“Apple, a company that counts Al Gore among its board members and whose CEO once dated Joan Baez, found itself the unlikely target of an advertising boycott campaign this week,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
MacDailyNews Take: Also, whose co-founder Steve Jobs agrees with Rush Limbaugh (as do we) that U.S. public schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’. So, maybe it’s not so unlikely, after all (just adding a missing color to the portrait Elmer-DeWitt’s trying to paint).
Elmer-DeWitt continues, “The issue is an iPhone ad that appeared on the Aug. 7 broadcast of the Glenn Beck show on the Fox News Channel.”
“Under pressure from advocacy groups, more than a dozen companies, including ConAgra, Geico, Procter & Gamble and Progressive, have pulled their commercials from the conservative commentators’ show,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.
“The boycott was launched last month by ColorofChange.org after Beck made remarks on Fox and Friends that labeled President Obama a ‘racist’ with a ‘deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture,'” Elmer-DeWitt reports. “The campaign was picked up by democrats.com, which provided its members with a list of advertisers and an e-mail form letter that threatens to stop buying the sponsors’ products as long as they advertise on Fox News.”
“Although the boycott began after Beck’s July 7 remarks about Obama’s alleged racism, it was broadened by democrats.com into an attack on Fox News and what it calls the cable network’s campaign of ‘outright hate-mongering and incitement of violence’ following Obama’s election,” Elmer-DeWitt reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, they’ve never watched Olbermann. Like most people. Or, those that have watched him, happen to agree with him, so they fail to identify it as “outright hate-mongering and incitement of violence.”
We try to watch bits from all sources. It’s often great fun regardless of the politics they happen to be peddling; you can sometimes catch interesting and telling looks in the faces of those participating. TV political shows strike us as a rather nasty game to play, but they can still be fun to watch, if you know which brand each is selling and what to look for.
As for this Glen Beck business. We’re not picking sides here. We haven’t seen the full Beck video. However, we consider any boycott to be free speech and we will – as you might guess – back free speech any damn day of the week, regardless of who’s speaking. We’re just pointing out the blatant hypocrisy, that’s all.
Daily Kos surmises that any ads that were pulled “were replaced by advertisers that probably didn’t even know that their ads would be aired during the Glenn Beck show. Advertizers like Apple who in all likelihood bought ad money on Fox News on the cheap during latenight, but who due to the vaccume of advertizing on Beck’s show, had their ads instead moved to the more expensive primetime slots of the Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity shows. For more proof of this, anyone who is DVR’ing Beck’s show as a part of this boycott can jump to minute 56 of today’s (Friday, Aug. 7) 5PM show and see an ad for the Apple iPhone.”
Daily Kos reports, “Apple never used to have any ads on the Glenn Beck show. Their ads mostly showed up mid afternoon or very latenight on Fox News, and sometimes on the O’Reilly Factor, but never during either Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity. In all likelihood, Apple’s ads purchased for very late night airings were moved free of charge to more lucrative spots, without Apple’s knowledge.”
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, Apple should carefully target their ad buys and, if they’re buying them in such a way that they do not know exactly where they are airing, then they should rethink their ad placement strategy. They have enough cash to steer clear of the cheap buys.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, we’re not picking sides here, but taking what we know about the treatment of Apple over the years — and without seeing in full exactly what Beck said and how he said it — we’d guess that the real problem that some people have isn’t so much about what Glen Beck said, but more about his continuing success in the ratings. Those who are perceived to be “dangerous” by the opposition are the ones who are attacked most: Apple (upsets the status quo in multiple markets), Glenn Beck, Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich (back in the day), Bill Clinton (back in the day), Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Rush Limbaugh, etc.
We’d arrive at exactly the same conclusion if the show in question were deemed to be “liberal” and faced a “conservative” boycott.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
MDN Take: Horse feathers!
“Apple’s ads purchased for very late night airings were moved free of charge to more lucrative spots, without Apple’s knowledge.”
If the boycott actually works, it sounds like the prime ads space might be LESS lucrative. Whoops.
