EMAIL SIGN UP!
Most Popular This Week
- Transcript: Today's Live Q&A With NSA Leaker, Edward Snowden
- 'Tip of the Iceberg': Senators Warn Far More Data May Not Be Safe
- Playing the Obama Bumper Sticker Game
- Intentional and Evil: Court Marshall Sexually Assaults Woman, Then Arrests Her When She Protests
- David Brooks, Tom Friedman, Bill Keller Wish Snowden Had Just Followed Orders
- Transcript: Today's Live Q&A With NSA Leaker, Edward Snowden
- The Terror Con
- Remembering Satyajit Ray’s Hirok Rajar Deshe: On Edward Snowden, Resistance and Inverted Totalitarianism
- Pentagon Bracing for Public Dissent Over Climate and Energy Shocks
- Bank of America Lied to Homeowners and Rewarded Foreclosures, Former Employees Say
Popular content
Today's Top News
A New Lowe in Advertiser Cowardice
The national hardware chain Lowe's pulled its advertising from the TLC reality show All-American Muslim--explaining that the question of whether Muslims can be presented as regular human beings is a "hotly contested debate."
All-American Muslim is a reality show described by TLC, the cable channel that airs it, as "a look at life in Dearborn, Michigan--home to the largest mosque in the United States--through the lens of five Muslim American families...an intimate look at the customs and celebrations, misconceptions and conflicts these families face outside and within their own community."
But the Florida Family Association, a right-wing group leading the charge against the program, saw it as part of a sinister plot:
The Learning Channel's new show All-American Muslim is propaganda clearly designed to counter legitimate and present-day concerns about many Muslims who are advancing Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia law. The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.
Note the parallel between this argument and a complaint that Jersey Shore doesn't depict any of its Italian-American cast members as members of the Mafia.
Mobilizing its members to send emails calling on advertisers to boycott the show, FFA scored a victory. The company responded to the group (Hollywood Reporter, 12/9/11), "While we continue to advertise on various cable networks, including TLC, there are certain programs that do not meet Lowe's advertising guidelines, including the show you brought to our attention. Lowe's will no longer be advertising on that program."
Lowe's decision prompted an outraged response--one activist wrote, "Will you next consider KKK's demands to pull ads from BET?" (Hollywood Reporter, 12/9/11)--leading to an explanation of sorts posted on the company's Facebook page:
It appears that we managed to step into a hotly contested debate with strong views from virtually every angle and perspective--social, political and otherwise--and we’ve managed to make some people very unhappy. We are sincerely sorry. We have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, across our workforce and our customers, and we’re proud of that longstanding commitment.
Lowe's has received a significant amount of communication on this program, from every perspective possible. Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lighting rod for many of those views. As a result we did pull our advertising on this program. We believe it is best to respectfully defer to communities, individuals and groups to discuss and consider such issues of importance.
Unfortunately, pulling your ads from a television show because it depicts a group of people as normal Americans is not a way to "respectfully defer"--it's taking the side of bigots who believe that that group must always be portrayed as frightening and dangerous.
Lowe's concluded its message: "We strongly support and respect the right of our customers, the community at large, and our employees to have different views. If we have made anyone question that commitment, we apologize." One might well question the commitment of Lowe's to the right of people to express the viewpoint that Muslims are human beings when it withholds its advertising from programs that make that point. The calculation that it's safer not to associate oneself with groups that are hated by a vocal minority highlights the danger of relying on corporate sponsorship to support a media system that one hopes would actually embody the values that Lowe's pretends to have.
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
11 Comments so far
Show AllA Palestinian-Amerikan student had just sent me a Huffington Post article explaining Shariah law this morning: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/qasim-rashid/shariah-law-the-five-things-every-non-muslim_b_1068569.html
I sent her back this this article, with my deepest apologies as an Amerikan of European heritage.
"It appears that we managed to step into a hotly contested debate with strong views from virtually every angle and perspective" It appears to me that there are only two sides to this story, either we believe:
1) Muslims are human beings like everyone else and it is appropriate to depict them as such
2) Muslims are all terrorist wannabes and to depict them as human beings does a disservice to society.
I don't really perceive any other "sides" to the story.
Based on pressure from a small hate group in Florida (and I can't seem to find any information on how this group obtains its funding) Lowe's has chosen the "tribal loyalties" option as opposed to the inclusionary option, abandoning both reason and a recognition of the humanity inherent in us all, yet they claim:
"We have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, across our workforce and our customers"
It's pretty obvious that Lowe's choice to remove its funding from the program puts the lie to a "strong commitment to diversity and inclusion", and it's surprisingly hipocritical that they could permit both their admission of guilt and that last statement to appear on the same page. They may choose how they distribute their advertising dollars, I will choose what businesses I will patronize. Let that radical fringe hate group from Florida support their business in its entirety, I certainly won't.
Lowe's flack sez: "Individuals and groups have strong political and societal views on this topic, and this program became a lighting rod for many of those views. As a result we did pull our advertising on this program."
***
Plain-English translation: "A splinter group of Jebus-addled imbeciles constructed a straw man that scared the hell out of us. Now we must take up arms and join with our brethren to smite the straw.
Fear the almighty Jebus!"
How Lowe can you go?
I don't know why any of this is a surprise. Let's face it, Lowe's caters to the construction industry, which is about as redneck an industry as there is. Totally predictable behavior on their part.
So will lowes pull its advertising from the next "action" show that portrays ordinary muslims as evil?
Much of the success of the middle class, was due to ownership of of the local end of the retail chain. Families owned Hardware stores, Lumber yards, Used car lots, Drug stores, Record and Music stores, Video rentals, and other retail businesses. These families could afford to buy a house, educate their children, and finance their own retirement. They also folded most of their profit back into the local community. Another aspect of local ownership of these businesses, that is not talked about much, is that they were often able to develop, a level of expert knowledge, they could share with their customers. Have you ever tried to ask a question of a minimum wage worker at one of these corporate stores? Good luck with that. The bankers, and the investment class, pumped billions of dollars that they did not earn, into destroying these family owned shops, and taking over the only part of the of the retail chain owned by individual American families. This is a major reason, the middle class has been degraded so substantially. Lowes, Home Depot, Blockbuster, Guitar Center, Car Max, and of course the King of destruction, Wall Mart. Stop buying from these mercenary corporate stores. Start rebuilding your local economies, by doing business with locally owned shops.
Right on, iwonder!
Luckily, there are still a few locally owned shops around here I can go to. In so many areas, they've been obliterated.
Amen. Buy local, family owned, small, wherever possible.
If I was a reporter I would ask the lowes spokesman one very simple question, with a followup, because I know what the answer to the first question would be before I asked it. I would ask; "Would you allow an antisemitic group to cause you to stop sponsoring a Jewish themed show". Now we all know the answer would be "Of course not!!!".
Then I would ask, what's the difference?