Reports: Cheatwood Likely To Leave Fox For Beck's Company

Mediaite: “Beck Has Planned To Hire A Fox News Big Wig.” From Mediaite.com:

Mediaite has learned that Beck has planned to hire a Fox News big wig to work within his production company, revealing, perhaps, much bigger and more innovative plans than anyone had previously thought.

A source close to the situation tells Mediaite, “There is a strong indication that Glenn Beck has bigger plans for his TV future than anyone thought, as it looks like Joel Cheatwood, SVP of Production/Development at Fox News, will be joining Mercury Radio Arts very soon to work closely with Glenn on his next creative idea.”

While no deal is officially done, indications are that Cheatwood will soon be joining Mercury.

[...]

By bringing on a senior television executive with Cheatwood's track record, Beck seems to be telling to the television world (and perhaps his current employer) that his vision for his future in broadcasting is not entirely reliant on Fox News, the cable network that undoubtedly helped bring Beck from a lackluster 0.4 rating, while on HLN, to a robust 1.5 rating. [Mediaite.com, 3/21/11]

Deadline.com: “Sources Say That Fox Had No Intention” Of Renewing Cheatwood's Contract. From Deadline.com:

Fox News Channel SVP development Joel Cheatwood is expected to leave the cable news network next month to join Glenn Beck's production company Mercury Radio Arts. But, contrary to a report that Cheatwood was “poached” from Fox News, sources say that Fox had no intention of renewing his $700,000-a year-contract when it is set to expire April 23. Cheatwood had reportedly been marginalized for more than a year, serving solely as Beck's liaison at the network. “Joel lost Roger (Ailes)'s respect and trust a long time ago,” a Fox News insider told Deadline. [Deadline.com, 3/21/11]

Huffington Post Source: Cheatwood “Already Marginalized At Fox News” And “Spends Most Of His Time” At Beck's Company. From The Huffington Post:

Mediaite reported Monday that Cheatwood was set to join Beck's Mercury Radio Arts in a move that suggests Beck may have “much bigger and more innovative plans [around his TV future] than anyone had previously thought.” The report comes as Beck's future with Fox News remains in doubt, and is one major indication that he and the network may part ways.

But despite Mediaite's characterization of Cheatwood as a “Fox News bigwig,” a source close to the situation claims that Cheatwood has been marginalized at Fox News, saying that he already spends most of his time at Mercury and is only seen at Fox News HQ when Beck's show is taping. The source also told the Huffington Post that Cheatwood's contract with Fox News expires in the next few weeks, and that the network was not planning to renew it.

Cheatwood has been a close associate of Beck's since the two were both at HLN, CNN's sister station, where Cheatwood helped create Beck's first, pre-Fox News show. He has also become one Fox News' primary spokesmen for Beck in the media. [Huffington Post, 3/21/11]

Joel Cheatwood's Close Relationship With Glenn Beck

Huffington Post: “Cheatwood Has Been A Close Associate Of Beck's.” From The Huffington Post:

Cheatwood has been a close associate of Beck's since the two were both at HLN, CNN's sister station, where Cheatwood helped create Beck's first, pre-Fox News show. He has also become one Fox News' primary spokesmen for Beck in the media. [Huffington Post, 3/21/11]

Beck Said He And Cheatwood “Speak The Same Language.” From The Washington Post:

Beck was lured to CNN by Joel Cheatwood, who made the pilot for his show and later jumped to Fox. Beck said he and Cheatwood “speak the same language” and that money was not a factor in his decision to sign the multimillion-dollar deal. “In the end, the question was, who's going to give me the opportunity to really grow and expand,” he said. [The Washington Post, 10/17/08]

Zaitchik: Cheatwood “Introduce[d] Beck To His Future Boss, Roger Ailes.” From Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck And The Triumph Of Ignorance:

A year after his launch [of his CNN Headline News show], Beck's ratings were stagnant and showing signs of decline. In what seemed a possible harbinger of Beck's own imminent departure, Joel Cheatwood jumped ship in April to Fox News, where he became vice president of development. The two friends kept in touch. Cheatwood would soon introduce Beck to his future boss, Roger Ailes. [Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck And The Triumph Of Ignorance, p. 121]

Cheatwood: “We Absolutely Stood Behind Glenn Beck 1000%” During Controversy About Holocaust Comments. From TVNewser:

A senior Fox News executive is refuting the account we posted earlier today of a meeting between Roger Ailes and Simon Greer of Jewish Funds for Justice regarding comments Glenn Beck made about the holocaust.

Fox News SVP of Development Joel Cheatwood tells TVNewser, “Never did we talk about Glenn 'crossing the line.'”

Cheatwood says that during the meeting, he and Ailes explained Beck's perspective that the holocaust is one of the worst events in history and should be handled with a tremendous amount of sympathy. They reinforced that everyone in the media needs to be sensitive around this topic.

