• Between this and Deb­bie Med­ina, Glenn Beck is really start­ing to prove his worth as a part of the polit­i­cal con­ver­sa­tion. Sure, he still has wacky moments, but his wacky moments are start­ing to get out­weighed by astute obser­va­tions such as this one, where he essen­tially admits that it was a waste to bring on for­mer Rep. Eric Massa, who seemed just a wee bit uncom­fort­able with the appear­ance. In other news, the Wash­ing­ton Post actu­ally wrote an arti­cle on whether law­mak­ers con­duct polit­i­cal busi­ness while naked. The answer: Not really, though the show­ers are report­edly com­mu­nal, so the Rahm inci­dent could have hap­pened. source

• I tick­led him until he couldn’t breathe, and then four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birth­day. … You can take any­thing out of context.
• For­mer N.Y. Rep. Eric Massa • Speak­ing on Glenn Beck’s Fox Ne … aha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­hah … phew … aha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­hah … oh my god he really said that… aha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­hah … LOL. source

• I think this whole story is ridicu­lous. I think the lat­est excuse is silly and ridicu­lous. We’re focused not on crazy alle­ga­tions but instead on mak­ing this sys­tem work for the Amer­i­can peo­ple rather than insur­ance companies.
• White House Press Sec­re­tary Robert Gibbs • Regard­ing the bowl of crazy Rep. Eric Massa alleged as he resigned yes­ter­day. Other Democ­rats are deny­ing the seeing-Rahm-naked alle­ga­tions, too. Massa, by the way, will be on Glenn Beck today to defend him­self. Get yo pop­corn ready! source

• Hello, my name is the Repub­li­can Party, and I have a prob­lem! I’m addicted to spend­ing and big government.
• Glenn Beck • Speak­ing at CPAC last night as if the Repub­li­can Party was at an AA meet­ing. The Fox News and radio host noted that both par­ties had big prob­lems with spend­ing dur­ing his speech – Democ­rats tax and spend, while Repub­li­cans just spend. Beck said that as a result, peo­ple were los­ing faith that things would improve. Beck’s com­par­i­son holds weight – between this and the Deb­bie Med­ina thing, he’s actu­ally start­ing to sound smart! How did this hap­pen? Is there hope for Glenn Beck yet? source

• 103 number of sponsors Glenn Beck has lost as a result of the continuing boycott
• five number of days the U.K. broadcast of his show ran without any ads source

• I think some very good ques­tions have been raised in that regard. There are some very good argu­ments, and I think the Amer­i­can peo­ple have not seen all of the evi­dence there, so I have not taken a posi­tion on that.
• Texas Repub­li­can guber­na­to­r­ial can­di­date Debra Med­ina • Answer­ing a point-blank ques­tion from Glenn Beck: “Do you believe the gov­ern­ment was in any way involved in the bring­ing down of the World Trade Cen­ters on 9/11?” This is a Tea Party can­di­date. Who was doing well in the polls until now. Say­ing some­thing stu­pid. To. Glenn. Beck. Aha­ha­ha­ha­ha­ha­haha … aha­ha­haha … and we thought Harold Ford, Jr. had the mar­ket on say­ing stu­pid stuff all locked up. We don’t say this often, but good job Glenn Beck! source

• Is Roger Ailes more pow­er­ful than Rupert Mur­doch? We know that’s a con­tro­ver­sial state­ment, but hear us out. The Fox News chief not only made more money than Mur­doch him­self last year (and put up the kind of num­bers that made him deserve the pay­check), but the level of influ­ence the guy wields arguably has a wider reach in pol­i­tics. It’s some­thing that’s directly affected elec­tions and reg­u­larly pushes the news cycle for­ward. And it makes some mem­bers of the Mur­doch fam­ily (who aren’t Rupert) uncomfortable.

