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Liberal Groups Ask Advertisers to Boycott Fox
NEW YORK -- Liberal activists are stepping up their campaign against Fox News Channel by pressuring advertisers not to patronize the network.
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.
"It's a lot more effective for Sam's Diner to get calls from 10 people in his town than going to the consumer complaint department of some pharmaceutical company," Gilliam said.
Some of the videos produced by Gilliam's company compile statements made by Fox anchors and guests that the activists consider misleading, such as those that question global warming.
Representatives for Fox News Channel, which is owned by News Corp., did not immediately return calls for comment.
Home Depot has not had an unusual number of calls, said spokesman Jerry Shields, and the home improvement chain will not change its advertising strategy.
"We're not in the business of censoring media," Shields said. "We need to reach our customer base through all mediums available."
Groups like the Sierra Club have targeted Home Depot because they believe it's inconsistent for the company to promote environmentally friendly products while advertising on a network that has questioned global warming.
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 website is "hate of the worst order," and sent a reporter to question JetBlue Airways Corp. CEO David 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."
© Copyright 2007 Associated Press
12 Comments so far
Show AllMoveOn needs it's own network program.
Correction to the article above: B O'Re hasn't done "critical reports." He has made false statements repeatedly about "hate" and mischaracterized the posts available on DailyKos and other blogs. In other words, he has not reported, he has fabricated material that suits his own narrow ideological purposes. Did the reporter for this article actually look at DailyKos, or B O'Re's website for that matter? Was the reporter able to find substantiation for B O'Re's claim? Reporting on the conflict without examining the merits of the respective claims is like teaching math with the answer being decided by a show of hands. You might get a correct answer, but then again you might just get the popular answer. It's time our media became less popular and more populist by asking hard questions, following up on poorly answered questions, and digging harder for the truth.
Just for fun, imagine Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter cross-pollinating each other! The gene pool would suffer from regurgitation for the foreseeable future of the planet. He has some sick problem with sex and she has an Adam's apple bigger than most men out there. What a couple!!! Gag! Puke! You all know that Rupert is laughing his ass off at the rest of the world hopping to his tunes. Those who watch the offal spewed by Faux Noise have IQ's in the low double digits. How sad that our country let such a master at manipulation have dual citizensip. Sad that we let foreigners run our median outlets. Sadder yet, that we have to even think that way, but the garbage they spray is immoral, if not illegal in many cases.
As far as our media goes, it is NOW run by the bottom line, $$$. Where news is concerned, it should be REAL, not what some yahoo wants it to be or to suit his political agenda!
I for one will boycott advertisers, and will encourage others as well. FOX news is rag journalism and trash TV at its worse.
Home Depot is on my shit list.
Fox News Sucks. Ruppert Murdock is a greedy old man. They exploit stupid people. Stupid people love it. Boycott Fox, Exxon-Mobile and all Repukes.
i'll stick with keith olbermann.
Think about the fact that Murdoch is buying the Wall Street Journal. Rupert Murdoch gained fame in this country in the 1970's because of the smut magazines he owned. Since then, he made a natural extension to his smut business by purchasing talk radio stations and Fox News.
Murdoch creating a network simply to legitimize and help fabricate the talk radio jibber-jabber into honest news is simply wrong. But you must remember he knows the obscene smut business inside and out ergo, Fox News. So he simply hires Freedom hating, Liberty hating, cowardly, scum that he knows will carry out his agenda.
One wonders since Murdoch's agenda will soon be the entire republican parties platform if this Bush administration is for passage of, "The English Brotherhood Act"? I understand this act is necessary to help streamline the elections and eliminates the cost burden on the hard working republican's for their generous campaign contributions. This would also free the corporations from their burdensome yet generous donations. Additionally, all Americans would be united and not divided.
The Murdoch family would simply be declared our royal family with him being the king. Who would be opposed? Talk radio would tell the amoral mob (moral majority) it's a good deal; it would be a good deal for Wall Street and the corporate owned press/ "free press".
The king is dead long live the king. Oh the constitution may need to be slightly adjusted but that is really no biggie. The republican stacked supreme court would go alone for the ride.
Sure there might be a few cry baby liberals but then there always are.
ps...nice job by the AP to cover Foxes side of this story, let's not worry about the hundreds/thousands of times the right-wing fascists have lashed out against Freedom Loving, Liberty Loving Americans
Everyone knows that the Republicans are all in the pockets of big business. Who do you think the sponsors are?... big business. I do not think that this boycott will go very far in view of this reality.
This isn't a free speech issue, at least that's not how Loewe's sees it. They pulled their advertising from the B O'Re show because his idiocy gives them a black eye with prospective customers. Who's crying now? It's typical of wingnuts to wrap their ranting in the Constitution, but rather like the AG in front of Congress, lying is of course one's prerogative, but you can be held accountable.
We don't need no stinking permission! Grow up, be proactive, and STOP BUYING FROM FOX SPONSORS! Why is that so difficult for us progressives? What, we need a "daddy" to tell us what to do and when to do it?
All "they" care about is taking as much of OUR money as possible. Period. "They" do not care about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, 50 million without affordable health care, 45 million at or below the unsurvivable poverty line, or, most especially, the fact that America is morphing into a third world dictatorship with their loyal assistance.
Greed is their disease, your money is their fix. Vote with your wallet and buy only from those deserving of your hard earned dollars.
How stupid people pay for cable TV?
Foxaganda