Here’s a variation on what I said at SDA:
“Nobody ever got rich working for somebody else”
And for all his “smarts,” that’s what Olbermann did. That $30 million was still somebody else’s $30 million.
Meanwhile, Beck just hired 43 new employees at his company, Mercury, including an ex-Huff Po big wig.
They’re heavily branding “Mercury” instead of “Glenn Beck”, dropping the name of the company on air whenever they can, and in press releases.
Beck may be a recovering alcoholic who dropped out of college, but he’s also a Mormon (convert). That is: He’s surrounded by business savvy friends he can trust.
Howard Hughes didn’t let Mormons run his empire for nothing.
While Olbermann was mouthing off, cashing his checks and going home to sleep/drink, Beck was building a stable family, a network of powerful friends, and an empire.
If he gets fired from Fox and radio tomorrow, he owns the massive foundation in place to relaunch himself literally the next day and take 10 million loyal fans with him in a podcast he could have up and running in hours.
Adam Carolla did the same thing after he got fired. Another guy who barely finished high school. Now he owns a Lamborghini (to name a few).
Even Olbermann’s Twitter feed is probably “owned” by MSNBC. All those precious contact — gone.
Another example of liberal “smarts” vs conservative “smarts”, eh?
Oh– and Beck bought gold at $300…
BONUS:
The reference to the “exaggerated rescue of Jessica Lynch” caught the attention of Media Myth Alert, given that Olbermann clearly suggested the mission was needlessly hyped.
That claim is an element of the multidimensional media myth that has come to define the Lynch case, which I examine in my mythbusting book,Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism
“Glenn Beck correctly predicted Keith Olbermann’s firing two weeks ago. What else did he foresee in MSNBC’s future?”