Air America faced advertiser blacklist?

October 31, 2006

It’s no secret that Air America has experienced financial troubles, in part because of insufficient advertising revenue. It is possible, however, that the game was fixed against them for ideological reasons?

An internal ABC Radio Networks memo obtained by Media Matters for America, originally from a listener to The Peter B. Collins Show, indicates that nearly 100 ABC advertisers insist that their commercials be blacked out on Air America Radio affiliates. According to the memo, the advertisers insist that “NONE of their commercials air during AIR AMERICA programming.” Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy.

Media Matters posted a large, readable copy of the memo online.

If anyone can think of an innocuous explanation, I’m anxious to hear it.

Well, I will be finding out why B of A and other businesses I have patronized are on this list, if I can, and withholding my consuming dollars from these businesses, and writing to tell them why. This is a schonde.

  • why? Because they don’t want to be associated with the hate and extremism that airs on Air America.

    duh

  • they’re all criminals who’ll stop at nothing–we already know this. i keep thinking that i couldn’t be more disgusted but then again, i always am.

  • Oh, I’m sure it is because B of A and Fed Ex don’t want terrorists symopathizers as customers. The Navy is pretty self explanatiory. First, lots of gays are lefties so why waste the time on Air America. 2) The armed forces are really not facing any problems with enlistment. No need to appeal to the masses. Not like we are at war.

    When DEMS get a hold of Congress (in 7 days) we are going to see a whole lot of dirty laundry form years of corruption.

  • That major corporations don’t advertise with Air America is pretty obvious. I think the bigger question is whether they operated independently or was there any collusion between them and the higher-ups in the Republican party.

  • why the hell are morningstar foods, iams, and friggin REI on that list? it seems like liberals would be their target demographics.

  • “why? Because they don’t want to be associated with the hate and extremism that airs on Air America.

    duh”

    Comment by nml — 10/31/2006 @ 3:25 pm

    Well don’t get your nose all out of joint when as the old saying goes “what goes around comes around”.

  • Fairly standard and long-time practice.

    Just ask lefty mags like The Nation or Harper’s about their advertiser base. Pretty tough for them too.

    Also look for commercials from companies like Boeing that don’t less sell anything to consumers and that literraly don’t need to advertise. You’ll find them in the Weekly Standard, on CNN, etc. It’s a direct subsidy.

    Advertisement budgets have always been corporations’ primary mean over the media, way ahead of direct ownership.

  • My first thought was that Clinton did it, but over 90 companies? I hope someone in media-land (Cafferty, Olberman, are you out there?) realizes that an explanation for what went on here needs to be given.

  • So they didn’t want to advertise of AA. I don’t what the issue is.
    It’s like if I didn’t want to advertise here.

    I don’t know where BoA stands politically, I assuming on the right, but I do know. I bank with them is because they give back a LOT to my community, Houston. I have several friends that work for them and they have been succeeding in giving otherwise unqualified (poor) candidates loans that other banks turn away. You can get rates in poor neighborhoods below prime from BoA, no one else is doing that. It’s imagine improvement, and it’s working really well. And it’s bringing ownership to the inner city which improves the areas considerably.

    They sponsor all sorts of inner city items, from walks/runs to charity events.

    BoA is one of the good guys and I don’t see the correlation between not wanting to advertise on AA, which has a miniscule audience to whatever innuendo was being made. I would never advertise with Rush.

    The rest of the list are pretty obvious anti-left groups, why would they advertise on something they do not support. Not really sure where FedEx fits into it, but I would imagine some sort of regulatory area that republicans probably keep easy for them.

  • Well, folks, I guess this gives us a clear picture of who wants to get boycotted!

    I mean, seriously, how many of these companies don’t get significant revenue from Democrats? Not only that, how many of them have competitors who would love to get our business instead?

    Seriously, I think this is one of those perfect netroots issues. Hit these companies with well-organized boycotting (no need for protests, simple closure of wallets is far more effective).

    And, on the flip, WTF is the Navy doing on this list? I thought the services were supposed to be non-partisan. Something blatantly political like this deserves an investigation.

  • I listen to Air America almost everyday. If I were an advertiser, I wouldn’t want my ad running during Franken or what’s her face Randi. From my perspective, they’re not much better than tub of lard Limbaugh. They can be just as vile and one sided. They can be just as black and white about issues that are really quite nuanced. I don’t blame the advertisers one bit.

