Obama-Linked Activists Targeting Glenn Beck in Boycott Campaign
Thursday, August 13, 2009 8:10 PM
By: David A. Patten
Is a left-wing attempt to scare off advertisers from Fox News host Glenn Beck’s highly rated cable news show being orchestrated with some high level help from the Obama White House?
Perhaps.
Newsmax has learned that the co-founder of the African-American political organization Color of Change, which is calling for Beck's ouster, is civil rights attorney Van Jones.
In March, President Obama appointed Jones to serve as his so-called "green-jobs czar," responsible for stimulating job growth in the environmental sector.
"I don’t have proof that the White House asked Color of Change to help it fight back against Glenn Beck," Matthew Vadum, the Capitol Research Center senior editor who has written extensively about Jones' activities, tells Newsmax. "But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it had. Van Jones has the president’s ear. It’s a few hundred feet from his office at the Council on Environmental Quality to the Oval Office."
The other co-founder of Color of Change, James Rucker, confirmed to Newsmax that Jones' formal association with Color Of Change ended in December 2007. He states however that the organization continued to use Jones' name on their e-mails until May 2008.
Jones and Beck have had their run-ins before. Beck has described Jones as "a black nationalist who is also an avowed communist."
Color Of Change claims that it has pressured a growing roster of companies into pulling their ads from Beck's program: Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, RadioShack, GEICO, Progressive Insurance, Men's Wearhouse, State Farm, Sargento, Lawyers.com, and Procter & Gamble..............>>>>.............>>>>.............http://www.newsmax.com/headlin.....mp;promo_code=856B-1
So now I will boycott the companies that are boycotting Beck! THERE!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
I have homeowners, rv and auto insurance with Geico .. I'm one lone voice among their millions of subscribers - but I'll let them know my thoughts Monday morning.
Edit:
Actually, no time like the present:
Quoted Text
Thank you for writing to us. We appreciate the opportunity to review your questions and concerns
First of all, thank you for your business and also for your interest in this matter.
This week we took action to move our marketing messages from the Glenn Beck show and you are wondering why.
Well, as a GEICO policyholder, you deserve an answer.
If the inflammatory nature of the comments on a program overshadows our message and causes GEICO to be drawn into a national debate, we are likely to reconsider where we place our marketing messages, which is what we did.
GEICO delivers very important messages through its major marketing campaigns: we’re saving customers’ dollars, we’re easy to do business with, we’re looking out for our policyholders. That’s what we hope the public hears and sees and focuses on.
As a company, we do not take positions on controversial issues.
As an advertiser, while a national debate on issues can be healthy and appropriate, we don’t see ourselves in the role of taking part in those debates.
Our business is auto insurance. We want to bring people value and we attempt to reach large audiences with that message.
It is of little benefit to us if a program gets so much attention that our message is drowned out.
We appreciate your interest and look forward to serving all your insurance needs.
Sincerely,
Patrick Pilney GEICO Internet Service Geico.com 1-800-861-8380
I've seen that letter someqhere else before. Imagine, the show is getting too many people watching it that they donakt want to watch it. Gee, isn't that the reason the Super Bowl has to pay people to put commercials on? Oh, wait, because of the number of people watching, advertisers pay millions for a small amount of time. Guess the Gecko won't be advertising there anymore either, huh?
A message I sent to my auto insurance carrier. I have only struck out personal information. I suggest you read the article and see if you need to get involved also.
Quoted Text
Ms. Harris, My name is ------------, and I am currently a Progressive customer, policy # -------- . I changed my insurance to Progressive back in March and my policy is up for renewal on September 19th. I received an e-mail this morning that has me questioning if Progressive is the right company for me due to your company's practices.
As part of an e-mail I received this morning states that you are dropping your purchasing of airtime with the Glenn Beck Show on Fox News (Obama Brownshirts Try to Silence Glenn Beck, http://www.redstate.com/erick/2009/08/13/obama-brownshirts-try-to-silence-glenn-beck/). I was wondering if you would be nice enough to give me background as to the reason that you have decided to discontinue this advertising. While I wanted to confirm with you, the previous mentioned e-mail states that you have decided to discontinue due to the views of Glenn Beck. What comes as a shock to me is that many of the views that Glenn Beck epitomizes are those of free markets and competition. Glenn Beck is now on THE most watched cable news network.
