Did they take you off the air?
Was it something that you said to the corporation guys upstairs?
It wasn’t the pressure,
You never sounded down.
It couldn’t be the ratings,
You had the best in town.
Beck and Fox lose another:
The Clorox Co., a former Beck advertiser, now says that “we do not want to be associated with inflammatory speech used by either liberal or conservative talk show hosts.” The maker of bleach and household cleaners said in a statement that it has decided not to advertise on political talk shows.
The shows present a dilemma for advertisers, who usually like a “safe” environment for their messages. The Olbermanns, Hannitys, O’Reillys, Maddows and Becks of the TV world are more likely to say something that will anger a viewer, who might take it out on sponsors.
They also host the most-watched programs on their networks.
“This is a good illustration of that conundrum,” said Rich Hallabran, spokesman for UPS Stores, which he said has temporarily halted buying ads on Fox News Channel as a whole.
Imagine that! Corporate America doesn’t want to be associated with unhinged lunatics. Shocking, I know.
How long before we see Glenn Beck and Joe the Plumber co-hosting a show PJTV?
(via)
Sloth
The thing about losing WalMart is that everyone follows their lead, advertising-wise.
Beck is in a world of hurt. And maybe the rest of the gang on both sides of the issues.
Not sure I think that is wrong.
General Winfield Stuck
I’m glad it was Chlorox, where i get my brain bleach.
Yes, deep inside the Doom Bunker/ Protected by 13 feet of reinforced wetsuit.
beltane
There is something strangely amusing about a bleach company pulling its ads from Beck’s show. I’m not sure what it is, though.
Beej
Once again, however, we are being treated the the “equivalency” between Olbermann, Maddow, and the likes of Beck and Hannity. While it’s true that Olbermann and Maddow are unabashedly left-leaning, and Olbermann, especially, is sometimes over the top, I don’t remember either of them ever calling for the violent overthrow of the Bush administration.
HyperIon
Is this the first case of the advertiser deciding to skip the network instead of just Beck’s show? Previously they were just shifting to other Fox programs.
me
Beck’s ratings on Headline News were good early but near the end varied for bad to abysmal. Is it because he went even crazier when he went to Fox that his ratings improved drastically or is it because Fox had a preexisting audience for Beck’s brand of insanity that would never watch a network started by Ted Turner?
JL
I agree that Rachel Maddow is opinionated and even ideological. But I disagree that her commentary is “unsafe” and akin to the dangerous, violent rhetoric of Beck, O’Reilly, Limbaugh and others.
Once again, and now in this context, it is perceived as “fair and balanced” to equate all opinions when some opinions are not just points-of-view but also ugly hate-talk.
monkeyboy
It is Clorox the advertiser that decided not to advertise on any political talk show. They may have adopted this stance to keep wingnuts from shouting that Clorox hates patriots and our country.
Then again Clorox may not presently be advertising on Olbermann or Maddow. How many of their listeners regularly need to bleach their Klan costumes?
MikeJ
If you define “unsafe” as causing 27% of Americans to foam at the mouth about soçialism, sure Maddow is unsafe.
I hope it won’t be long until they figure out that the same 27% foam at the mouth about Dora the undocumented Explorer.
jl
Maddow? What jerkass organization would let a story go out with such an asinine false equivalence. Compare Maddow to any Fox hate and lie monger? It is totally inAPpropriate, but expected, unfortunately.
Dee Loralei
@beltane: Over at Benen’s place a commenter named Matt said : “Talk about an eroding base of support. Beck is in serious trouble if he’s even lost the support of people who do nothing all day but try to make things whiter.”
Guy should win the internets for the day.
washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019625.php
Max
I’m really surprised that Wal-Mart pulled its ads. Aren’t they very conservative and the store that “real americans” shop at? I would think that Beck’s demo would be their target audience.
Cat Lady
@General Winfield Stuck:
13 feet of reinforced wetsuit
I’m not sure where I’m going to use it, but I’m totally stealing that.
Actually it occurs to me we’re talking in wingnut code DougJ says no one understands. Irony!
gbear
In related bad news for insane media assholes, Ted Nugent got fired by the Waco Tribune-Herald. Apparently the paper has new (and apparently much saner) owners.
crooksandliars.com/john-amato/ted-nugent-fired-waco-trib
@Max: Beck crossed a lot of advertiser’s comfort thresholds when he called our incredibly popular black president a racist who hates all white people. Nobody sane wants to be associated with that level of FAIL.
Mike G
Once again, however, we are being treated the the “equivalency” between Olbermann, Maddow, and the likes of Beck and Hannity.
As Tom Tomorrow put it, Olbermann, unlike Beck, doesn’t have to beg his audience to not go on a killing spree.
PaminBB
@Dee Loralei:
Unfortunately, that quote is way too true. Copied below for context:
“…at Benen’s place a commenter named Matt said : “Talk about an eroding base of support. Beck is in serious trouble if he’s even lost the support of people who do nothing all day but try to make things whiter.”
Guy should win the internets for the day.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.c…..019625.php”
jenniebee
So at least now when I see a clip of Beck and feel like I need to bleach my eyes and/or brain, I wouldn’t be indirectly supporting Beck’s show if I did, in fact, pour clorox on my face.
Good to know.
JK
I read a quote by a Fox News spokesperson that the companies who pulled their ads from Glenn Beck’s show simply placed their ads in other hours of the Fox News programming schedule so that Fox News has not actually lost any revenue.
Lesley
Pity. Bleach is just what Beck needs.
ChrisB
@jl: To be precise, that false equivalence appears to come from the AP media reporter, not the Clorox spokesman.
bago
@Lesley: I’d be much more entertained by Beck on Ranma.
