When a company does business with the likes of Glenn Beck, the saying "What you see is what you get" could not be more appropriate to the situation. That's only because "Crazy is as crazy does" really isn't a saying.
Some of the show's sponsors are learning that lesson a little late in the game now that they have started pulling their ads from Glenn Beck's Fox News show in the wake of comments he made regarding President Obama's rampant racism.
ConAgra, Geico, Proctor and Gamble and Progressive Insurance have all stopped sponsoring Beck's show. Shoot, getting to see that super-cute gal in the Progressive ads was the only good thing I had to look forward to while watching the Glenn Beck Program.
The article points to two antagonizing sources for the ad pullout. The political coalition group ColorOfChange.org started a campaign to get supporters to contact the show's sponsors and demand they stop supporting him with their dollars. Ad exec and CNBC and MSNBC host Donny Deutsch also listed some of the show's sponsors in his effort to rid the airwaves of extremely volatile news shows and asked his viewers to do the same saying that using corporate ad dollars as leverage against such figures is the "ultimate check and balance." If only TV land had a legislative and judicial branch as well.
Fox News, of course, denies that the lack of ad space has had any effect on the show and Beck did retract his statement about Obama's hatred of the white man. That retraction, of course, was made five seconds after he made the initial statement and then re-retracted that statement in less than two seconds. So maybe the boycott is more about keeping the mentally bipolar from taking over the nation's airwaves and less about keeping unfettered and rampant accusations posing as "news" that are based solely on personal opinions in check.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
8-18-2009 @ 4:40PM
MacGuffin said...
If Glenn Beck didn't have a lot of people who actually agree with him, he wouldn't even have a show.
There are lots of whack jobs on both ends of the political spectrum. However, he is wayyyyy out there. Makes Sarah Palin look sane.
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 5:14PM
Awperator said...
I wonder how that free market is working out for you Beck
Reply
8-21-2009 @ 1:49PM
DRH said...
Well, since Beck is keeping his job, filling ad space, getting free publicity with and sympathy from people who've never watch his show that think Free Speech is important.... pretty well, actually.
For that matter, the advertisers are just shifting their ads to other Fox shows, so his network isn't losing money, either.
8-21-2009 @ 2:44PM
0megapart!cle said...
DRH, you do realize that taking away someone's right to say something (impeding free speech) and urging companies not to support the dissemination of something are very different things. Glenn Beck has every right to say almost anything he wants, but ColorOfChange also has every right to urge advertisers not to support that speech if those advertisers don't agree with it.
8-18-2009 @ 5:37PM
trickyric1967 said...
Really,
you pass this crap off as tv information?
first of all Beck has one of the highest rated show on Cable news and he owns his radio show. He has not lost a single penny of ad revenue because there were comapnies waiting to get into his rotation.
more importantly why has your website gone political and rather heavily biased. I stopped visiting for awhile because of this and now I have to get my TV fix somewhere else.
Geez, you lefty's won the election, let it go already.
sincerely,
a former visitor of your website
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 5:46PM
Toolman said...
As a fellow right wing nut job even I think way out there, psycho, Nuts, out where the buses don't go.
I for one am happy so see this, and think it is news, and I wish there were actually more real news here.
Goodbye good riddance.
8-19-2009 @ 12:03AM
Man said...
To trickyric1967 and all other haters I will use trickyric1967 own words on a Letterman comment:
"...the first amendmant is not a blanket to say horrible things, it has limits and furthermore while you have the right to run your pie hole you don't get protection from the consequences..."
"...Decency and respect isn't a right or left issue, it is a right or wrong issue."
"Are you serious?
get your partisan head out of the sand!"
Take your own advice.
8-18-2009 @ 5:40PM
Jim said...
and yet he has ratings at 5 PM that Ober-Douche can only dream of
Reply
8-23-2009 @ 12:41PM
Susan Mayhew said...
Faux 'news' has good ratings because the religious zombies of the right generally are uneducated and/or out of work from their minimum wage jobs. They have no education or understanding of the world outside their beer cans.
The reason why they don't watch progressive media is that they are incapable of independent intelligent thought and can't understand an idea expressed in more than an O'Reily sound-bite. Their god is Joe the plumber - neither Joe or plumber - but reality truly bites for the Neanderthals of the right wing - who cares what these people think. Glenn Beck is their guy- no threat - no big words - tears on demand, who dropped out of college (read failed) and is now their martyr. There is an expression: Tell me who you walk with and I will tell you who you are - 'nuf said skin-heads!
9-20-2009 @ 8:37PM
fitzie said...
