When a journalist who gets great ratings is being attacked for doing what he does (as in the case of Glenn Beck) by those who scream about Freedom of Speech and high journalism, it’s like they have an “I’m with Stupid” tattoo punched into their foreheads. Aren’t progressives the same people who think it is okay to decry every alleged “impropriety” by conservatives while hiding behind the guise of “free speech” for themselves? Is it somehow less appropriate for Glenn Beck to espouse his opinions? Why? Because he might be onto something, and his ratings are high?
Newsflash! Beck is but a reflection of an entire mass of people who believe what he has the platform to say! They aren’t going away. In fact, they are growing in spades!
Fox News executives know that if they let advertisers bully them into booting Beck, he will get another job, and advertisers will next be pressured to abandon O’Reilly or Hannity to try to censor them. Why would they make such a self-defeating, bad business decision?
Liberal companies are all upset because Beck “called Obama a racist” and progressivism “a cancer.” Though it bears no comparison to what less successful journalists have said about Palin, Bush, and other conservative icons and their families, it does beg a question—who decided they get to decide what is appropriate? Moreover, if they make Beck go away do they really believe his followers will just go back to their political obscurity? He speaks for millions!
Why can’t the crybaby liberals who are so used to having it their way for so long realize that times have changed? If you take away our mouthpiece, more of us will rise up and find platforms to say what Beck was saying. If you take Beck away, he becomes more of a hero to those who sense a therapeutic affect when tuning into his show. And if you pull your product from advertising, they stop buying your product.
At least they are consistent. They boycotted John Mackey of Whole Foods because he publicly expressed his opposition to elements of Obamacare last year. So free-market loving patriots did what they could do and responded with a BUYcott, spending 50,000 dollars in one night at one store in St. Louis, Missouri. The idea spread all over the country, and Whole Foods stock went up.
On the other hand, if Apple and the other 199 notable companies take exception to a journalist as popular as Beck, on a station as powerful as Fox News, they may not fare so well.
Will the Tea Party launch a BUYcott of Beck and the already popular Fox News? They just might! If conservatives built the Fox News that is dominating now by default, can you imagine what they could do if they put in a little effort? Did you see the crowds at last weekend’s Tea Parties? Now imagine that they become the network and journalistic “king makers.”
With Oprah tanking and all networks except Fox News battling for ratings and audiences, maybe Apple ought to consider buying Beck his own network for those who think Fox News gets a little squishy now and then? They could call it BeckNet, and they could have sole rights to advertise on their station. That might be the best marketing tack they could take. If not, conservatives will probably be content to look ahead to the scent of rotting apples wafting through the newly renovated office suite of Mr. Beck, while he opens his computer with a boyish grin and sells a million PC’s that day. Which computer maker’s pitchman will look like an inept geek then?
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