Three of the top recommended diaries at Daily Kos right now are about sponsors pulling their support for Glenn Beck’s television show on FOX News. Geico, Sargento Cheese, and Men’s Wearhouse have all dropped Glenn Beck. Next in line are Wal*Mart, State Farm Insurance, Red Lobster, and Travelocity.
I won’t be giving any of my money to those corporations until they drop their sponsorship of Glenn Beck. Any meathead can get good ratings if they are willing to lie enough to a substantial group of people who want to hear lies. Glenn Beck isn’t talented. He’s a buffoon who caters to buffoons. If people want to consume crap, that’s their right. But fantasizing about poisoning the Speaker of the House and arousing race-hatred of the President of the United States are actions that go beyond entertaining the addled. Those are unacceptable actions that can inspire people to violence. Any corporation that sponsors Glenn Beck could discover that they’ve sponsored an act of political violence. And where would they be then?
This isn’t a free speech issue. This is about corporate sponsorship. Do you want your product to be associated with race-hatred and political violence? Really?
News Corp employs Glenn Beck for two reasons. First, he generates ratings which translates into corporate sponsorship. Second, he makes people stupid and angry so that they will oppose the Democrats agenda. FOX News is not a news organization. They are a corporation with a political agenda. If FOX doesn’t drop Glenn Beck’s show, then all sponsorship of FOX News broadcasting will become suspect. The Bill O’Reilly’s of the world are bad enough. But Glenn Beck is off the charts. No one should willingly be supportive of what he is doing.