MediaBistro.com (http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/the_scoreboard_wednesday_august_12_124323.asp) gives the following statistics regarding the 25-54 demographic for yesterday. For the total day, Fox News Channel had a rating more than CNN, MSNBC and Headline News combined (FNC: 471, CNN: 162, MSNBC: 142, HLN: 118). That means that for every 10 viewers that are watching CNN, MSNBC AND Headline News, there were 11 people watching Fox News alone. What's even more amazing is if you look at the numbers for Mr. Beck's show alone. For the 5 PM hour, CNN, MSNBC and Headline News had a total of 285 viewers. Now, this number seems OK, and may be an average number of viewers for these 3 networks combined. The only problem is that when you compare this to Fox News and the Glenn Beck program, there were 734 people watching FNC and Glenn Beck alone, over 150% MORE viewers, not 150% OF the viewership, 150% MORE than their 3 competitors combined. To compare to any one of the actual competitors make this just look foolish, with FNC beating out any of the competitors by a margin as small as 6 to 1 (MSNBC), or up to over 11 to 1 (Headline News).
If you can give me any explanation as to why you are decided to do this, other than the fact that you disagree with the message that is being portrayed by Mr. Beck as he practices his First Amendment rights to speak his mind (Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances), then I may consider keeping my coverage through your company.
If I do not hear back by the 19th of September, I will have to make a determination that you have decided that my questions are not important enough to you and as a customer am not important enough for you to answer a simple question. At that time, I will then take my coverage to another carrier. I will also inform everyone I can on the views of Progressive Advanced Insurance Company and will suggest that they either cancel coverage with your company or make sure that they do not consider you when they are shopping for options other than the coverage they currently have.
Respectfully awaiting your reply, -----------------------------------
Boycott Glen Beck? This will only improve his ratings.
How about voting out all Obama supporters starting with Farmer Paul Tonko? Hey Mr. President where's your birth certificate-how about releasing your kindergarten records? A community organizer mad when the people get organized. Only in America.
I would never use Progressive. They are an avowed left wing activist company to begin with.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
The ONLY reason the insurance companies are 'bowing out' is to keep the heat off of them......the Government needs a 'bad guy'.....someone the sheeple can dislike.....and to polarize....same goes the other way.....
the government sees all the $$ we have alotted someone else to 'manage' for us and wants access.....access without rules,,, access without care,,,,access to use at election time....access to you and me....access with fear....yet access with motherly love...
are we freakin' nuts......who MAKES us have car insurance? who 'invented' NO FAULT INSURANCE?
Car insurance does not translate into healthcare after an accident sooooo, where does THAT $$ go?????? certainly the DEMS and their union pensions(UAW?).......
let's pull apart that web......
Time to cut 'em loose......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
I agree about Glenn Beck and O'Reilley....I used to like O'Reilley---but, please give me something to poke in my eye..... also, the chick on MSNBC....what's her name with the short hair.....
SHUT THEM ALL UP.....they dont speak for me......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
A total of 33 Fox advertisers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., CVS Caremark, Clorox and Sprint, directed that their commercials not air on Beck's show- That's more than a dozen more than were identified a week ago-
It could mean advertising time becomes cheaper on his show than such a large audience would normally command. Some of his show's advertisers last week included a male enhancement pill, a law firm looking to sue on behalf of asbestos victims, a company selling medical supplies to diabetics and a water filter company-
A left-wing group’s effort to intimidate corporate advertisers on Fox News’ Glenn Beck show appears to be backfiring as it triggers a wave of support from grass-roots fans rushing to defend the popular TV personality from the attacks.
Even before the liberal boycott of Glenn Beck began this summer, the best-selling author and TV host had became a ratings superstar, with his 5 p.m. cable news program pulling mega prime-time viewership numbers. Beck also had become a lightning rod for liberal groups who didn’t like his anti-Obama message and his staggeringly large audience.
But now Beck’s fame seems to be growing even more as a spontaneous, nationwide effort has sprung up among fans to defend their hero, including Web sites, Facebook groups, homegrown e-mail blasts, and individual telephone campaigns.
The reaction in support of Beck comes in the wake of the advertiser-boycott campaign launched by Color of Change, an African-American advocacy organization with close ties to the Obama White House.
