It's a dollar-a-holler on Glenn Beck
August 28, 2009 4:38 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
"Dollar-a-holler" is the old-time radio term used to describe ad rates on small-town AM radio stations. I'm reminded of the phrase after reading this key passage from the Los Angeles Times, and how Beck no longer has any A-list advertisers:
As a result, few major businesses remain as sponsors of Beck’s eponymous 2 p.m. PDT program. On Wednesday, the only big companies with a presence during his show were Bank of America and the Wall Street Journal, whose parent company News Corp. also owns Fox News. The rest of the commercials included spots for gold seller Rosland Capital; Ashley Furniture Home Store; Empire Carpet; Liberty Medical, a diabetes medical supplier; Johnson Law Group, an asbestos litigation firm; “Shadow Government,” a new book critical of Obama published by the National Republican Trust; and the anti-tax group TeaPartyExpress.org.
Turns out Bank of America isn't even a Beck sponsor. So as best I can tell, all the blue chip advertisers have abandoned Glenn Beck.
All. Of. Them.
I guess you are asking us to prove a negative (that he is not a racist)? Do you start from the assumption that all presidents are racists, or just the black ones?
And as beinemac suggests, someone could make an accusation against you, and it's not up to you to prove otherwise. There should be evidence for the charge to be made in the first place.
That would not be a possibility according to Beck himself.
If this many advertisers pulled out in just a few weeks, why is he still on the air?
He may be on YOUR side, but his insane hate-filled paranoid ramblings tell me he's not on MY side.
I watched that show once. Their guest - BENNY HINN!!! He said it was the first time he's ever been in a bar. Priceless.
I appreciate the boycott's aims, but I still insist that the only way to make a real difference is for advertisers to pull their ads not just from Becky's show, but from FNC. If you don't hit Rupert in the wallet, nothing will change.
The methods and messages that I developed in 2006 were used very effective against right-wing talk radio station KSFO. In 2007 a minimum of 28 advertisers left. In 2008 the money they lost lead to Melanie Morgan's contract not being renewed. So be patient folks. If Fox was smart they would fire him so he could become a "martyr" for movement conservatism. They love to be victims.
Ratings are only good if they can lead to more money "a dollar a holler" will require someone to subsidize him (as Eric points out). Fox has deep pockets and their ROI to the Republican party and the movement Conservative Movement has paid off already. They might keep him on in gratitude for past acts and for future rabble rousing.
As shaggles said below, how Fox chooses to respond to this is based on their world view and Beck's. To admit they went too far is to risk alienating their base. They just have to sit and eat it. Absorb the loses. Attack the people who are alerting the advertisers and wait.
With my campaign with KSFO in 2006/07 I found out that when we got through to major advertisers they were horrified by the violent rhetoric of the hosts. To stem the bleeding KSFO/ABC radio/Disney management attacked me and had my blog shut down. They did this rather than tell the hosts to cool it with the calls to kill people on the air. Then they held a "very special program" to address the "scurrilous lies and rumors" about what they claim I said. (Of course I used their exact quotes and they couldn't show I lied about anything, but we've seen how they complain about the truth.) They couldn't prove I took anything out of context or that I edited any clips either.
One host said he apologized on one comment, but of course he made others he never apologized for. Some of the most egregious comments were embraced! Lee Rodgers made it a point to claim he was not apologizing. Here is Lee Rodgers NOT apologizing and saying he would say the same thing again about torturing and blowing the brains out of Kevin Holder, a criminal in Lincoln Nebraska. (audio link) Note how he said that he didn't know that Holder was black then and now (months later) and can't see that what I was objecting to wasn't the fact the man he wanted tortured was black, but that he would talk about torturing and blowing someone's brains out in the first place. From the advertiser's perspective he said it right before a commercial break for In and Out Burger! (who left after they were alerted, btw)
Management sold this special event as their response to the "crackpots with keyboards" and some of the advertisers bought it. I couldn't afford to stay on top of them but the campaign cost them 28 advertisers by then and who knows how many later, I've been told by insiders this resulted in millions in lost revenue.
The KSFO hosts modified their talk for a while because of the lost revenue, but when Obama got elected it was back to the old methods. Now they talk about all the guns they are buying and use "acceptable" racism and bigotry toward Iraqis, Muslims and gays. Example?
Here is Lee Rodgers calling for the massacre of all Iraqis.
That's right, on publicly licensed broadcast radio he says that we should commit genocide of the the Iraq people.
Help save our billianairs from any responsibilty!
What with the digital conversion wiping out half of the channels I used to watch, the tv don't get much use these days. The analog signal even when reception faded a bit kept up the story by sound at least. With digital there is no continuation when this happens. Leaving me unimpressed with this brave new media. It was some democrats bright idea, right? ;)