Cheatwood said he felt it was an “honest, open, dignified meeting,” and that Greer's account as it appeared in the Yahoo! article “didn't bear any resemblance to the truth.” “The story basically -- as I read it -- indicated that Roger Ailes and myself had agreed with Greer,” he told us.

“We absolutely stood behind Glenn Beck 1000%,” he said. [TVNewser, 8/3/10]

Cheatwood Defended Beck Smear Of George Soros As A Nazi Collaborator. From The New York Times:

On Tuesday on his Fox program, watched by about 2.8 million people, Mr. Beck said that during the Holocaust, the 14-year-old Mr. Soros ''used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off.''

Mr. Beck continued: ''I am certainly not saying that George Soros enjoyed that, even had a choice. I mean, he's 14 years old. He was surviving. So I'm not making a judgment. That's between him and God.'' He also said that ''many people'' would call Mr. Soros ''an anti-Semite,'' though ''I will not.''

Fox stood by Mr. Beck. Joel Cheatwood, a senior vice president at Fox News, said in a statement Thursday afternoon that the ''information regarding Mr. Soros's experiences growing up were taken directly from his writings and from interviews given by him to the media, and no negative opinion was offered as to his actions as a child.''

Still, Mr. Foxman asserted that Mr. Beck's invoking of the childhood experience was ''unacceptable,'' adding, ''To hold a young boy responsible for what was going on around him during the Holocaust as part of a larger effort to denigrate the man is repugnant.'' [The New York Times, 11/11/10]

Cheatwood: Beck-Goldline Relationship “Is A Dead Issue.” From Politico:

Beck endorses Goldline International, but last week, Fox requested that he clarify his relationship with the firm, prompting it to tweak its trumpeting of Beck's endorsement. Goldline removed an identification of Beck as a “paid spokesman” from its website, but left the rest of the site - which prominently features his endorsement, photo and a radio interview he did with the company's president Mark Albarian - intact.

Removal of the “paid spokesman” language from Goldline's site brought his arrangement with the company in line with a network policy prohibiting “on-air talent from endorsing products or serving as a product spokesperson,” according to Joel Cheatwood, a Fox News executive.

“We asked for clarification. We got it. We're satisfied. It's a dead issue,” he told POLITICO. [Politico, 12/17/09]

Cheatwood: Beck “Has Denounced Violence Repeatedly.” From The New York Times:

Frances Fox Piven, a City University of New York professor, has been a primary character in Mr. Beck's warnings about a progressive take-down of America. Ms. Piven, Mr. Beck says, is responsible for a plan to “intentionally collapse our economic system.”

Her name has become a kind of shorthand for “enemy” on Mr. Beck's Fox News Channel program, which is watched by more than 2 million people, and on one of his Web sites, The Blaze. This week, Mr. Beck suggested on television that she was an enemy of the Constitution.

Never mind that Ms. Piven's radical plan to help poor people was published 45 years ago, when Mr. Beck was a toddler. Anonymous visitors to his Web site have called for her death, and some, she said, have contacted her directly via e-mail.

In response, a liberal nonprofit group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, wrote to the chairman of Fox News, Roger Ailes, on Thursday to ask him to put a stop to Mr. Beck's “false accusations” about Ms. Piven.

“Mr. Beck is putting Professor Piven in actual physical danger of a violent response,” the group wrote.

Fox News disagrees. Joel Cheatwood, a senior vice president, said Friday that Mr. Beck would not be ordered to stop talking about Ms. Piven on television. He said Mr. Beck had quoted her accurately and had never threatened her.

" 'The Glenn Beck Program,' probably above and beyond any on television, has denounced violence repeatedly," Mr. Cheatwood said. [The New York Times, 1/21/11]

Joel Cheatwood's History In Television

NY Post: Cheatwood Is “Known For His Tabloid Sensibility” And “Has Been Criticized For Dumbing Down The News.” From The New York Post, which, like Fox News, is owned by News Corp.:

Sources say the network [CNN] may also consider shifting Joel Cheatwood to CNN to oversee prime time. The former local news executive in April became senior executive producer in charge of program development at CNN's Headline News.

Cheatwood, who is known for his tabloid sensibility, has been criticized for dumbing down the news. The Chicago Sun-Times recently called him “the charlatan who wrecked the news operation at [Chicago-area station] WMAQ-Channel 5.” [The New York Post, 6/10/04]

NY Post: Cheatwood Is “One Of The Most Notorious TV Execs In The Country.” From The New York Post:

Joel Cheatwood -- one of the most notorious TV news execs in the country -- was named yesterday to run Ch.2 news.

Big changes for the station's third-place newscasts seem imminent.

Cheatwood -- who is perhaps best-known for hiring talk-show host Jerry Springer as a news comentator in Chicago, sparking a walk-out of the station's top anchors -- begins his new job April 3. [The New York Post, 2/25/00]

Television Week: Cheatwood's “Tabloid Touch ... Made Him A Lightning Rod.” From Television Week:

In other news from the sprawling world of CNN, Joel Cheatwood's responsibility for program development now extends across the breadth of the CNN News Group. The Insider hears he has three projects in development for CNNfn.

