Air America's Ad Blacklisters Throwing Money At Right Wing Talk

Three years ago, a group of corporate advertisers informed ABC that they didn't want their commercials run during Air America programming. Media Matters reports that those companies will run ads during conservative shows.

In 2009, General Electric, Farmer's Insurance and Office Depot have financially supported Glenn Beck's racism and threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the radio; Bayer, Chattem Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth have given Lou Dobbs money to continue his radio-based support for the Birther conspiracy theorists and his portrayal of the current Administration as alternately Socialist, Fascist and Communist; and Home Depot, JC Penney's and Office Depot are helping provide Rush Limbaugh promote his racist, divisive commentary on a daily basis.

That doesn't even include the companies that advertise during Glenn Beck's or Lou Dobbs' television shows, which additionally includes the likes of Bayer, Wal-Mart and Nestlé.

While advertising is supposedly just a way to convince consumers to purchase products, these corporations' histories of political contributions and advocacy--in addition to their stated preferences to have their products associated with Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh rather than Rachel Maddow or Ron Reagan--reflects less a clear-eyed view of consumer preferences than it does support for conservatives and conservative causes.

Take General Electric, a supporter of both Glenn Beck's radio and television programming. In the 2006 election cycle, when they first blacklisted Air America's programming, their PAC's political contributions were two-thirds in favor of Republicans. In 2008, after the takeover of the House by Democrats and while Barack Obama's win was clearly telegraphed, GE continued to favor Republicans with contributions disproportionate to their power in Washington, giving them 48 percent of the PAC's donations. Only now that GE has nowhere else to turn, their donations for the 2010 election cycle are going two-thirds of the time to Democrats. To the victors go the spoils, I guess--as long as they can spend at least an equal amount of money supporting media programming intended to derail the agenda.

Zurich Insurance, the parent company of Farmers (another tried-and-true Beck sponsor), works much the same way. In 2006, 71 percent of their PAC's donations went to Republican candidates; 53 percent went to Republicans in 2008; and, apparently disheartened by the last election, they haven't yet given a dime for 2010. Office Depot--which supports both Beck's and Limbuagh's radio programs--doesn't apparently have a PAC, but their CEO Steve Odland gave the maximum contribution to Mitt Romney last year.

While most corporate PACs, including Wal-Mart, Bayer and Wyeth, have eased off on their contributions to Republican candidates since the Democratic resurgence 2006, Limbaugh supporters Home Depot and JC Penney have not. In 2006, their PACs gave 71 and 85 percent of their contributions, respectively, to Republicans, despite Democratic control of both Houses of Congress and the White House, their PACs have, to date, given 51 and 100 percent of their contributions of Republicans for the 2010 election cycle.

While undoubtedly those companies are still happy to take money from liberal consumers, they don't want to be associated with political programming if it skews liberal--and they're more than happy to take that money from the pockets of liberals and use it to support Glenn Beck,

Originally posted at Air America.com

Comments

[flacon]

It's basic economics people. Advertisers are looking for the biggest bang for their ad dollars. If Air America had the listeners, the $$ would flow.

Many of you hate the message, but you have to admit Rush is a master at what he does. He's clearly enjoying himself and that separates him from much of his left wing counterparts.

[quindy]

Wonderful. Expose as many of them as you can so we can boycott them sooner rather than later. And if we all send those companies a friendly e-mail telling them why we boycott them, maybe somebody will start listening.

[pmag88]

Great article on a very important topic. I hope that it prompts others to do their own investigations into how the media responds to pressure from advertisers and parent corporations to skew the information we have access to. Peronsally, I think that sometimes it is appropriate and correct for advertisers to lean on people when they go too far, but it's a slipperly slope. The best we can do is to find out what information is being filtered and why. From there it's up to us to decide if it's fair or not. Thanks for writing this article.

[Virgil Kane]

Who cares? They can have their ads run during whoever's show they want.

[kindofblue]

But we don't have to buy their products. Who cares?

[Rrhain]

Indeed. And we, in turn, can be sure to avoid their products.

[LMPE]

This is no surprise.

[luziannagirl]

That does it! Been looking for an excuse to not shop at Office Depot, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart!

And aspirin is aspirin .

[Subtext]

I completely agree with Bramble8 and most of the posters here - wonderful work - keep it up!