A media icon with mas­sive influence

• Regard­less of whether you like what he is doing, Roger Ailes is one of the most cre­ative tal­ents of his gen­er­a­tion. He has built a media empire that is capa­ble of dri­ving the con­ver­sa­tion, and, at times, the polit­i­cal process.
• CNN polit­i­cal ana­lyst David Ger­gen • Regard­ing the influ­ence of Roger Ailes, who runs Fox News and has since 1996. Ailes got his start with the Nixon cam­paign and often brings that sort of polit­i­cal expe­ri­ence to the chan­nel, con­trol­ling the con­ver­sa­tion with pin­point focus. source

Three events that defined Roger Ailes’ career

• Don’t sell TV short Back in 1967, Ailes, then a pro­ducer on “The Mike Dou­glas Show,” bluntly told Richard Nixon that tele­vi­sion wasn’t a gim­mick and he needed to focus on it. His hard­nosed response led to a role in the admin­is­tra­tion, the role of which was played up in the book “The Sell­ing of the Pres­i­dent 1968.” source
• Willie Hor­ton, super­star Ailes is largely respon­si­ble for turn­ing con­victed mur­derer Willie Hor­ton into a house­hold name dur­ing the 1988 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. Hor­ton was released from prison in Mass­a­chu­setts on Michael Dukakis’ dime, and Horton’s face dom­i­nated TV dur­ing the era. It also helped to ensure a George H. W. Bush vic­tory. source
• America’s Talk­ing Before the con­sul­tant started Fox News, Ailes con­ceived the talk-show-focused MSNBC pre­cur­sor America’s Talk­ing, which had a cult fol­low­ing (and led to the suc­cess of Chris Matthews) but ulti­mately fal­tered. In 2009, Fox started using the “America’s Talk­ing” tagline. How ironic. It’s almost like a dart in NBC’s eye. source

Fox News rules the ratings

• eight the number of consecutive years the network has led the cable news ratings roost
• 16% increase in 2009's ratings Fox News had over 2008; crazy part – it wasn't even an election year
• 96% increase in Glenn Beck's ratings after moving to Fox News from Headline News in 2009 source

How much money does Roger Ailes make Fox News?

• $700 million the amount Fox News makes in profit for News Corp. yearly – more than all the other major TV news outlets combined
• $23
  million the amount Fox News head Roger Ailes made last year – which is more than Rupert Murdoch, his boss made last year source

• Too much influ­ence? Some of Rupert Murdoch’s own fam­ily mem­bers have ques­tioned just how much influ­ence the guy has in the News Corp. cor­po­rate food chain. “I am by no means alone within the fam­ily or the com­pany in being ashamed and sick­ened by Roger Ailes’s hor­ren­dous and sus­tained dis­re­gard of the jour­nal­is­tic stan­dards that News Cor­po­ra­tion, its founder and every other global media busi­ness aspires to,” said Matthew Freud, who’s mar­ried to Murdoch’s daugh­ter Elis­a­beth. source

Could he run for pres­i­dent? It’s possible

• Friends have sug­gested he run in 2012. Ailes has influ­ence and knowl­edge so strong that he could real­is­ti­cally have a shot if he took his polit­i­cal knowl­edge to the polls. “I have known Roger Ailes for 29 years,” says well-known Repub­li­can poll­ster Frank Luntz. “No one knows how to win bet­ter than Roger.” Ailes denies such claims, but the option’s always open just in case. source

• Are the “Good Old Days” gone? In response to Fox News talk­ing heads going on about how we’ve lost our inno­cence, “The Daily Show’s” John Oliver tried look­ing for said inno­cence, and wasn’t able to find it. Decade by decade, he found that it was just as bad. Freak­ing hilar­i­ous. Depress­ing. And awe­some. All at once, guys.

• The Odd Cou­ple Here’s that Alan Greenspan video we men­tioned ear­lier. Our boy Al says a lot of smart stuff here, but the part that weirds us out is the fact that his spar­ring part­ner is crazy finan­cial guy Jim Cramer. Great match, guys.

• 
  The Mod­er­ate Cou­ple On “Face the Nation,” Joe Lieber­man and Ben Nel­son were stand­ing their ground for a health care option which gets rid of all the stuff that makes the health care bill desir­able. These two guys are hold­ing the bill back, lib­eral types.
• 
  
  The Vapid Cou­pleBar­bara Wal­ters’ “10 Most Fas­ci­nat­ing Peo­ple” must’ve hit the bot­tom of the bar­rel this year, because Glenn Beck was on the list. Here’s the inter­view, and we must warn you: Glenn Beck still sounds like an idiot when he’s talk­ing to Bar­bara Walters.