Some of the nation’s blue chip companies–many that rely on African-American consumers for a significant portion of their profits–advertised on rightwinger Glenn Beck’s incendiary program on Fox TV.
Some of the nation’s blue chip companies–many that rely on African-American consumers for a significant portion of their profits–advertised on rightwinger Glenn Beck’s incendiary program on Fox TV. They include: Procter & Gamble, Kraft Food, ConAgra (maker of Healthy Choice foods), Clorox, UPS, the U.S. Postal Service, Honda, General Electric, Travelocity, State Farm Insurance, Geico, Farmer’s Insurance, Pfizer, Walmart, Best Buy, Office Depot, RadioShack, Sprint, CVS, Red Lobster, Nestle, Progressive Insurance and pharmaceutical companies Roche and Sanofi-Aventis (maker of Plavix).
Beck touched off a firestorm when he labeled President Barack Obama “a racist” who has “deep-seated hatred for white people.” ColorOfChange.org, an Internet-oriented Black grassroots advocacy group, quickly organized a petition drive urging advertisers to stop sponsoring his show.
One by one, more than 30 sponsors, some claiming there had been a “miscommunication” about their ever wanting to advertise on Beck’s program, requested that their spots be aired elsewhere on the Fox network. While this was a partial victory for ColorOfChange.org, it did not address the larger issue of Fox’s overall hostility toward progressives and people of color. As Marketwatch.com noted, “For its part, Fox News said through a spokeswoman that while some advertisers have ‘removed their spots from Beck,’ they have just shifted to ‘other programs on the network, so there has been no revenue lost.”
Hear that? No revenue lost. When commercial sponsors or Fox experience lose revenue, that’s when we’ll get the change we’ve been waiting for. Meanwhile, Beck supporters have organized defendglenn.com to pressure advertisers to stay with the controversial host. Interestingly, many of the major companies that advertised on Beck’s radio and TV shows until it became a public liability specifically told ABC radio that they didn’t want any of their ads airing on liberal Air America programs. MediaMatters.org, the watchdog group, obtained an internal memo in 2006 that named the companies, including Walmart, Office Depot, General Electric, Farmers Insurance, Nestle, Red Lobster, State Farm, Travelocity, the U.S. Postal Service and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
______
To read the rest of this article, subscribe to our digital or paper edition. For previous editions, contact us for details.
Copyright 2009 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
About Post Author
