As I noted here, the leftwing organization ColorofChange.org, headed by an Obama administration official, has been promoting a boycott of Glenn Beck's television show on Fox News.
Liberals hailed the dropping of ads by Best Buy, Wal-Mart and CVS (plus several other advertisers) that their celebration of free speech by trying to silence speech with which they disagree was working. But is it really? Well, not exactly.
In other words, the claim here was about half true. It was completely false regarding Best Buy, and CVS didn’t request ads for Beck before requesting to avoid him. Only Wal-Mart actually pulled ads from the show, and even at that may still be redirecting its ad money to other shows.
It seems that several major advertisers are now choosing to avoid commentary shows as a way to avoid this sort of harassment by kooks.
As William Jacobson notes, boycotts rarely ever work. And, in this case, is probably backfiring because advertiser avoidance of commentary shows is more likely to affect left-leaning shows like Rachel Maddow and Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Actions do have consequences.
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