AmericaBlog: Has Home Depot Cried Uncle???

[KharmaTrain]

For those following the attempts to get Home Despot Depot to drop it's advertising on his Faux hatefest may have hit paydirt:

http://www.americablog.com/2007/07/breaking-home-depot-dumps-oreilly-we.html

Home Depot seems to have had a change of heart. They're now unequivocally telling their customers that they will not advertise on Bill O'Reilly's show. Oddly, however, they're now also claiming that they never advertised on O'Reilly's show.
From: Jarvis, Ron @homedepot.com]
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 3:00 PM
To: JH
Subject: RE: PULL SUPPORT FOR OREILLY

Thank you for your email , we will not and have not advertised on the Bill O’Reilly show.
And here's another:

<snip>

If that's correct, that's a big chunk of coin gone from BillO's show...along with Lowes dropping last week. Here's hoping Faux opinion keeps it up...they'll be running "Girls Gone Wild" infomercials soon.

Discuss...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. Yeah, but they're probably just faking.

We better give them some more purple nurples.

[Psephos]

2. Soon, this will engender red customers pressuring blue media

I don't see how diminution of vigorous and even raw debate is in anyone's best interests. I have a choice not to watch Fox, and I don't. Advertisers there are not hawking an agenda, they're trying to sell faucets and chicken wire. Exactly the same as on CNN, et al.

Conservatism and liberalism are genetically-linked traits. There are large numbers of both kinds of people because, over evolutionary time, this produced a social good. Otherwise, Nature would have edited out one type or the other through natural selection.

In briefest summary, conservatives protect proven methods and ideas. The prehistoric tribe needed the tried-and-true as a safe basic set of survival skills. Liberals want to try new ideas, with a vision of improving everyone's lot. The prehistoric tribe needed that just as much, to provide adaptation to changing circumstances.

To put it in starkest terms: we need both kinds of people. This isn't a theory, it's an evolutionary fact proven by the stable maintenance of both types in the genome over time. That can't happen randomly.

The idea that conservatives are stingy and don't care about others is a stereotype. So is the idea that liberals are reckless and feckless. We'd do better without the stereotypes, and we'd do better if ideas from both styles of thinking remained in the national conversation.

I'm a liberal. I'm not well-equipped to understand the conservative mind, but I'm not interested in squelching it, and then invoking the law of unintended consequences when conservatives start using the same tactics against us.

Advertising supports our media. The practical effect of this short-sighted approach will be to shrink media and enforce "correct" thinking.

[gratuitous]

4. I will heartily agree with you

As soon as you point me to a show on the "liberal" side of things that compares with Bill O'Reilly in terms of content, nationwide coverage, and level of vitriol aimed at large majorities of the population, as well as O'Reilly's other, personal peccadillos.

[Psephos]

8. There's plenty on both sides

Unfortunately, the psychology of in-group identification causes us to filter that which doesn't fit our preconceptions, and magnify that which does. We literally can't believe it because most of the contrary evidence doesn't make past the filter.

I love AAR but it's struck me more than once how much some of those shows (especially Randi back in the day) must sound to red-staters like Limpballs or O'Lielly sound to us.

You might try this link for an interesting take:

http://tedrall.com/2005_02_01_archive.html#110944822456502796

Scroll down a couple paragraphs.

Meanwhile, here's a clue I've learned that signals the onset of filtering: when you feel righteous anger bubbling up, your critical faculties are in retreat. As hard as it is, we must keep our ears open to things we don't like. The alternative is a cult where only approved ideas are tolerated.

These are hard things to say and do, but they must be said and done or we will cease to be liberals.

"The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment."
- Bertrand Russell

[gratuitous]

11. "Plenty," but . . .

You just can't provide any examples. Convenient, that.

[Psephos]

17. ???? Did you follow the link?

I'm not trying to make a court case here. Do your own homework. It's naive or worse to think this disease of hate of the out-group somehow cleaves along political lines.

It comes from a way deeper place than that, and until it's fixed, our country is fucked.

[gratuitous]

24. Yes, a two year old link to a Ted Rall site

And while you may not believe it, Ted Rall is hardly in Bill O'Reilly's league, and certainly doesn't have the kind of heavy-hitting advertisers that plunk their money down to advertise on Ted Rall's web site like they do for O'Reilly's show. And holding advertisers to account for where they advertise is hardly short-sighted, and is indeed a necessary corrective to the overweening power wielded in our society by corporate wealth.

I'm not asking you to make a court case, I'm asking you to name anyone with O'Reilly's media heft on the left who has anywhere near his media footprint, who indulges in similar name-calling, bullying and general stinkiness as Billo does. Because such a creature doesn't exist in the United States, and your concern that red customers will similarly pressure blue media strikes me as fake parallelism so popular with a certain strain in our society, but rejected by right-thinking people everywhere.

No hate, just fact.

[KharmaTrain]

5. What Do You Think Started This?

I've been duped, I bought plane tickets on Jet Blue as support for them being a sponsor of Yearly Kos...that was until O'Reilly and Faux opinion pressured Jet Blue to drop their advertising of the YKos convention. That's what started this.

There's also a matter of exposing a political propaganda machine that operates as a "news operation" and has pushed misinformation that millions assumed to be true (Iraq=9/11). This is exposing the tactics of an organization that is attempting to destroy any and all competitors and disenting views. Do you think its right for Faux to harass Kos like it did?

