Fox Couldn't Control Glenn Beck Anymore

Plenty of speculation is out there about what finally caused Glenn Beck and Fox News to pull the plug on his show, but Glynnis MacNicol at Business Insider thinks it boils down to this: "Beck and Fox are parting ways because Beck had too much power and Fox couldn't control him." After all, other Fox broadcasters say offensive things, but "the difference is that should Fox want to rein them in they are generally able to do so," writes MacNicol. "Less so with Beck."

This feels like a genuinely mutual decision—Beck gets to go play in his burgeoning media empire, and Fox execs "no longer have to answer for someone who doesn't like to answer to them," writes MacNicol. At the Daily Beast, Howard Kurtz has similar take. He writes that senior Fox officials "are relieved to be rid of Beck" and that "Beck too, has tired of the friction" and is happy to be leaving. All in all, it's "a case study in how even the most successful broadcast personalities can become too hot to handle."