Glenn Beckinistas Wiggle Out of Straitjackets to Mount Counter-Boycott in Defense of Bigotry

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

In case you hadn't marked it in your TV Guide already, Glenn Beck returns from his media blackout bunker vacation today. While he may be coming back to a less-prestigious list of advertisers due to the success of a boycott of his show's sponsors, I'm betting his ratings will be higher than ever.

Color of Change reports that their effort to target companies that advertise on Beck's show in relation to his recent comments accusing President Barack Obama of being a racist who hates white people has secured the withdrawal of 33 advertisers from the show, which runs at 5 p.m. Eastern on Fox News.

Companies ranging from GEICO to Wal-Mart to Sargento have reportedly pulled ads from the show, making the effort more successful than many other long-term anti-Fox campaigns out there.

Fox News said in a statement that they've felt no hardship from the boycott, as they've simply shifted their ads around to different shows. Though the campaign has lead to record-high ratings for Beck as well as increased media attention for the controversial conservative host, the economic nature of the campaign may yet leave a dent. The Associated Press reports:

But it could mean advertising time becomes cheaper on his show than such a large audience would normally command. Some of his show's advertisers last week included a male enhancement pill, a law firm looking to sue on behalf of asbestos victims, a company selling medical supplies to diabetics and a water filter company.

If one is looking for truth in an ad lineup, apparently it's easier to admit to being impotent than being a paranoid bigot. It's hard to tell whether or not Beck's audience actually is white impotent males with heartburn and arthritis, but we can say that quite a large percentage of them have access to the Internet.

There's a handful of supporters organizing a counter-boycott online, pledging to forgo products from companies that pulled their ads from Beck's show. DefendGlenn.com, for example, seeks to "fight the lies and the left-wing boycott of Glenn Beck." For an image of the proponents of this view, check out their comments section which features this mind-bending gem from "Thomas Crown" of Greenville, SC:

Glenn, your right on. Obama and other race baiters such as Prof. Gates continue to fuel and stir up race issues that do not exist anymore. The fact that Obama can get elected into the white house based purely on his race and not his qualifications, proves that racism is not only dead but overcompensated for at the national level.

Erick Erickson at RedState.com jumped on the counter-boycott bandwagon, warning that "Barack Obama's brownshirts are after Glenn Beck" and urging readers to boycott those who have pulled their ads:

Here's the list of the groups that have boycotted Glenn Beck. Let them know you disagree. Let them know you will boycott them for kowtowing to Barack Obama's worshippers, brownshirts, goons, and thugs.

This radio host even called for organized protests outside of the companies that dropped Beck's program. If conservatives are actually willing to drive out to an office park to weep over the death of free speech, more power to them, I guess. I just hope they don't forget to get a new car insurance policy before they take off for Fredericksburg, VA.

As Conor Clarke points out at The Atlantic, these Beck supporters do not have "a substantive argument at all -- unless they are seriously interested in defending what Beck said on the merits. (Are they? Is anyone? Let's have that argument, pretty please.) The argument for boycotting the boycotters should be more than 'free speech is awesome,' since the right to free speech doesn't guarantee you the right to massive corporate underwriting." 

Instead of logic, they are using all kinds of distortions to minimize the original boycott. The fact that Van Jones, Obama's green jobs advisor (which apparently sounds a lot like "czar" if you're a right-winger, but is actually not in his title), co-founded Color of Change has been used to try to portray this an Astroturf campaign coming from the White House.

Jones no longer works for the organization and the group's executive director told the AP that Jones was not told about the campaign before it was made public.

The Defend Glenn site quotes World Net Daily extensively, calling Jones a radical and self-described black nationalist. That's a common distortion, coming from a 2005 article from East Bay Express. The article describes how "Van Jones renounced his rowdy black nationalism on the way toward becoming an influential leader of the new progressive politics."

So, yeah. He's clearly the "radical communist and black nationalist leader" World Net Daily claims he is. Apparently Beck has made similar claims about Jones (which certainly doesn't surprise me) and that constitutes proof of a motive for Color of Change to criticize the program.

Similarly, this Newsmax article takes several confusingly big leaps insisting Color of Change is hypocritical because they sell a T-shirt that says "Kanye was right."

As illustrated above, logic is not the greatest attribute of this group. But they still manage to have some advertisers on the defensive.

Some have been saying they never specifically advertised on Beck's show, so they technically didn't pull anything from anywhere. This is being distorted by Beck supporters to mean they are denying having pulled the ads altogether. Others are saying that they were not influenced specifically by Color of Change, as is the case with cheese-maker Sargento, which said that they do not wish to be associated with "hateful speech." This too is being claimed as a victory by Beck supporters.

It all seems so silly, but these people do consume a great deal of cheese. This comment on DefendGlenn.com really got me: "We will never... EVER... buy Sargento again. And in this family of 8 that is a LOT of cheese, believe me."

I mean, how can you argue with that?

Whether or not there is an impending crash in dairy prices, Beck returns to sub-primetime this afternoon. On his first show back, will we get the angry man? Or the weepy one?

I'm betting on the holy-than-thou victim. With all these groupies out there willing to take up his cause of being paid to make things up about the president on a national stage, he doesn't have to lash out.

On a larger level, I'd venture to say that Beck is doing for Fox what Defend Glen Beck and other boycott boycotters are doing for the talk show host himself. Just as Beck would be laughed at for defending himself with the fervor that these loyal viewers have cooked up for him, Fox News would be thoroughly discredited for calling the president a racist. Then all these companies that merely moved their ads to other shows on Fox would have to admit that they're courting the bigot vote.

Thankfully, none of that unpleasantness is necessary. Enjoy the show.

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

Technorati Tags: Analysis glenn beck beck racist bigot obama boycott counter support fox news GEICO sargento wal-mart ad advertiser