First published on MediaPost, March 9, 2011

Mainstream media has been all atwitter over the recently reported ratings decline of Glenn Beck’s popular TV news program.  Year on year results appear to indicate that approximately 75 Nielsen households who watched his program in January of 2010, have now either stopped watching, or are now recording his program on a DVR, outside of Nielsen’s measured window. 

This mass exodus apparently places Glenn’s 5 p.m. TV show in second to last place, among Fox’s six weekday talk hosts.  I mean, we’re talking MSNBC territory.

The diaspora leaves just under 125 recruited Nielsen/Beck households huddled around the warm glow of their Bush41-era rear-projection sets.  (This S.W.A.G. is based on estimates of a 20,000+/- Nielsen household panel, with each household representing approximately 5,800 identically cloned homes throughout America, each containing 2.54 viewers).

The loss of 75 Nielsen households is truly staggering.  By way of example, before the great Beck collapse, the Nielsen/Beck households would have had a hard time standing 3 abreast in the ammo aisle of your local Walmart.  But with the defection of 75 households, the Nielsen/Beck remnant would barely stand out in section 303 of this weekend’s Monster Truck Mayhem.  (And yes, it’s on SUNDAY, SUNDAY!)

Like Beck, I, too, would love to figure out how George Soros got  ahold of those 75 names.  Thanks in large part to Beck, many are keenly aware that the billionaire Quantum fund kingpin has already, nearly singlehandedly, destroyed the currencies of five nations, and now has America firmly in his sights.

But, recruiting 75 well-insulated Nielsen/Beck households, and convincing them to watch something else — anything else — well, that’s just plain diabolical.

Unfortunately for Glenn, and unfair stereotypes aside, the news only gets worse.  Shining the light of truth on the Soros tentacles might actually stop the extradition of many within the 125 household remnant. But how do you regain viewers, in the face of the most dreaded of all truth-killers?

I’m talking, of course, about the Nielsen recruiting bias.

To clarify, I’m not talking about the bias that Beck’s mentor, Bill O’Reilly, reported in 2008, when he revealed that 26 Nielsen executives, including Susan Whiting, had donated to the Democrats, while only two had donated to the Republicans.  In a blistering response memo circulated by then-Executive VP Whiting, she was quick to point out that the 92.857% Democratic coincidence is inconsequential, in light of the Nielsen overall employee base.  The memo puts it into perspective, by stating that “less than .005% of Nielsen U.S. employees, or fewer than 30 employees, made federal political contributions.”

O’Reilly missed the perfect comeback, as .005% is nearly as insignificant as .017%, the percent of households that Nielsen measures, as a percentage of all households.

No, Glenn, the recruiting bias impacts your show, probably more than any other show, because  somewhere around 60% of all households that are asked to become Nielsen households, reportedly refuse to participate.  This majority of households  —  60+ million of them — are not even eligible to be counted by Nielsen.  (Sounds a lot like America’s majority, when it comes to socialized health care, doesn’t it now?)

These ostracized households would likely detest the invasive monitoring of their every view.  They would, in most instances, summarily reject the paltry sum of inflated (and now nearly worthless) Federal Reserve Notes offered up as a ransom for the liberties and privacy of every man, woman, and child in their homes.

In other words, they would be more inclined to watch the “Glenn Beck Show.”

And finally, there’s Glenn’s recent  warnings about Google, which can’t be helping to grow his TV audience, either.  Quoting Google’s former CEO, Beck alerted his viewers about the search giant’s prognostication prowess:  “We know roughly who you are, roughly what you care about, roughly who your friends are. Google knows to within a foot of where you are.”

Gee, sound like anybody you know?