skippy the bush kangaroo: nobody has beck's back

Friday, August 14, 2009

nobody has beck's back

nytimes gives us the good news: sponsors are dropping glenn beck like, er, like something really hard to hold onto. like, hot potatoes:

about a dozen companies have withdrawn their commercials from “glenn beck,” the fox news channel program, after glenn beck, the person, said late last month that president obama was a racist with a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”

the companies that have moved their ads elsewhere in recent days included conagra, geico, procter & gamble and the insurance company progressive. in a statement that echoed the comments of other companies, conagra said on thursday that “we are firmly committed to diversity, and we would like to prevent the potential perception that advertising during this program was an endorsement of the viewpoints shared.”…

“we have tv today that’s very polarizing and controversial,” said donny deutsch, the advertising executive and occasional host on cnbc and msnbc, a rival to fox news.

last month, mr. deutsch listed some of the “glenn beck” advertisers and told msnbc viewers that people who objected to mr. beck’s remark should write to the chief executives of the companies. in an interview, he said corporate decisions about where to allot ad dollars were the “ultimate check and balance.”

the sponsors’ shifts came after a campaign by colorofchange.org, a black political coalition, to contact sponsors of mr. beck’s program. the remark by mr. beck, a conservative radio host and comedian who joined fox news in january, came not on his 5 p.m. talk show but on “fox and friends,” a raucous morning program.

of course, the bad news is that the sponsors' funds have merely re-appropriated to other faux news shows, so no actual revenue was lost. but it is at least a moral victory, which, in these days of death panels, is something to hold onto. like, well, something easy to hold onto. like cold potatoes. yum!

posted by skippy at 9:52 AM |