…and that means this is a pretty meaningless boycott, since Fox News has no incentive to do anything about Beck’s extremist statements, even if they wanted to.

Not necessarily. Fox, like most large companies, probably don’t just look at things from an overall financial point of view, they look at what programs are attracting advertising revenue, and which are not.

Right now, Beck is obviously alienating revenue, which cannot help but be noticed by the top brass at Fox. I’m certain that they consider that, as well as the show’s ratings with viewers, when making programming decisions.