Murdoch forced to defend why Fox continues to ‘subsidize’ Beck’s show.

By Amanda Terkel Color of Change and Stop Beck have been waging an aggressive campaign to convince Fox News advertisers to boycott Glenn Beck’s show. So far, 123 companies have dropped him, and his broadcast in the UK has been running without ads for nearly three months. Yesterday on a conference call about its third quarter earnings, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch had to defend the fact that Fox News is keeping Beck on:

Murdoch was asked on the company’s third quarter analyst call about the departure of advertisers, many of whom have left the show in an organized protest that began last year when Beck said President Obama had a “deep-seated hatred of white people.” One wanted to know how long Fox News would “subsidize” the show, which is “filled with house ads.”

“It’s not subsidizing the show at all,” Murdoch fired back, adding that the theatrical Beck gives “a terrific kickoff” to the Fox News evening lineup.

Although Beck is still a strong lead-in for other Fox shows, he has “seen his audience fall almost 30% since the start of the year, from about 2.9 million viewers in January to 2.1 million in April.”