  • If you look at the memo on Media Matters, there is a number on if for Nicole someone. It is a 212 area code. I called Nicole, and I got her voicemail and left a message. telling her which companies I will be boycotting. Suggest you all do the same. She’ll love it I’m sure.

  • This argument isn’t making sense to me. Advertisers don’t get to pick who their ads run with ??

    Let’s take the Navy, well I would imagine their budget is fairly small, do you think they get more recruits from the left or right radio talk shows? So why not invest in shows that produce more results.

    It’s like Tampax advertising during the Super Bowl.

    I’m just not seeing outrage and the boycott business.

  • Perhaps it has something to do with associations listeners might draw. Not, for instance, “Red Lobster = liberal”, but “Red Lobster = banckruptcy”. While there’s such a thing as a “lovable loser”, AAR is not lovable.

    X18 873 Z981 BNR83

  • Since you ultra-liberal folks ‘love’ corporations so much, why the heck would you think they would want to advertise on “your” radio network? I mean, none of you Walmart haters ever step foot in Walmart (right?) so why would Walmart want to waste their ad dollars in a mdeium that attracts Walmart haters (assuming the real reason wasn’t due to the network’s dismal ratings).

    P.S. This is not a liberal media issue. The medium was certainly liberal, just seems not enough companies found it to be an attractive venue to spend their valuable ad dollars.

  • I wanted Air America to succeed, but find it shallow, self-congratulatory (like Limbaugh) and noisy. Even or perhaps mostly Franken — some of whose interviews would be terrific if he’d just shut up. His great galumphing ego gets really tiresome.

    Advertising — and programming — decisions are and always will be about money and markets. Greed cometh before politics except insofar as politics serveth greed.

    Still, I’m wondering how I can boycott the US Post Office!

  • I can’t imagine an innocuous explanation. The motives behind these corporate sponsors NOT sponsoring AAR is not that transparent. A reasonable person might suspect something sinister is afoot, but up appears a right-wing-nut to justify, rationalize and ultimately marginalize a reasonable suspicion. In their world: “if there is no smoke–there is no fire”.

    In some respects AAR may be a very bad thing for America; if it succeeds and that success is measured in terms of it’s polarizing affect on a splintering society. It does not have to be thus. For good reason, there are a lot of po’ed people out there, weary of being spoon fed the same old political spin that a reasonable person might suspect was, huh.. not correct, inaccurate or otherwise not good for the commonweal. Is it time to revisit the Fairness Doctrine? What happened to it?

    There is absolutely no alternative to AAR in my part of the country. I want a legible list of the blackballers. And I’m probably gonna go get my self blacklisted from ever working around here again, but I am going to tender each one of the local surrogates for the blackballers a personal note from me advising them of my refusal to do business with them until I hear a commercial on AAR from them. I will encourage my likeminded friends to do the same; and will argue with my otherwise minded friends it is the Right thing to do.

  • Before one goes off here I would suggest you check something. Do they also prohibit airing in Rush and conservative shows. I am in the radio business and I have seen traffic affidavits that prohibited the airing of their commercials on any controversial show , including Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh. Still doesn’t make it any better but it may be more about avoiding controversy of any kind. I could be wrong here but I would want to check this detail first. In any case it certainly is more of a job to sell a liberal program rather than a conservative one. That just means we have to work harder!

  • Actually, advertisers can and often do pick what programming they want to be associated with. Otherwise, the idea of boycotting a company because they advertise during a “questionnable” show [like that “Will and Grace”] would have no meaning. It shouldn’t be at all surprising that large corporations, the CEOs of which fuck supermodels on the enormous piles of money they make [OK, I’m generalizing] and who benefit wildly from a conservative led government, would want to freeze out liberal radio, which questions CEO salaries and corporate responsibility while vilifying consumerism.

    And I’ve listened to both AA and EIB, nml. Rush and his ilk have the market on hate and extremism. Just look at the Michael J Fox thing.

    And, if you’re talking about boycotting, why stop at those who refuse to advertise on AA? We should really be boycotting those who advertise on conservative talk radio. Like Bose and Gold Bond Medicated Powder.

  • As a good liberal, I support Air America and hope it is on the air for many years to come. However, I could only support a boycott against these companies if it is shown that they do advertise on right-wing programs like Rush, Sean Hannity, etc. It is quite possible that some of these companies choose not to advertise on either left or right wing radio for fear that they might turn off 50% of their potential customers.

    Can someone post a list that shows which of these companies are known to advertise on right wing radio?

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