Anne Laurie
“You’re supposed to be disinfecting with it, Mr. Beck — not drinking it.”
Dr. Loveless
@JK:
Maybe, but losing major advertisers is still a huge prestige hit for a show. If biggies like Clorox pull out, and the only ads during Beck’s Cavalcade o’ Crazy are for Oxyclean, the Franklin Mint, and that vegetable chopper-thingy that lets you make your own bloomin’ onions, he is in a world of trouble.
pika
Oh, please tell me that Enzyte is now advertising on his show.
asiangrrlMN
I have to tell you that I am shocked as hell that so many companies have made such a declarative statement as this. I am a bit heartened, though the equating of Rachel and Keith to Beck and O’Reilly is disgusting. It would be most excellent if more people follow these advertisers’ lead.
KCinDC
Sounds like it, pika:
Do Nigerian spammers buy television ads?
Jeezum Crow
@KCinDC:
Those are the kinds of ads that show up on stations that only play Christian music videos and infomercials from the early ’80s.
Pablo
Separated at birth?
Jiminy Glick – glasses = Glenn Beck
pika
@KCinDC:
Ah. But note that they didn’t say *natural* male enhancement.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I don’t really care about the false equivalence. That kind of crap is a basic CYA move on the part of the company and the reporter. What delights me about this move is that it comes down to the idea that the company could be in a world of hurt if the only people buying its products are the Beck demographic. To be maximally profitable, they need all of America, not just the crazy white demographic. Even Walmart has made inroads into more urban areas. They can’t afford to alienate those customers. In rural America, Walmart is the only option. That isn’t true in suburban and urban America.
Corporate America has been enabling the partisian nonsense for waaaayyy too long. John’s peak wingnut theory will actually have some credibility if the corporate world no longer sees sponsoring this poo as being in their best interests. Demographically, I don’t see how being affiliated with Beck, Limbaugh, etc can be in their long term best interests.
mds
I’m disgusted that these companies are violating Mr. Beck’s First Amendment right to paid advertising. What’s next, progressives refusing to spend their own money at a particular grocery store chain, aka censorship?
jim
Beck losing yet another sponsor = a beacon of hope in dark times.
He can say any deranged bullshit he wants, dress in Colonial drag or waterboard Teletubby dolls on his freakshow every week if he so chooses, & a gang of sensationalism-loving BS-worshippers like FOX will gladly let him do so – they hired OLLIE NORTH, for Christ’s sake – but when sponsors start pulling adtime on his show, you can be sure that the Doomsday Clock is ticking on his TeeVee career, & as long as he keeps the Batshit-Insane button taped down, it’ll hit midnight in short order … & nothing of value will be lost.
The real fun will be watching the same bunch of FOX jackals who adore him today, all pontificating about the extremist & disgusting nature of his folly & how they knew all along that this would happen – while privately steeling themselves for whatever lunatic will be biting the heads off of live chickens in his place within a week.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Max:
This may be a false trend that I’m perceiving as a result of watching too much MSNBC, but it has struck me on multiple occasions that since Obama’s election that TV advertisers (especially Fortune 500 companies) have made a noticeable shift towards using more minorities in their commercials, and especially in the frequency with which they portray African Americans as upper middle class professionals with very wholesome, cute, squeaky clean families.
And Walmart in particular has been one of the most obvious in this shift – sometime around December/January they starting retooling the images and style presented in their TV commercials. They are using a new blue logo and trying to look less southern lower-middle class white and more mid-middle bi-coastal diverse, both in terms of the greater ethnic diversity and lack of regional southern accents in their speech of the “customers” shown on their commercials, and in portraying their customers as higher in socio-economic status than used to be the case.
I don’t know why this shift has happened – it may be some mix of adapting to a new zeitgeist and/or that the lower-middle class doesn’t have much in the way of money to spend and Walmart is trying to take some of the upper- and mid-middle class market share from competitors like Target that have a more upscale and bicoastal image.
Notorious P.A.T.
Is old Glenn back from his “vacation”?
Comrade Kevin
Give the People What They Want is a great album, John.
IndieTarheel
@MikeJ:
Screw Swiper, this one’s mine!
Notorious P.A.T.
“I agree that Rachel Maddow is opinionated and even ideological. But I disagree that her commentary is “unsafe” and akin to the dangerous, violent rhetoric of Beck, O’Reilly, Limbaugh and others.”
Then I guess the roving bands of lesbians who force people to plant organic gardens and read The New Yorker haven’t reached your neighborhood yet.
Notorious P.A.T.
“since Obama’s election that TV advertisers (especially Fortune 500 companies) have made a noticeable shift towards using more minorities in their commercials”
You know, I think you have a point there.
@mds:
Haha )
pcbedamned
@me:
I watched Beck on CNN all the time. The beauty of Glenn then, was that he was equally vocal about his displeasure with BOTH parties. When he went to Fox, he went off the deep end in order to play to the far-right, Fox anti-Obama meme. The crowd over at HotAir etc. lapped it up like he was the second coming – they had discovered their new ‘hero’. Yet prior to February ’09 when he made his move, try to mention watching Beck over at HN and watch the ‘you are are a commie’ labels fly. So the answer to your question lies in the last part of your sentence…
@Notorious P.A.T.:
Yep, and he must have had one hell of a talking to!!! I checked him out last night and it was like watching the old Glenn (I haven’t watched him in months). Mind you, I’m sure once the hoopla dies down, he’ll be back in top crazy form (gotta keep the nuts happy)…
Joe Lisboa
Just wanted to give John props for the late-80s Kinks’ reference.
Comrade Kevin
@Joe Lisboa: The album came out in 1981.