Although the group garnered some success initially, it appears that it is making claims that don’t match reality, with several major companies claiming they never joined any boycott of Beck’s show.
Major advertisers such as Wal-Mart, CVS, ConAgra, and Sargento have directed Fox News not to air their ads during the Glenn Beck Program, according to Color of Change.
The group probably would have been dismissed as a gadfly were it not for its high-level connections to the Obama White House. Color of Change co-founder Van Jones now works in the Obama administration as the president's "green jobs czar."
Beck has been a fearless critic of both President Obama and Jones, whose association with Color of Change was said to have ended in December 2007.
Color of Change Executive Director James Rucker tells Newsmax that his organization wants Beck silenced for his July remark on Fox & Friends that Obama -s "racist" — an opinion Beck voiced in the context of the president’s chastising of the Cambridge Police Department and Sgt. James Crowley for acting "stupidly" in arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates.
"It's preposterous and absurd," Rucker tells Newsmax of Beck's utterance. "It's insulting to black Americans, and it corrupts honest debate. Anyone who uses such a platform to spew such vitriol, whether Glenn Beck or anyone else, has no place on the air, and we at Color Of Change would use every resource available to us to remove corporate sponsorship from their platform."
Conservative Backlash
Beck's enemies on the left, however, have awakened a sleeping giant in their campaign to destroy Beck.
Like the town hall protesters, Beck's supporters are rising up to declare they're fed up and not going to take it anymore. And joining in their counterattack are some of the most respected voices in conservative media.
"Glenn Beck is to be congratulated," New York Times best-selling author Peter Schweizer tells Newsmax. "They only go after you when you are being effective — he must really be causing them problems."
And Rich Noyes, research director for the conservative Media Research Council watchdog organization, says, "I think it tells us a lot about the style of politics coming from the organized left and this White House. They want to be so strenuous in going after their adversaries that they have a take-no-prisoners approach. I think it would be unthinkable if conservatives, particularly those affiliated with the Bush White House, had gone after a media figure associated with one of the other networks."
Conservative icon and direct-marketing expert Richard Viguerie tells Newsmax: "That's Chicago politics. We're seeing the Chicago-ization of politics. We hear how dangerous it is for some of these people to come in the vicinity of the president with a weapon. Then we see the chairman of a powerful committee, Henry Waxman, issuing subpoenas to 50 insurance executives for their corporate records. That's how they play the game. They will use any method they can to attain power and then hold onto that power. They tried to do the same with Rush Limbaugh, but Rush Limbaugh is too big for them to handle. This is how Democrats operate."
On Thursday, DC Examiner editorial page editor Mark Tapscott wrote: "Funny, I don't recall that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression to everybody except those whose opinions the four members of ColorofChange.org find ‘repulsive and divisive.’"
Tapscott called on readers to conduct a reverse boycott against the companies bowing to left-wing pressure, who are pulling their ads from Beck's program. Those companies, Tapscott says, "are aiding and abetting a vicious, political campaign to slander him by an outfit apparently created for just such a purpose."
A reverse boycott is precisely what's taking place.
On Aug. 16, Beck supporter John Hill launched a Web site, DefendGlenn.com. Five days later, the site had recorded 1.9 million visits, racked up 1,033 Twitter followers, and garnered 5,800 user comments on its "Support Wall," Hill says.
"Let your voice be heard! Fight back against the lies and the extremist boycott of Glenn Beck," the site declares.
DefendGlenn.com provides contact information for companies that have pulled their advertising. It also lists and encourages the companies who have stuck with the Beck program.
"We launched DefendGlenn basically just to counter a lot of the distortions and lies that were put out by this group Color of Change, which we saw weren't being countered at all," Hill tells Newsmax.
Among the messages fans left on the DefendGlenn "Support Wall" to show their support for Beck:
"Freedom of speech applies to all speech, even those from the right," wrote Matt Elmore of Woodbridge, Va.
"You are not alone, but like Gen. Washington, out in front of the troops," wrote Michael Lyon of Estero, Fla.
"Never give up,” Leonor Godwin of Stephenville, Texas, wrote him. “They are trying to break you. You are our inspiration and our rock."
Hill also tells Newsmax he has received 5,000 e-mails from people who tell him they are canceling their Geico insurance policy because the company has joined the boycott against Beck, and about 6,500 e-mails from consumers who say they never will buy a Sargento product again.
