I don't watch much TV. Outside of a handful of entertainment shows (I'm particularly fond of dance shows for some reason and game shows), I just don't watch television. But I may have to start watching more since I found out liberals love free speech so much they want to boycott FoxNews advertisers.
MoveOn.org, the Campaign for America's Future and liberal blogs like DailyKos.com are asking thousands of supporters to monitor who is advertising on the network. Once a database is gathered, an organized phone-calling campaign will begin, said Jim Gilliam, vice president of media strategy for Brave New Films, a company that has made anti-Fox videos.
The groups have successfully pressured Democratic presidential candidates not to appear at any debate sponsored by Fox, and are also trying to get Home Depot Inc. to stop advertising there.
At least 5,000 people nationwide have signed up to compile logs on who is running commercials on Fox, Gilliam said. The groups want to first concentrate on businesses running local ads, as opposed to national commercials.
Well, I'm all for the right to protest. That's why I've started patronizing the Blue Star Deli in Farmers Branch, which is being boycotted by pro-illegal immigration thugs. But keep in mind that the same people who think targeting FoxNews advertisers is acceptable howled in protest when advertisers didn't want their ads to run on Air America.
Back then, they were angry--very angry--that advertisers were interested in having their products peddled on shows that actually had listeners. It was censorship, according to the Media Matters types.
But, apparently, they aren't bothered by threatening advertisers.
The groups seem particularly angry at Fox's Bill O'Reilly, who has done critical reports on left-wing bloggers. On July 16, O'Reilly said the DailyKos.com Web site is "hate of the worst order," and sent a reporter to question JetBlue Airways Corp. CEO Dave Barger about the airline's sponsorship of a gathering run by DailyKos.
He'll never ride on JetBlue again, O'Reilly said.
MoveOn.org is campaigning against Fox because it says the network characterizes itself as a fair news network when it consistently favors a conservative point of view, said Adam Green, the organization's spokesman.
"We're not trying to silence anybody," Green said. "Rush Limbaugh has a right to be on the air—he admits his point of view. Fox doesn't."
Nah, they don't want to silence anybody. The fact that a network without advertisers doesn't survive very long--unless it's PBS and can suck its budget from ordinary taxpayers--doesn't compute with these people.
Look, boycott FoxNews, nutroots. Please. I don't expect many advertisers are going to listen since FoxNews outpaces the other cable news networks as far as ratings go.
What I'm looking forward to is a debate on FoxNews after the primaries. If the Democrat candidate refuses to attend because the debate is on FoxNews, it will give the country a chance to finally listen to a candidate that makes sense.
UPDATE: Ken Wheaton of Advertising Age notes that MoveOn's been trying to get this story out for weeks without success.
Funnier still is that MoveOn, until now, has been unable to get much media coverage -- unless one counts The Huffington Post and DailyKos as the sort of media that's going to move the masses. Both of those, by the way, are part of this little coalition of speech police, so that's kind of like getting recognized by your parents for a job well done.
Now the coalition, unable to accomplish much on a national level, has gotten media attention for declaring its intention to monitor local businesses that advertise on Fox News.
That will really hit Fox where it hurts.
Wheaton suggests that local advertisers frequently don't have control over when their ads run. So if Joe's Deli has an ad on Bill O'Reilly's show, he might not have even requested the spot. On the other hand, if he did pony up for that spot, he'll be willing to take the heat from the moonbats because Joe thinks Bill O'Reilly fans will want to eat at his deli. Funny how advertising works, eh?
UPDATE x2: Bill O'Reilly responds to the venom spewed by the gored KOS Kids.
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