Right now, much of Progressive media and radio survives on crumbs. Tip jars and "Hooked On Phonics" commercials are the major sources of revenue for websites and radio stations. It's the lack of this corporate advertising (as most broadcast operations are dominated by a handful of large corporations...most with similar agendas to Faux) that have monopolized the airwaves, the debate and the free flow of information.

The real point here is to finally expose Faux opinion for being that. They pretend to be a legitimate news operation...it's time to stop calling the National Observer the New York Times.

[Psephos]

10. Kharma, not even pugs think Fox is "Fair and Balanced"

Gimme a break. It's the conservative news channel. We have our own. Everyone knows it.

Better we have a system where everyone's view gets heard (and a chance to be shot down) rather than we have an approved list of viewpoints and all the suppression apparatus that goes with it. Didn't the world try that last century? Didn't work out very well, you know?

[KharmaTrain]

12. New Century, New Technology, Old Games

Now does Faux say it's a "Conservative News Channel"? Or do they even advertise they represent a Conservative view? No...they pretend to be "fair and balanced" and use that monicker to cover their partisan and prefered treatment. This is a network that bought its way onto your television and has manipulated its political power to assure a dominance that excludes competition...or other voices from being heard.

There's also the air of legitimacy that this "fair and balanced" charade gives them. The Inquirer has a better record of credibility than Faux. Our military is forced to watch this propaganda as "news" and many others tread lightly around this 900 pound gorilla that mixes News with Opinion and through its tabloid approach has affected the other cable networks that also paid their way into your living room.

Hopefully Faux's attempt to supress Kos and other Progressive voices and websites will continue to backfire.

While I'm a strong advocate of a free and open media where all voices can be heard, Faux operates in 180 degrees of that ideal.

Cheers...

[Horse with no Name]

14. We have our own?

We have ONE newsman that tells the truth. Out of ALL the channels--ONE HOUR a day is dedicated to truth-telling.
How can you EVEN say we have our "own"?
You're nuts.

[Psephos]

16. I'm not nuts

and I don't care for the implication that because we don't share the identical slice of reality, somehow I'm insane and you're sober and clear-thinking.

Tolerance is a liberal trait. I'd like to keep it that way.

[Horse with no Name]

18. PROVE your assertion that we have a "liberal" TV news channel

I dare you.

[Psephos]

19. I'm leaving for work

try google in the meantime

[Horse with no Name]

20. No. You laid out a stinky pile of lying shit

YOU prove it.

[WhiteTara]

23. there's a difference between hate mongering and

lying and "conservative".

I think they should be linked to the content of the programs as only certain accounts are allowed to air commercials (I'm thinking MoveOn's struggle to get air time). JMHO

[Junkdrawer]

26. ROTFLOL

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:


Please, please, you're killing me....

[Mr. Ected]

3. Arthur Blank Can't Afford O'Leilly AND Michael Vick

One fights dogs for a hobby.

The other one fights truth for a living.

[Junkdrawer]

6. Home Despot Motto: "When all else fails, Lie Your Ass Off"

"(liberals are too dumb to notice)"

[rocktivity]

7. They might be drawing a distinction between Bill's radio and TV shows

:shrug:
rocknation

[KharmaTrain]

13. One Step At A Time...

I doubt O'Reilly's radio show does much national advertising. He's on at fringe times in most markets.

But I do see your point. I wouldn't put it past Home Despot Depot from trying to say they pulled spots from the radio and still throw the big coin onto the TV. I just don't think that's the case here. I'm sure Aravosis isn't letting the difference go un-noticed...nor Kos.

Cheers...

[Bluzmann57]

15. Billo's show is on from 11AM-2PM here in eastern Iowa

At the same time as limbaugh's show. But Billo is often interrupted by Cubs and White Sox games.

[KharmaTrain]

21. And I'll Bet He's Not On WMT

As in real estate, radio money is location, location, location. The time the show is on and the station that airs it. Obviously, your local station makes more money with baseball than hot air...and probably they're carrying it as part of a network affiliation agreement that enables the station to get cheap programming.

Here in Chicago, the last I heard, his radio circus is buried late at night...outside of the ratings periods and strictly to give the syndicator, owned by the same company that owns the Chicago station, the "market coverage".

[Bluzmann57]

22. No he's not.

It's a small relatively low powered station called KJOC, formerly KSTT back in the glory days. I have actually called them several times and informed them that their Cubs coverage should be improved because that is the one and only thing they have worth listening to. They keep saying "We'll look into it" and stuff like that.

[KharmaTrain]

25. The Station Operates In A Closet....Literally

I recall KSTT as a great Top 40 station...but today they're just one of a dozen Quad City stations under a corporate owner Cumulus media that is an absentee landlord...just keeping the signal going to keep the license alive and prop up the value of their other properties. There's probably more people who work at your nearby self-serve gas station than operate that station with little to no local programming.

Too bad WKBF dropped Air America...but they're also another "robot chicken" radio station now.

Cheers...

[Bluzmann57]

27. WKBF is a Spanish language station

Which I find humorous because some guy who graduated from Bob Jones University bought it and tried to change it over to right wing religious crap. It didn't fly, so now there is Hispanic programming as well as our local Minor League baseball team.

[JacquesMolay]

9. Great stuff, they're not as smug as they were ...

... a few days ago. Looks like Lowe's got the ball rolling.