Liberals doing their part to support free speech
 

Liberals Going After Fox Advertisers

Jul 27 04:08 PM US/Eastern
By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer


NEW YORK (AP) - Liberal activists are stepping up their campaign against Fox News Channel by pressuring advertisers not to patronize the network.
MoveOn.org, the Campaign for America's Future and liberal blogs like DailyKos.com are asking thousands of supporters to monitor who is advertising on the network. Once a database is gathered, an organized phone-calling campaign will begin, said Jim Gilliam, vice president of media strategy for Brave New Films, a company that has made anti-Fox videos.

The groups have successfully pressured Democratic presidential candidates not to appear at any debate sponsored by Fox, and are also trying to get Home Depot Inc. to stop advertising there.

At least 5,000 people nationwide have signed up to compile logs on who is running commercials on Fox, Gilliam said. The groups want to first concentrate on businesses running local ads, as opposed to national commercials.

"It's a lot more effective for Sam's Diner to get calls from 10 people in his town than going to the consumer complaint department of some pharmaceutical company," Gilliam said.

Some of videos produced by Gilliam's company compile statements made by Fox anchors and guests that the activists consider misleading, such as those that question global warming.

Representatives for Fox News Channel, which is owned by News Corp., did not immediately return calls for comment.

Home Depot has not had an unusual number of calls, said spokesman Jerry Shields, and the home improvement chain will not change its advertising strategy.

"We're not in the business of censoring media," Shields said. "We need to reach our customer base through all mediums available."

Groups like the Sierra Club have targeted Home Depot because they believe it's inconsistent for the company to promote environmentally friendly products while advertising on a network that has questioned global warming.

The groups seem particularly angry at Fox's Bill O'Reilly, who has done critical reports on left-wing bloggers. On July 16, O'Reilly said the DailyKos.com Web site is "hate of the worst order," and sent a reporter to question JetBlue Airways Corp. CEO Dave Barger about the airline's sponsorship of a gathering run by DailyKos.

He'll never ride on JetBlue again, O'Reilly said.

MoveOn.org is campaigning against Fox because it says the network characterizes itself as a fair news network when it consistently favors a conservative point of view, said Adam Green, the organization's spokesman.

"We're not trying to silence anybody," Green said. "Rush Limbaugh has a right to be on the air—he admits his point of view. Fox doesn't."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

Trying to boycott a right-wing media empire is not trying to limit free speech.

Though it will have the effect of encouraging the right-wingers to shop there among its advertisers in greater numbers, specifically to show the idiots up.

Remember that liberals -- now aren't.

I remember when this company started...I'm sure Heinz isn't losing any sleep over them.

Ultimately, advertisers will choose the best target for their budget dollars regardless of what the political persuasion of the host happens to be.

It's definitely not censorship though to attempt to persuade advertisers not to advertise. More like a waste of time and effort I'd say.

Well its moveon.org....

I find it interesting that moveon.org is specifically targeting Fox. Perhaps if they wwnt after the clearly liberal leaning news outlets as well as the clearly conservative ones it would be worthwhil or at least make the seem impartial. To me it looks like they don't want any point of view they don't agree with to be heard.

Here's a quandry ... if Planned Parenthood, NOW, and all the manufacturers of environmentally friendly (hype) hybrid cars were advertising on FoxNews, does that mean they'd boycott them, too?

They're doing it in retaliation for O'Reilly attacking YearlyKos, and comparing DailyKos to Nazis and the KKK.

And it's not a boycott, as such.

To bad O'Reilly is right.

Among others.

Right....only if you mean right leaning. He's just plain wrong in every sense of the word.

That man is a scourge and a total embarrassment to news outlets who truly do try to fairly report the news. There is a special place in hell for him and for others who would lie so blatantly.

Without taking sides here, I'm very interested to know who you think the "news outlets who truly do try to fairly report the news" are.

Beyond that, O'Reilly makes it clear that his show is Commentary, not News.

I know that's confusing to a lot of people, given that O'Reilly was once a reporter. Think of it as being analogous to Madonna having once been a virgin.

Your only, and a big one, mistake is that O'Reilly is a news reporter. He is not. He is a news commentator. He comments about the news and his take on the news. If you don't agree with him great, no big deal, don't read or listen to what he has to say. Soros is the only embarrassment in the news now days.