Fox “News” is more of a fear mongering organization with a side order of hate mongering.
Remember, Faux News is a propaganda arm of the Republican Party, no more, no less.
MDN obviously has obviously Never watched KO either, otherwise he never would have made such a dumb statement in the MDN take.
MDN, here’s a short summary of GB’s comments: he called the president a racist and said he believes he has a deep hatred for white people. A half white president, raised by white grandparents with majority whites in his administration, yet he has a “deep seeded hatred for white people”? Such statement would be hilarious if they weren’t so mindless and destructive, in the sense that Fox News isn’t exactly as “fair and balanced” as their tag line suggests.
Any advertiser who pulls ads from GB’s show is right to do so. Just because GB is exercising his freedom of speech doesn’t mean we don’t have the right to not tolerate his bullsh*t.
It is free speech. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. And if your company doesn’t like it, don’t advertise on the shows you don’t like.
Advocacy groups are part of the ongoing problem in America.
I agree with the Daily Kos thinking on this, with that number of high profile advertisers deciding not to have their products advertised on Beck’s bullshit show, they will slide others into the empty slots.
We do that in magazine advertising too, where an advertiser pays for a certain spot and sometimes gets bumped up to a better slot for reasons of an original advertiser dropping out.
Beck is pandering to the knuckle-dragging morons that still believe all the bull being put out by fringe political hacks who’s only role is to stir the pot of racial intolerence.
Regardless of your political views — left or right — it is irresponsible of a ‘main-stream’ TV presenter to incite violence like this nutcase does. He has simulated pouring gasoline over a person, pretended to poison a Nancy Pelosi character, called the first black president of this country a racist and acts as a rabble-rouser, complete with fake ‘tears’ for the “love of his country”.
I’m glad the boycott campaign is a success and yet surprised that Apple – a widely-known democratic contributor — advertises at all on Faux News.
Shit! We can’t seem to stop Fox News’ O’Reilly, Hannity and Beck.
Their rating just keep skyrocketing no matter how many failed sportscasters and androgynous lesbians we throw on the air.
I’ve got it! Advertiser Boycott! The old standby. They can have quadruple our ratings, but if nobody pays them for it, we win!
Maybe they’ll cancel those shows and put on ones that espouse increased government control, higher taxation, and all of the other stuff we love!
I disagree with MDN, a boycott is not censorship of free speech, not at all. In fact, it’s with your dollars that you can vote on whether you agree with something or not. That’s called the free market.
I don’t like Beck, or Fox “News” but I don’t think a boycott is even called for simply because people should realize what this station and what Beck is. They are shameless opportunists that merely pander to a certain segment of society, and they do so by falsely whipping people into a fear-induced frenzy.
Step 1: whip people into a frenzy
Step 2: watch those same people tune in every night
Step 3: profit.
“Again, we’re not picking sides here”
OMG, are you kidding? Let the war of words begin hit whore MDN. Get ready to start deleting post from the left to make it look like most Mac users are right wight neocons!
@ericdano,
if it weren’t for advocasy groups, blacks would still be slaves, women wouldn’t have the right to vote, and social security, Medicare or the VA would not exist. Try again.
Hey MDN – stick to computer news and not politics.
Like most of America when it comes to politics, you are not working with enough info so you end up causing more problems than fixing them.
Just sayin…
It’s important to remember how the Dixie Chicks were blackballed by Clear Channel, et al., for saying they were “ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”
No threat, no personal attack – just a statement how the Dixie Chicks *felt* about Bush calling Texas his home, and yet Republicans and their shills did everything they could to destroy their careers.
@ Dem Operative. Careful. Too much truth in your comment may cause some of the more unbalanced Libs heads here to explode!
Unless, of course that’s your goal. If so, good job!
I fail to see your comparison of the Keith Olbermann show to the Glenn Beck show. The Olbermann show does push back on some of the outrageous things said on Fox News and the Beck show but they have never – never – (not even close) said the hateful untrue things that is regularly paraded as news on Fox, Beck, & Co. I have watched both shows on numerous occasions. I used to regularly watch Beck before he moved to Fox News and started his level of outrageous commentary, untrue facts and hatefulness.