Mr. Cheatwood, whose tabloid touch as a local news executive, most recently with the Viacom Stations Group, has made him a lightning rod, last spring was chosen to develop programming for prime time on CNN Headline News, which is run by former protege Rolando Santos. [Television Week, 9/6/04]

Broadcasting & Cable: Cheatwood Was “Famous For His 'If It Bleeds, It Leads' Brand Of Local News.” From Broadcasting & Cable:

Boston was rocked in 1993 when Sunbeam Broadcasting owner Ed Ansin bought WHDH and imported a fast-paced, flashy news style from its Fox affiliate WSVN Miami. News Director Joel Cheatwood, famous for his “if it bleeds, it leads” brand of local news, led the charge. “They turned the market upside down with a lot of sizzle--graphics, aggressive reporting and fast-paced presentation--that the market had never seen,” says WCVB Creative Services Director Paul Baldwin. [Broadcasting & Cable, 2/28/05]

Television Week: Cheatwood Is Known For “Making More Noise Than News.” From Television Week:

The hiring of Joel Cheatwood to develop programming for CNN Headline News has also raised eyebrows. Mr. Cheatwood made his reputation in local news, where he is known mostly for stunts, tricks, tabloid touches and making more noise than news. [Television Week, 4/19/04]

Crain's New York Business: Cheatwood “Had A Reputation For Blood-And-Guts Sensationalism.” From Crain's New York Business:

WCBS News Director Joel Cheatwood inherited the lowest-rated news programs in the market when he arrived two years ago.

He had a reputation for blood-and-guts sensationalism that had made him a king in Miami and Boston, but caused him to lose his job in Chicago. Still, CBS hired him as news director at its Philadelphia affiliate, where he had little impact on the station's low ratings. [Crains New York Business, 2/4/02]

Chicago Sun-Times: Cheatwood “Is Best Known Here For His Disastrous Stint ... At NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5.” From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Cheatwood, 41, most recently has been station manager of CBS-owned KYW-TV in Philadelphia. But he is best known here for his disastrous stint as vice president of news at NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 from 1997 to 1998.

Already saddled with a reputation for “flash and trash” news from his tenure at sensationalistic WSVN-TV in Miami, Cheatwood inflicted a variety of his gimmicks on Channel 5.

While he and his minions alienated veteran staffers, he dumbed down the prized Unit 5 investigative franchise, he dubbed his evening reporting staff “The Night Team,” and he passed off an ordinary desk in the newsroom as a “Data Center.”

Deceptive promos he commissioned claimed that Channel 5 owned two helicopters (“Jetcopter One! Jetcopter Two!”). But there really was only one -- photographed from different angles. [Chicago Sun-Times, 2/25/00]

Variety: Cheatwood “Hired” Jerry Springer “In An Effort To Boost Ratings.” From Variety:

One station Cheatwood won't be working with is WBBM Chicago, where anchor Carol Marin recently launched a high profile, no-frills late newscast.

Marin, then a lead anchor at NBC's WMAQ, made headlines in 1997 when she refused to appear alongside Springer. Cheatwood, who served as vice president of news and creative services at the station, had hired the talkshow ringmaster in an effort to boost ratings.

“I've been given assurances, which were repeated again today, that whatever his role at the other CBS O-and-Os, he will not have a role in Chicago,” Marin said.

Cheatwood is also well-known for turning Miami's WSVN into a ratings monster with a seven-hour daily dose of fast-paced, tabloidish newscasts. [Variety, 2/28/00]

Chicago Sun-Times: Anchor On Springer Hiring: Cheatwood “Told Me That It Was His Idea.” From the Chicago Sun-Times:

By far Cheatwood's greatest claim to infamy was putting talk show host Jerry Springer on the 10 p.m. news as a commentator in May 1997. Although he strongly defended the move publicly and privately at the time, he later claimed he was against it all along.

Either way, the Springer debacle cost Channel 5 thousands of viewers, a substantial measure of credibility and the services of highly respected news anchors Marin and Ron Magers.

“I have closed the door on the Joel Cheatwood chapter of my life,” said Magers, who now anchors at WLS-Channel 7. But when a reporter pointed out that Cheatwood denies any involvement with the Springer deal, Magers felt compelled to respond.

“Before the Springer issue finally blew up, I went to Joel Cheatwood to find out exactly where he stood on the issue,” he said. “In a face-to-face conversation, he told me that it was his idea and that he obviously signed off on it. Those were his words.”

In Philadelphia, Cheatwood managed to increase ratings, but he jeopardized KYW's credibility and morale with a scheme to “sell” segments on the station's 5 p.m. newscast to advertisers. The plan was dropped only after angry staffers found out about it. [Chicago Sun-Times, 2/25/00]