Know you know what it is like to live with the opposing team in the leading position. You guys have had a field day for 20 years ins spite of having a Democrat as President -- you are the ones who need to get over it! Maybe fix news (small characters) could show a bit more of the other side once in a while, but since the owner is an Australian billionaire married to a Chinese woman maybe we should always just consider the source. Just good all American news!
8-18-2009 @ 5:54PM
0megapart!cle said...
Right-wing cable news watchers all know that they will quickly lose confidence in their backward beliefs if they watch any other network with a semblance of impartiality (CNN barely has that). So while there aren't that many of them, the impact of the entire lot watching one network allows that network to sit pretty on top of the ratings. Most liberals don't regularly watch Cable News, and independents are split between MSNBC and CNN (and the rest of the news outlets)
As far as the news at hand, I am glad that Beck is being made to pay for his hateful remarks one time in his miserable little life.
Reply
8-21-2009 @ 1:53PM
DRH said...
"Independents" watch MSNBC? Since when?
ANyhoo check out MSNBC's latest "news" atrocity. Not *commentary* (like Glenn Beck) - *NEWS* :
http://hydarblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/msnbc-edits-out-black-mans-face-to-justify-racism-charge/
They edited out a blackman's face so they could cry "racism".
Nice, huh?
8-21-2009 @ 2:48PM
0megapart!cle said...
There were several people that were noticed carrying weapons at these rallies. And from the actual video of the MSNBC coverage of the event, there is no evidence of editing. The original video clip that MSNBC showed simply didn't show the person's face.
As far as no independents watching MSNBC, I think it would be pretty hard for MSNBC to consistently beat CNN the way they do most of the time without considerable independent viewership.
8-18-2009 @ 5:59PM
Gordy said...
Libertarians tend to be out there sometimes on social issues, but, I can tolerate most of his show.
It's not hate speech if everyone is doing it, right? I mean, let's not change the game because the White House has new occupants folks.
BTW, it seems Beck's show has plenty of advertisers today.
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 6:01PM
Gordy said...
The mentioning of CNBC and MSNBC--two networks with a fraction of Beck's audience at 5PM--makes this entire topic suspect. Circle the wagons libs.
8-18-2009 @ 7:48PM
Bryce said...
Ah yes, CNBC, the bastion of liberal politics and reasonable discourse.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/cnbc_anyone_who_owns_a_suit
8-21-2009 @ 2:49PM
0megapart!cle said...
Uhm, how is "everyone" doing it. Everyone on Fox News maybe, but certainly not everyone in the news media or in the overall populace.
8-18-2009 @ 6:30PM
Aaron said...
I'm a "radical lefty" or whatever, but I agree that this article needs some rethinking. Glenn Beck and Fox News skew incredibly right. We all know this. But this giant leftist attempt to counter Fox is just as bad. If we want the news in this country to stop being such a laughable affair we have to start being legitimately balanced. The left rarely watch Fox, and the right rarely watch MSNBC. That's a problem. If these were true NEWS organizations and not pandering ratings magnets, the left and the right would watch about equally.
As far as this particular article goes, some facts are clearly skewing left. Glenn Beck is in no way "running out of sponsors." I'd love for him to be, but he isn't. Editorializing like that ruins your credibility. And let's say this was an op-ed, though it isn't labeled as such. In that case, you're making up facts to try and prove your point. You know who does that a lot? Glenn Beck. Let's try and stop this insane amount of lying and "spin" we see everywhere and just REPORT.
Reply
8-18-2009 @ 10:54PM
Jen said...
I have to agree. I think Glenn Beck is nuts and has a serious case of ADD (FYI, I'm not crazy leftist, I'm very middle of the road), but I know he has tons of supporters. Gallagher here was definitely editorializing a "news" item, but it's what TVSquad does...I never view them as real news, just bloggers. (And I don't consider most bloggers objective journalists.)
Historically, the goal is to keep commentary/news as far away from advertising decisions as possible. I know that's not always possible, but still... (And for those who are confused, Beck is NOT a reporter. He does commentary, period.)
You don't like what the man has to say? Don't watch. But don't promote censorship, regardless of your political views. Eww.
8-21-2009 @ 2:53PM
0megapart!cle said...
How in the hell is this just as bad as what Glenn Beck does? Most of these advertisers had no idea what kind of psychopathic hate speech they were supporting on Glenn Beck's show, and when they found out, they pulled their sponsorship. How is this at all bad?
And the fact that Fox News basically forced Beck to take a week off to try to cool down the furor over his comments proves that this campaign is working.