"I don't want to do that," Hill tells Newsmax. "I think boycotts are stupid. But if they're going to join the boycott, boycotts work two ways. Earlier in the week, the companies were saying, 'Yeah we're dropping the ads.’ But as soon as people started getting in touch with them, they started denying they were dropping anything.'"
Other Beck supporters also are getting into the act. They include an upstate New York stay-at-home mom who became alarmed when she saw the orchestrated campaign to make one of the most independent voices in American media a pariah. Already a member of the 912 organization Beck initiated to recapture the nonpartisan spirit of unity the nation experienced after the 9/11 terror attacks, she created SupportGlennBeck.com.
The site includes a petition that states: “Through his radio and television show, he promotes God, family, and country — which resonates with a majority of Americans.
“There are some people who have an ideological problem with Glenn Beck. These people will not be satisfied until voices such as Glenn’s are silenced. For the millions of us who share Glenn’s values, there is nothing more frightening than losing our forum,” the petition states.
The growing pro-Beck movement has also reached social networking sites. One example: Beck supporter Doug Edelman of St. Louis has established a new Facebook group, “Defend Glenn Beck Against Thug Inspired Boycott.” During its first week, more than 790 members joined the group, which includes a statement of support for Beck and lists contact information for companies that are said to be boycotting his show.
Exaggerated Boycotts
The anti-Beck activists claim that more than 20 advertisers have dropped the Beck program. Hill and others on the pro-Beck side dispute say Color of Change has greatly exaggerated the effect of its boycott.
Many of the companies the organization lists now deny they have anything to do with the boycott. Newsmax contacted Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, SC Johnson, and Radio Shack, all of which said they have not directed Fox News to pull their ads from the Glenn Beck Program, as Color of Change has stated.
In fact, these companies’ representatives tell Newsmax that, as a matter of corporate policy, they never did advertise on the Glenn Beck Program and ask how they could boycott a program they never placed an ad on in the first place.
Another company, State Farm, tells Newsmax that its ad was never supposed to air on the Glenn Beck Program. State Farm has a longstanding company policy against advertising on any "political or opinion programming," its spokesman says.
Having discovered the error, State Farm says, it will not be advertising on any cable talk show. And it is careful to emphasize it is not singling out Beck in this regard.
As State Farm’s response suggests, the net effect of the anti-Beck crusade probably will be fewer advertisers willing to advertise on the talk shows of any cable network.
Consider, for example, the corporate response from Clorox. On Thursday, company executives wrote Hill stating: “After a comprehensive review of political talk shows across the spectrum, at this time we have made a decision not to advertise on political talk shows.”
Assuming the pro-Beck backlash continues, that probably means the activist campaign intended to hurt Beck will, ironically, damage Beck’s progressive competitors more than it hurts him.
Lost ads will impact smaller networks such as MSNBC far more than it will affect ratings juggernaut Fox News, industry sources say.
Nearly 2.5 million viewers tuned in to Beck’s show in its 5 p.m. Eastern time slot last week, according to Mediabistro’s TV Newser. Beck’s ratings on Fox exceeded those of CNN, MSNBC, and Headline News combined.
All of which calls into question whether advertiser boycotts work anyway.
“It’s funny because I think their calculation is that by going after advertisers they are going to affect his bottom line,” Schweizer says. “But this is a common misperception of liberals. Beck isn’t in this for the money. So even if they could succeed, they won’t silence him.”
Michael Harrison has seen plenty of media campaigns come and go as publisher of Talkers Magazine. “My guess,” he says, “is he will weather this storm.”
“Beck expected to get hostile feedback, and a whole bunch of publicity, and he succeeded on both counts,” Harrison says. “People have the right to be offended and businesses have the right to spend their advertising dollars however they choose. Free speech guarantees the right of having an opinion without government censorship. It doesn’t guarantee that people won’t be angry and withhold their support. The free marketplace of ideas is not for the faint hearted!”
And for ratings giant Fox, Beck’s remarkable connection with viewers has made the free market a profitable one indeed. “The advertisers referenced have all moved their spots from Beck to other programs on the network,” a Fox spokesman recently told Ad Age, “so there is no revenue lost.”
Logged
Boycott Glen Beck? This will only improve his ratings.
