A Saturday shake-up on the cable news channels. While MSNBC interrupted its taped programming to air Pres. Obama’s healthcare reform speech in Minneapolis, FNC’s Glenn Beck was in on a Saturday, on this 9/12/09, hosting a live, two-hour “9 Principles, 12 Values” special. FNC chose to air the Beck program instead of the president’s speech with news anchor Patti Ann Browne doing short news updates summarizing what Obama had been saying.
Despite the fact that Glenn Beck is just about the hottest thing going at Fox these days, newsroom insiders have been grumbling to TVNewser that news coverage had been ceded to Beck’s 9/12 coverage.
So, why not carry the Obama speech within the special? FNC SVP of News Michael Clemente tells TVNewser, “We carried President Obama’s entire address to Congress on Wednesday, as well as his full speech to nurses on Friday and while there are programming shifts today, we still have as many news hours in place this weekend as we do every other weekend. If there’s breaking news today, we intend to cut into whatever programming is happening at the time and cover it as we always do.”
Beck’s program is timed to coincide with healthcare reform opposition rallies in various cities across the country, including in Washington, DC, as a CNN Radio correspondent learned first hand.
Beck went live to a rally in Ft. Worth with the organizer telling him, “Glenn Beck, the American people owe you a great debt of gratitude.” “The cavalry has come just in time,” Beck responded.
CNN also carried Obama live.