You may have heard of an American media “personality” named Glenn Beck (photo below). He is a marginally sane and totally uninformed Caucasian American whose right-wing rantings are so skewed that even the new, degraded CNN proved too moderate for him.
So now he spews his prejudice and hatred on Fox News. His deluded rantings include calls to insurgence and fantasies about a “totalitarian” Obama government. One of his tricks is to project his own evils on others – calling the President a “racist” who “hates white people,” for example.
That was a mistake. Several public spirited groups struck back, demanding that advertisers abandon his program. And the results show there may be some hope of controlling the rabid hate mongers who contaminate America’s airwaves. One of those groups, an organization called Media Matters, which monitors the way news is disseminated in America, reports that nearly a dozen companies, so far, have canceled commercials on Beck’s show.
The honor roll includes ConAgra, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, Radio Shack, GEICO, Travelocity, Sargento, Farmers Insurance and GMAC Financial Services (Ally Bank’s parent company).
If you are planning to go shopping, you might want to consider patronizing these companies as a reward for their display of conscience.
Boycott groups have also targeted another right-wing agitator – whom I am sure you have heard of – the infamous Rush Limbaugh. His ravings are so egregious as to be legendary. JC Penney says it has a “policy” that prohibits advertising on Rush Limbaugh’s show but Media Matters produced audio proving the retailer still has ads on the radio program. Home Depot also reportedly claimed it doesn’t “support” Limbaugh, but Media Matters was also able to produce audio of a Home Depot ad on the right-wing program. You might want to hold off shopping at those two retailers until they stop running those ads.
Limbaugh has an audience exceeding 20 million listeners weekly. And I suppose it’s hard for advertisers to resist that kind of mass market. But I would like to see a demographic breakdown of the Limbaugh listeners. I bet the majority of his audience is from the lowest levels of the socio-economic scale. With so little sense, how can they have much buying power? Besides, even a small group of focused consumers can make a big difference to a company’s sales by organizing a boycott.
Money talks – especially in America, especially in American politics. The surest way to influence the political scene in this country is through the pocketbook. Responsible Americans should avoid any and all companies that support the hate mongers who have become so rampant since the election of the country’s first black President.
