Saturday, August 15, 2009

First, they came for Glenn Beck . . .

. . . and, if these vile monsters are permitted to succeed with their attacks on Beck's advertising revenue, the monsters will grow stronger and bolder, moving on to silence other conservative voices, not just at Fox TV, but everywhere, in every medium.

Erick Erickson is absolutely right about this. It doesn't matter if you love Glenn Beck, hate Glenn Beck, or if you never heard of Glenn Beck. Defending Glenn Beck in this situation is absolutely essential to the preservation of conservative media as a viable commercial enterprise. But . . . what's this?
A noble impulse, but is that really true? My hunch is that companies have limited patience for this sort of thing; they’ll throw a bone to an angry constituency if it’s sufficiently large and focused on one show, but the more targets the boycotters add, the greater the headaches for corporate advertisers who are looking for airtime and sensitive about not alienating other constituencies by getting too political.
That line of reasoning is completely 180-degrees wrong. Beck attracts an audience; the size and demographics of that audience are a commodity sold to advertisers. Media Matters and other left-wing operations intrude their politics into that market nexus in order to undermine the market value not merely of Glenn Beck, but of any other broadcaster (or publisher, or blogger) who might wish to emulate Beck.

The Left doesn't have to add more targets to their boycott list in order to damage conservative media. Put the hit on Beck -- impose what might be called a political discount on the value of his advertising -- and the boycotters have thereby demonstrated their ability to do the same to anyone whom they should decide to target next.

To abandon Glenn Beck and throw him under the bus -- to sacrifice him to the Left -- would be an act of appeasement akin to Neville Chamberlain giving Hitler the Sudetenland.

9 comments:

  1. I am glad you addressed this! I had every intention of doing so, but the eyes are telling me that somewhere there must be a pillow with my name on it.

    I am hoping Fox network does not bow to advert pressures and remove Glenn from their lineup.

    Yes, he gets teary-eyed, but he is a good guy who loves his country and the people in it. He oftentimes says things I don't agree with, but that is what makes Glenn Glenn.

    Thank you for the post, Mr. McCain.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mr. Beck doesn't have a divine right to Sargento Cheese's business but once they made the "hate speech" statement publicly they took sides. When you take sides it comes at a price.

    The deal is to make the price of taking the other side higher than taking ours.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You pulled the money quote from Allah Pundit..

    AP, I think, would rather Glenn go by the wayside than be in the same party that he is in. But AP is the kind of guy would like to move the party to the middle and kick the Christians out because... his zip code makes him smarter than everyone else or Christopher Hitchens said it was a good idea in a drunken stupor(at least, an even more drunken stupor than usual)..

    When AP is talking about Glenn Beck, take what he says with a grain of salt.. he's been a pissy little bitch these past few months.. Loosing GB would be an acceptable loss for him..

    ReplyDelete
  4. RSM said:

    "Disagreeing with me makes you a Nazi."

    This is one of the reasons we need to rebuild the movement..."and in such a way as to enable it to continue under new management."

    ReplyDelete
  5. Actually, I was a little shocked to learn that uber-lib owned Progressive Insurance was advertized on Beck.

    Maybe turn about is fairplay. Maybe Conservatives and Republicans should boycott those that would turn tail so easily and pander to the LEFT? Just a thought.

    Personally, I would never consider Progrssive Insurance for anything, ever! They do not get anyone liberal than Peter Lewis.

    ReplyDelete
  6. And this is Keith Olbermann's Advertisers, thanks to daily Kos (ugh!):
    ------------------------------------------
    Break One:
    Dish Network
    Verizon Wireless
    V-8 vegetable drink
    Remax Realtors
    One-Touch Ultra blood sugar tester
    Vonage phone service
    Aspercreme pain-relief lotion
    Gold Bond foot cream

    Break Two:
    ChooseChase.com credit cards
    Procedetv.com hair-growing method
    Sharper Image Ionic Breeze air purifier

    Break Three:
    Oscar Mayer bologna (with the song!)
    TIAA-CREF retirement planning
    Infiniti-M class car

    Break Four:
    Verizon Wireless
    Olay Definity (yes, I spelled it correctly) face cream
    Subaru cars
    Rozeram prescription sleep aid
    V-8 vegetable drink
    One-a-Day Women vitamins

    Break Five:
    Capitol One credit card
    Genworth Financial
    Mitsubishi Eclipse car
    Priceline.com travel service
    -----------------
    After all, has any Liberal stood up for the First Amendment Rights of Conservatives and Republicans?

    Bueller? Bueller?

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just went looking for your criticism of the Fire David Letterman movement from a couple months ago, but didn't find it. That worked out well. Can you point me to your defense of Letterman?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Now, now, psteve, play nice. Let's remember that Letterman not only made pedophilic rape jokes (Kill! Hang! Burn!), but directed his cruel taunts against the daughter(s) of perhaps the greatest human being alive today - Sarah "Death-Panels-n-Quitting" Palin, who, regardless of whether she manages to fulfill her destiny by bestriding the nation as Eschatological President, will one day take her rightful place at the foot of God's throne, dispensing beatific winks to hearten the host and overseeing the eternal thrills of the Heavenly Iditarod.

    HTH.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Quoted from and linked to at:
    http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/2009.08.16_arch.html#1250541475334

    ReplyDelete