Margaret Sullivan, who is the Washington Post's media critic, is calling for an alternative to increased government regulation of Fox News. She argues that a pressure campaign launched by citizens could convince advertisers to abandon the network, hurting its bottom line. And as she asserts, the profit motive -- not politics -- is the only thing Fox executives really care about.
There is precedent here. As the Post reported recently, a whole host of big advertisers, including General Electric, AT&T, Comcast, Honeywell, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Verizon, have all said that said they would suspend donations to members of Congress who voted against certifying Joe Biden as president.
And this kind of pocketbook pressure on Fox would be less intrusive on our values than new government regulation, though I still suspect greater control over the type of content that is allowed to flow over mass media outlets is going to be necessary.
One point for me to clarify is that regulation is not necessarily in conflict with the First Amendment, which does not allow seditious, traitorous, libelous or defamatory speech in any case. But the remedies when such speech appears have traditionally been lawsuits brought by the aggrieved person.
Meanwhile, consumer boycotts have long been a tool used by activists to achieve social change. We need only to think back to the salad boycott led by Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in the early 1970s. I don't think iceberg lettuce has ever fully recovered its appeal.
In any event, Sullivan's column is a timely reminder that in a capitalist society, while our votes at the ballot box do matter, sometimes our votes with our pocketbooks can matter even more. A sustained campaign to pressure Fox's main advertisers to demand an end to the extremist content that has dominated its programming in recent years might just work.
In that context, here are the top ten Fox advertisers from the most recent report I could find (Statista, 2018) -- Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Otezla, South Beach Diet, Smile Direct Club, GEICO, Liberty Mutual, Sleep Number, Inogen and My Pillow.
(Thanks to Margaret Sullivan and my friends Howard Kohn, Joel Kirshenbaum and Susan Zakin, who all helped with today's post.)
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The multiple plagues -- Covid, insurrection, hate speech, economic distress, racism, wealth inequality, climate change -- require all of our energy to fight. We also need our artists at this moment and they are stepping up one by one.
Let's start with two from California:
Twenty-two-year-old Amanda Gorman's poem at the inauguration inspired us all.
Now comes 75-year-old John Fogerty, from Creedence Clearwater Revival fame, and his beautiful song, "Weeping in the Promised Land." (Complete lyrics below.)
For the past year, I've been following Fogerty as he releases YouTube videos of musical jams with his children under the name "Fogerty's Factory." They are a joy to see, one family singing together to try and make the world a better place.
Oh yeah, one of these days, I hope someone will take me out to the site of one my favorite old-time CCR songs, "Lodi"...
The headlines:
* Pennsylvania Lawmaker Played Key Role in Trump’s Plot to Oust Acting Attorney General -- The congressman’s involvement underlined how far the former president was willing to go to overturn the election, and Democratic lawmakers have begun calling for investigations into those efforts. (NYT)
* Capitol attack expected to spur crackdown on domestic extremists -- The Jan. 6 attack showed that violent extremism is not a threat exclusively imported from foreign shores. Law enforcement and security officials, experts say, will face significant legal, political and cultural hurdles to battle a disease that seems to have taken hold in the nation’s nervous system. (WashPo)
* U.S. carrier group enters South China Sea amid Taiwan tensions (Reuters)
* 38 Capitol Police officers test positive for Covid-19 after Capitol riot (CNN)
* In France, growing alarm over students’ well-being as pandemic pushes some to the brink (WashPo)
* Surge of Student Suicides Pushes Las Vegas Schools to Reopen (NYT)
* Biden faces a tougher task than any president but Lincoln (WashPo)
* Pro-Navalny Protests Sweep Russia in Challenge to Putin -- The protests moved across time zones and more than 3,000 people were arrested in at least 109 cities, signaling widespread fatigue with the corruption-plagued political order presided over by President Vladimir V. Putin. (NYT)
* Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Sunday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and that the symptoms are mild. (AP)
* Young people join protests in Russia (NHK)
* Baseball’s Hall of Fame Vote Becomes a Test of ‘Character Clause’ -- No one may be inducted this year. (WSJ)
* Every Cabinet job is about climate change now (WashPo)* White House expected to lift transgender ban in military as early as Monday (CNN) * Barred From U.S. Under Trump, Muslims Exult in Biden’s Open Door (NYT)* New Report Finds Computers Actually Outpaced Human Intelligence Back With Commodore 64 (The Onion) |
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Big news around here is I had my first haircut since long before the pandemic yesterday, courtesy of my 9-year-old granddaughter, Sophia. It had been well below my shoulders in length; now I'm more suited for prime time should anyone from central casting call.
Weeping in the Promised Land
Satan's dark angels are falling from the sky
Weeping in the Promised Land
Children of God, he turns into stone
Sick and the weak, he dancing on their bones
Pharaoh shouting down the medicine man
Weeping in the Promised Land
Weeping in the Promised Land
Hissing and spewing, it's power that he seeks
Weeping in the Promised Land
With dread in their eyes, all the nurses are crying
So much sorrow, so much dying
Pharaoh keep a-preaching but he never had a plan
Weeping in the Promised Land
Weeping in the Promised Land
Weeping in the Promised Land
You say, weeping, weeping
Weeping in the Promised Land
Weeping in the Promised Land
Shoot you in your bed just like they done before
Weeping in the Promised Land
Out in the street, on your neck with a knee
All the people are crying your last words, "I can't breathe"
And a white judge say, "There been no crime here today"
Weeping in the Promised Land
Weeping in the Promised Land
Weeping in the Promised Land
You say, weeping, weeping
Weeping in the Promised Land
Weeping in the Promised Land
Yeah, weeping, weeping
Weeping in the Promised Land
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