[larry278]

Your blog about black listing advertisers is another reason to use a PC for entertainment, news & comment. I gave up listening to talk radio 15-20 years ago & listening to local commercial stations. I used local public stations to avoid the constant commercials & I used my tape & CD players when the public stations had fund drives for 90 of their time was devoted to raising money.
Since I get my music & news via PC-I never use commercial stations nor talk radio. You can easily ignore ads if you use a PC. I get the books, clothes, etc that I want by using my PC. There a # of progressive sites which quickly give me the nat'l & int'l news which interests me far faster than TV, radia or print could do it.
In the event I buy anything, I'll check your black list. No need to buy from firms which finance reactionary talking heads. BTW, GE has been on liberal black lists since 1948. I have never bought anything made by GE or its many operations. Liberal black lists are encyclopedic. That is a help.

[AceInTheHole]

This primarily about getting the most eyeballs attention, because most of these same advertisers never shy away from , when they can afford it, to advertise in on around the Oprah Show. And of course, it is very evident that Randi Rhodes, as good as she is, is far from being an Oprah.

[writingprincess]

Is Air America still in existence? Wow. Thought it was dead. Probably saved by the government of course.

[drkazmd65]

Nope,... still on and still streaming for those of us that don't have a local airwave carrier available.

I still have them on at home at least 1-2 nights/week. I do miss some of the old, 'original' shows though. Although,.­.. it is good to see Al Franken in the Senate.

[larry278]

ur wrong on all counts, writing princess. air america lives sans gov't funds. u trollz r clumsy & always wrong. whomever pays u when HP posts ur comments could cut the rates they pay u. since 9/15/08 many who paid trolls have gone broke. there r far fewer sugar daddies or mommies to pay u trollz & they can't pay u much. but, hey, if you can't work for wages, u can be a troll & hope for a few cents pay for ur incorrect, nonsense. then 2, there's always dumpster dining & stealing from donations boxes charities use. u can manage to exist that way.

[hughbetcha]

What are you actually talking about?

[hopeychange]

What you fail to realize is advertising isnt about supporting the message of the program during which your ad appears, its about reaching as many people as possible. Advertisers arent endorsers.

Right wing talk and TV gets significantly higher viewiers/listeners. As much as that may annoy you, its true. As an advertiser if you are trying to reach as many people as possible, thats the better investment.

The Air American affiliate in my home town closed down because they were unable to sell ad spots. Their ratings were a fraction of the local right wing AM station and it just wasn't smart to buy ad time there. A friend worked at the station and told me they had over 50% of their ad spots unsold in the months before they ditched Air America.

[dynwit]

it's not quite that simple. rw talk radio shows are given away free to local radio stations with advertising bundled intact, a real moneymaker for local stations. hence there are more rw radio shows. whether or not they have more listeners than do other programs actually doesn't matter because the station still makes a profit even if no one's listening.

[luziannagirl]

Advertisers may not be endorsers, but that's the perception of most of those at which ads are aimed. So, it's defacto reality.

And I've heard that same thing abt Air America and why it was cancelled in so many markets. I'm not sure I entirely buy it.

[MaryKathO]

If only that were true! Check your sources more clearly, 'hopeychange' cause the reason the ads do not sell is because most of the Air America stations are way up the dial, on 1280 and up and nearly impossible to get clear reception. This is no accident. We get virtually NO signal from where our Air America affiliate is (1360AM) and almost all of the complaints from prospective advertisers is due to the inability to even receive the station. My community is desperate for Liberal/Progressive talk. We have 4 major Universities within 80 miles of each other and there is a definite liberal bent in the area. I am unable to tune into my station on tradtional radio. I listen to my Lib/Prog station via satellite. The deck is stacked...­the de-regulation of radio and television licenses has served to kill off the competition. The 'righties' have the corporate heads and cash on their side. We never had a chance.

[hopeychange]

That high up on the dial excuse is lame. The lefty talk was lower than the right talk in my current town and where I moved here from. The truth is no one wants to listen to the hate filled rants and vitriol of people like Randi Rhodes. Its idiotic, uninformed, and a huge waste of time.

[DevonTexas]

It's confusing that GE owns MSNBC and GE corporation is the target of O'reilly because he thinks they are supporting left-wingers when they are actually supporting right-wingers. Or, perhaps they have it both ways. Strange.

[HAlexandria]

General Electric,B­ayer,Chatt­em Pharmaceuticals, Wyeth,Home Depot,JC Penney's , Office Depot,Wal-Mart, Nestlé, and Zurich Insurance

All on my personal blacklist, some were already, a few just have crappy products so I wouldn't patronize them any ways.

[Bramble8]

The more these advertisers are exposed to the public the better. Keep it up.

[pckatz]

I think we progressives should start boycotting all advertisers on the Fix news channel, and the Rush Limbaugh Show. We can vote with our dollars, and make it known that way that they are supporting the incendiary right wing rhetoric and it is not acceptable to us. We did win the election, and there really are more of us than them, they are so noisy right now though, you never know it. Let's make it known!

[hughbetcha]

Dream on.