Beck is the madman depicted in that movie "Network" where the anchor man who learns he is going to be fired, goes on the air for his last broadcast claiming he was going to commit suicide on the air and instead starts ranting and cursing and suddenly the ratings shoot sky high. The network that was all set to can him now don't dare remove him.

Everyday he comes to the studio--more dirty, ragged, decrepit and crazy than the last time and rants and raves against this, that and the other. The audience loves it and keeps tuning in--many of them doing whatever crazy thing he tells them to do and then calling into the station asking what he wants them to do next.

The protagonist fights with the network execs that this man is sick and clearly needs to be hospitalized but the execs won't even consider it. He's knocking out the competition in that time slot.

The grim humor being that when the newsman was sane, rational and delivering the news in a professionl manner, people stopped watching him so that the network decides to can him but now that he's a raving lunatic with nothing sane to say anymore, the viewers just can't get enough of him. Lunacy sells and it sells big.

What's funny is that this movie came out long before RW nutjobs came on the air and took over the ratings spewing lunacy and conspiracy crap. Yet the movie perfectly predicted that this was where television was headed and demonstrated how and why it was inevitable.