|
Staples Boycotts Sinclair; Will It Boycott CBS?
Staples, the office supply retailer, said it will stop advertising on Sinclair news broadcasts, after liberal activists complained that Sinclair was "placing partisan interest ahead of the public interest" by broadcasting conservative and pro-President Bush commentaries.
| Simple enough. Conservatives can take their business to Staples. |
Staples spokesman Owen Davis told the Washington Post that "concerns expressed by our customers" regarding Sinclair were indeed a factor in Staples decision to withdraw its advertising from the network.
| Customers? More like liberal pressure groups: Last month, the Media Matters-led coalition launched a campaign to change Sinclair's news programming. Charging the broadcaster with ''continued misuse of public airwaves to air one-sided politically charged programming without a counterpoint," the coalition is encouraging Americans to call or e-mail their complaints to advertisers such as Staples, McDonald's Corp., Target Corp., Kraft Foods Inc., and Sprint. While other companies on the coalition's published list of Sinclair advertisers have sent either a stock response or no response at all to 37,000 e-mailed complaints, said Media Matters president David Brock, Staples responded that as of Jan. 10, it would no longer run ads on ''The Point." When the coalition learned of that response, Brock said it confirmed the information with Staples and then issued a press release. ''We hope that something like this could focus attention on the issue," Brock said. ''What we learned this fall is that Sinclair seemed to be susceptive to public pressure." |
| Still simple. Conservatives can now take their business to Office Depot. |
The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative/free market think tank, said it has contacted Staples to ask if Staples will also stop advertising on CBS (or other media) if it receives complaints from customers.
| Conservatives have already for the most part taken their business from See BS... |
It has not yet received a reply. "If Staples wants to avoid supporting political media, it should start by boycotting CBS," said National Center President Amy Ridenour. "Sinclair may irritate some on the left by being openly pro-American, but unlike CBS, it didn't team up with forgers in an attempt to play dirty politics on the eve of the last presidential race." On Sept. 8, two months before the November 2004 election, CBS News ran a fabricated story apparently intended to damage President Bush politically, then failed to correct its reporting until -- in the National Center's words -- CBS and Dan Rather "had become a focus of national derision."
Posted by: Steve 2005-01-06 |
