Glenn Beck Bids Farewell to Fox News

Glenn Beck, the mercurial star of TV and radio, aired Thursday his last show on Fox News. The show was a combination of a trip down memory lane and vintage Beck, part professorial, part mad prophet of the airways.

Strolling among his iconic chalkboards, Beck talked about the future as much as he has the past. But he seemed less apocalyptic and more hopeful than he usually is. This is likely because he is turning yet another new page in his career, leaving the old media of cable news behind for the new with his subscription Internet TV network GBTV. GBTV adds to his radio show, his online newspaper "The Blaze", and numerous books and speaking gigs to form a one-man media empire.

Even with the advertising boycott and diminished ratings, Beck's show was the cable news leader in its time slot. The combination of history lectures and rants about the coming end of the world have proved popular with a wide audience. Because of that, it is no doubt that had Beck wanted to stay on Fox, he could have. He was allowed to do his last show live, which suggests a certain trust held for him by his now former employers.

As far as Beck's future is concerned, he plans to move to Texas, now freed of having to use Fox News' New York studio. He is also planning a repeat of his wildly successful "Rally to Restore Honor" which took place in Washington last August. This time it will be a "Rally to Restore Courage" and will take place in Jerusalem, Israel, in late August. This, like many Beck projects, has caused a certain upset in some quarters.

"The Glenn Beck Show" will be replaced by a panel discussion show called "The Five." No doubt it will be interesting, but it will not have the passion, sometimes unsettling, but always provocative, of Beck. He leaves a hole in the Fox News schedule that will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to fill. A group of pundits yelling at each other about current events will just not be the same.

Sources: Glenn Beck's last show: "We've learned a lot together", Tina Korbe, Hot Air, June 30, 2011

Glenn Beck Debuts 'The Blaze' News Site, Mark R. Whittington, Associated Content, August 31, 2010

Glenn Beck Moving to Texas? Mark R. Whittington, Yahoo News, June 29, 2011

Rachel Maddow Upset About Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Courage' Rally in Israel, Mark R. Whittington, Yahoo News, May 17, 2011