MDN, I propose that we keep this site politic-free, and do what you do best, that is report and comment on Apple and related news and events. Glenn Beck and other politically related commentary is not part of that sphere in my view.
MDN
Your assertion that you have not watched Glenn Beck’s statements particularly the one that advocates that Osama Bin Laden should detonate a nuclear weapon in the US so that the Republicans will regain power, indicates rank stupidity on your part.
Anyone who feels that our favorite fruit company should be supporting this guy really isn’t thinking things through. (Oh wait, wingnuts don’t think)
@ignorance is fear:
Reread the MDN take. It says, “…we consider any boycott to be free speech…”. So you actually agree on that point.
I am a shareholder in Apple, a strong Republlican and I love Fox News.
I vote against Gore on the board of Apple every year.
I will not join this boycott against Apple. I continue to boycott the rest however.
I like Beck. I can only handle so much of him, but I think he’s spot on. I think Fox News in general could improve by doing more investigative journalism and not leave the fact finding up to people like Beck. Anyone who doesn’t see the political revolution coming has their head in the sand. Government has awakened the sleeping majority and we will not rest until all the progressives have been replaced.
First, Apple is usuallyvery targeted with it’s ads and the shows it places ads on – show whose viewers meet it’s target demographics. Apple doesn’t just buy a bunch of latenight slots and hope it gets moved to more watched shows. You don’t have to do that when you have $31B in the bank.
Second, regardless of your political views, what Beck said was absolutely stupid. TV Rule #1: never start a race war. The only time you can call someone a racist is if they did something so obviously racist that they deserve it (say, by example, if Beck or Olberman called Jesse Jackson the “N” word on air).
What Beck did was stupid and he could get fired over it (people have been fired for less). It’s just sad (and predictable) how each side jumped all over this and made it into much more than it is – a talking head who spouted off too much on the air.
“MacDailyNews Take: Again, we’re not picking sides here, but taking what we know about the treatment of Apple over the years — and without seeing exactly what Beck said and how he said it — we’d guess that the real problem that some people have isn’t so much about what Glen Beck said, but more about his continuing success in the ratings.”
I’ve been coming to MDN religiously since 2003 to get my Mac news. I also enjoy the vast majority of the MDN takes. This one, however is hands down the dumbest MDN take I’ve read so far. I doubt very seriously this boycott has anything to do with GB’s ratings since GB, Hannity and O’reilly’s popularity are politically not so relevant, since their viewers consist of an ever shrinking part of the electorate. Fox News is a hit among those who didn’t vote for Obama and Democrats anyway.
Oh well, I guess I have to get my Mac news somewhere else now…
We bank on people’s inability to read dispassionately.
For example: The MDN Take above supports the right of the boycotters over all else, but because they also point out the hypocrisy and suggest the real root cause are not Beck’s words, but his huge ratings, the Libs can’t even understand what’s being said.
This is part of how we bamboozled people into voting for an ultra-liberal neophyte senator who spent most of his one term out on the road campaigning and sneaking cigarettes.
This what I sent to Media.help@Apple.com and to Mr. Jobs
I am alarmed as a shareholder and customer that Apple would knowingly fund and support the hate speech that is used on a daily basis on these programs. Please re-evaluate your ad spending to reflect the quality of the company. It is inappropriate that someone who advocates that Osama Bin Laden detonate a nuclear weapon in the US just so the Republican party can regain power is supported by Apple.
Please stop.
I encourage you to do the same.
@twodales,
Perfect.
This is about cutting of dissenting speech not about cutting of “hate” speech. If anyone has listened to Keith Oberman’s show realizes the he promotes hatred, this is really an ideology battle. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report are similar ideologically driven shows but what makes them worse is the hid in comedy. They attack people personally because they are not liberal (or elite) every single show. All three of those shows insight people to hate people who are conservative thinker.