MoveOn Gets Someone to Bite on Faux Fox Protest
Liberal Coalition Mimics Right-Wing Groups
Taking a page from Don Wildmon's American Family Association, MoveOn and other liberal groups are going after marketers who advertise on Fox News. And just like the AFA's claims that large portions of the American populace are signed up and willing to rage against sponsors, MoveOn says it has "thousands" of people ready to go.
What's left unsaid in the AP piece is that MoveOn has been pitching this story for weeks now. According to the AP piece, "the groups want to first concentrate on businesses running local ads, as opposed to national commercials." That seems to contradict the AP's own story which points out that the groups have been trying, with absolutely no success, to target Home Depot.
By its own admission in press materials, this is the "fourth stage" of MoveOn's attempt to take down the "Republican spin machine."
I find Fox News' claim to be "fair and balanced" as laughable as the next guy, but not nearly as laughable as these media stunts. True, turn about is fair play. If Bill O'Reilly can fume against JetBlue for sponsoring YearlyKos and the AFA can make boycott noises because of "homosexual messages" in prime time, the liberal coalition is surely welcome to go after Fox and its advertisers. But it isn't news. And if I had my way, the media wouldn't waste any time with any of these efforts until it was actually shown that someone somewhere lost a sale.
Funnier still is that MoveOn, until now, has been unable to get much media coverage -- unless one counts The Huffington Post and DailyKos as the sort of media that's going to move the masses. Both of those, by the way, are part of this little coalition of speech police, so that's kind of like getting recognized by your parents for a job well done.
Now the coalition, unable to accomplish much on a national level, has gotten media attention for declaring its intention to monitor local businesses that advertise on Fox News.
That will really hit Fox where it hurts.
Never mind the complexities of buying ads on cable TV -- note to the coalition, local cable buys aren't show specific so attacking Joe's Deli for advertising on "O'Reilly" might be a little more than silly.
And if the owner of a local business has gone through the trouble of specifically buying an ad on Fox News, it's because he wants to be there and he wants to target Fox News viewers. And such an advertiser more than likely has certain views about MoveOn. I can only imagine what the conversation will sound like when a self-appointed MoveOn monitor calls up Joe's Bait, Tackle & Hunting Supply to say he should remove his ads from Fox News.
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