, Howard.</s>KURTZ: Thanks, Anderson.</s>COOPER: Still ahead, the latest from Japan, including the discovery of a second American in the tsunami rubble, and some good news about the amount of radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant. Plus a small plane makes an emergency landing on a New York City beach and you have to hear the conversation between the air traffic controller and the pilot.