Glenn Beck is like no one else on television.
He convinces about two million viewers to tune in to the Fox News Channel at 5 in the afternoon, a feat that no other cable news host has ever regularly accomplished. For a while, his ratings were even higher, sometimes even beating shows in prime time. Mr. Beck rants, raves, laughs, cries. He heaps attention onto conspiracy theories that are otherwise hardly heard in the mainstream media. He gives his fans hope for the future. He frustrates his critics to no end.
He frustrates the managers of the Fox News Channel, too, and that’s one of the reasons why, after only two and a half years at Fox, he’s leaving. He is moving to the Internet, having created an online channel called GBTV.com.Thursday at 5 is his final broadcast on Fox, and we’ll be live-blogging it here.