the mad prophet of the airwaves
E1005869
The mad prophet of the airwaves is the on-air persona of Howard Beale, the deranged yet truth-telling television news anchor from the 1976 film "Network."
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| the mad prophet of the airwaves canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T12859153 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the mad prophet of the airwaves Context triple: [Howard Beale, nickname, the mad prophet of the airwaves]
-
A.
Black Radio
Black Radio is a Grammy-winning album by jazz pianist and producer Robert Glasper that blends jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and neo-soul with an array of guest vocalists.
-
B.
Prophets of Deceit
Prophets of Deceit is a critical study of fascist and demagogic propaganda in the United States, co-authored by Leo Löwenthal and Norbert Guterman as part of the Frankfurt School’s analysis of authoritarianism.
-
C.
Prophet of Regret
The Prophet of Regret is a high-ranking Covenant Hierarch in the Halo universe, known for instigating the invasion of Earth and serving as a key alien adversary to the Master Chief.
-
D.
The Free Radio
The Free Radio is a short story by Salman Rushdie that explores themes of political manipulation, personal freedom, and disillusionment in post-Emergency India.
-
E.
Stop Trying to Be God
"Stop Trying to Be God" is a reflective, genre-blending track by Travis Scott featuring contributions from artists like Kid Cudi, James Blake, and Stevie Wonder, noted for its spiritual themes and atmospheric production.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the mad prophet of the airwaves Target entity description: The mad prophet of the airwaves is the on-air persona of Howard Beale, the deranged yet truth-telling television news anchor from the 1976 film "Network."
-
A.
Black Radio
Black Radio is a Grammy-winning album by jazz pianist and producer Robert Glasper that blends jazz, hip-hop, R&B, and neo-soul with an array of guest vocalists.
-
B.
Prophets of Deceit
Prophets of Deceit is a critical study of fascist and demagogic propaganda in the United States, co-authored by Leo Löwenthal and Norbert Guterman as part of the Frankfurt School’s analysis of authoritarianism.
-
C.
Prophet of Regret
The Prophet of Regret is a high-ranking Covenant Hierarch in the Halo universe, known for instigating the invasion of Earth and serving as a key alien adversary to the Master Chief.
-
D.
The Free Radio
The Free Radio is a short story by Salman Rushdie that explores themes of political manipulation, personal freedom, and disillusionment in post-Emergency India.
-
E.
Stop Trying to Be God
"Stop Trying to Be God" is a reflective, genre-blending track by Travis Scott featuring contributions from artists like Kid Cudi, James Blake, and Stevie Wonder, noted for its spiritual themes and atmospheric production.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional character
ⓘ
fictional character ⓘ film ⓘ on-air persona ⓘ television personality ⓘ |
| alterEgoOf |
Howard Beale
ⓘ
linked to:
Howard Beale in Network
|
| appearsIn | Network ⓘ |
| associatedGenre |
black comedy
ⓘ
drama ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
UBS network (fictional TV network)
ⓘ
linked to:
UBS television network (fictional)
|
| awardForRole |
Howard Beale / the mad prophet of the airwaves
ⓘ
linked to:
Howard Beale in Network
|
| awardReceived | Academy Award for Best Actor for Network ⓘ |
| characterTrait |
deranged
ⓘ
truth-telling ⓘ |
| characterType | television news anchor ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| createdBy | Paddy Chayefsky ⓘ |
| culturalImpact | became an iconic representation of media outrage ⓘ |
| depicts | mental breakdown on live television ⓘ |
| director | Sidney Lumet ⓘ |
| employer |
UBS Evening News (fictional program)
ⓘ
linked to:
UBS Evening News
|
| fictionalUniverse | Network ⓘ |
| firstAppearance | Network (1976 film) ⓘ |
| gender | male ⓘ |
| genre | satire ⓘ |
| inspiredTerm | "mad prophet of the airwaves" used to describe ranting media figures ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| medium | film ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction | prophetic truth-teller on television ⓘ |
| narrativeRole | central character ⓘ |
| nationality | American (fictional) ⓘ |
| notableFor | on-air monologues criticizing television and corporations ⓘ |
| notableQuote | I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore! ⓘ |
| notableScene | on-air rant encouraging viewers to shout out of their windows ⓘ |
| notableTheme |
critique of television news sensationalism
ⓘ
media manipulation ⓘ |
| occupation |
television news anchor
ⓘ
television news anchor ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| partOf | American film canon ⓘ |
| portrayedBy |
Peter Finch
ⓘ
Peter Finch ⓘ |
| releaseYear | 1976 ⓘ |
| screenwriter | Paddy Chayefsky ⓘ |
| setIn |
New York City (fictionalized television studio setting)
ⓘ
linked to:
New York City (fictional setting)
|
| symbolizes | public anger and disillusionment with mass media ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfStory | 1970s ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: the mad prophet of the airwaves Description of subject: The mad prophet of the airwaves is the on-air persona of Howard Beale, the deranged yet truth-telling television news anchor from the 1976 film "Network."
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject linked to:
Howard Beale in Network