Posts Tagged ‘CBS
Gary Johnson Slaps CBS with FEC and FCC Complaints Over Debate Shutout
As the media bias commentator here on HillBuzz, I try to help voters understand how media bias works, how to recognize it, and how to tell if your opinions actually belong to you, or if you’re just repeating a meme planted in your head by the Democrat-Controlled Media.
I tend to use the Ron Paul campaign coverage to illustrate this, because bias against his campaign is the most obvious. (Ron Paul is third in fundraising, has won more straw polls than all other GOP candidates, #1 in donations from active duty military, and is polling #2 in Iowa and New Hampshire, and yet, is dead last in media coverage.)
There are two broad categories of media bias: sins of commission and sins of omission. Both are equally effective, but they’re used differently against different GOP candidates.
If a candidate’s closet is stuffed full of skeletons, or even just rumors of skeletons, the Democrat-Controlled Media will go over those skeletons with a microscope, and blast “news” of those skeletons into the ears of GOP voters with bullhorns 24/7 (See Herman Cain).
If a candidate is skeleton-free, and has a powerful message, the Democrat-Controlled Media simply pretends they don’t exist (see Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul and Gary Johnson.)
The most recent example of this kind of exclusionary bias was delivered to us via CBS “News” last week. As has been widely reported, Ron Paul was asked only one question, and got only 89 seconds of airtime, during the one-hour televised portion of the debate. Michelle Bachmann received several more questions, but was rudely cut off during several answers, whereas other candidates (Mitt Romney, Rick Perry) were allowed to speak as long as they cared to. And Gary Johnson was excluded from the debate altogether, despite polling numbers that are similar to those of Rick Santorum, who was included.
This obvious bias has inspired Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign to file official complaints with both the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). His complaint styles the CBS debate as an “illegal campaign contribution”–essentially, an under-the-table in-kind donation to the candidates who were included in the debate and got the most air time. As reported on TheHill.com,
Johnson’s complaint charges that debate sponsor CBS significantly contributed to the candidates who were allowed to participate in the debate, “directly and significantly supporting those candidates it favors, and advocating the nomination of one of their favorites and opposing the nomination of [Johnson], whom CBS evidently disfavors.” [...]
Saturday’s debate, co-hosted by CBS and National Journal, was the first debate to air on broadcast television. According to Johnson’s complaint, “the public owns the airways over which CBS broadcasts, and the public deserves to be free from bias — favoring some candidates over others — as well as illegal support of certain presidential candidates on national network television.”
Given the fact that CBS “News” Political Director John Dickerson knew in advance that Michelle Bachmann wouldn’t get many questions, it does tend to confirm Gary Johnson’s charge that the CBS debate was stage-managed to favor certain candidates over others.
This is just the latest and most obvious effort by the Democrat-Controlled Media to nominate Mitt Romney. As CNN’s Howard Kurtz notes in this segment after the Iowa Straw Poll, “We are in the business of kicking candidates out of the race.”
Sarah Palin on Ron Paul Media Blackout, CBS Debate
H/T LambdaChi.org
The Democrat-Controlled-Media’s bias against GOP candidates who can beat Barack Hussein Obama is getting more apparent every day.
The most blatant recent example was the CBS/National Journal debate in South Carolina, where GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul was allowed to speak for only 89 seconds during the televised hour of the debate, receiving just one question. And Michelle Bachmann’s campaign was inadvertently copied on an email from CBS “News” prior to the debate, in which CBS “News” Political Director John Dickerson admitted that Michelle Bachmann “is not going to get many questions” in the debate (though she did get far more time than GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul).
This effort at media manipulation was so transparent that it became a story unto itself. The best exposé was probably this editorial in the New York Sun.
“A controversy has erupted over the fact that in the CBS debate on foreign policy Congressman Ron Paul got only 90 seconds….We’re not with Dr. Paul on all of his liberty campaign; as a general matter, he’s far too loath to levy the war on terror. But we have covered him on and off for more than 30 years and have come, even when we disagree with him, to respect him, particularly for his tendency to reach deep into the Constitution. He has done this on foreign policy in several important ways, starting with a bill he introduced in Congress within days of the outbreak of the war that erupted on September 11, 2001.
The bill was the first bid in generations to unleash one of the most important of the constitutional war powers, the letter of marque and reprisal, which is an instrument for bringing private parties into the war. The thinking that went into Dr. Paul’s bill deserves a hearing in any debate in which the GOP contenders are going to be grilled on foreign policy….”
The media blackout was even the topic of discussion the next morning on Fox News:
http://youtu.be/PqvvzqB3jsI
In an appearance with Greta van Susteren on Fox News, GOP Frontrunner Sarah Palin notes that Ron Paul, Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum have all been the subject of media blackouts. And she also encourages GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul to keep educating Americans about economic issues:
http://youtu.be/gv1Tn8iSwFg
I have a fantasy that involves Sarah Palin running as Ron Paul’s VP…because the Democrat-Controlled media would tear itself apart in an effort to destroy the ticket.
On the one hand, the Democrat-Controlled Media’s strategy to marginalize Ron Paul’s campaign demands that they downplay the huge crowds he draws at events, the fact that GOP Frontrunner Ron Paul is polling in the top 2 in Iowa and New Hampshire, the constant wins at straw polls, the fact that he’s #3 in fundraising among GOP candidates, and the #1 recipient of donations from active duty military.
However, we all know that the Democrat-Controlled Media is obsessively fascinated with Sarah Palin (remember the bus tour?), and is bent on destroying her. How could they give Sarah Palin enough coverage to destroy her, on the one hand, while simultaneously maintaining radio silence about the top of the ticket on the other?
The more I think about it, the more I love the idea of a Ron Paul/Sarah Palin ticket…
Republican South Carolina Debate: 5 Things You Need to Know from November 12th GOP Debate
Last night, the Republican presidential candidates convened in South Carolina for a debate hosted by CBS. Kevin DuJan breaks down the 5 Things You Need to Know about the debate in case you missed it. Because of terrible coverage and bad broadcasting decisions by CBS, most of the country only saw the first hour of the debate and could not view the shoddy livestream CBS provided for the last half hour.
You can listen to a recap of the debate on The HillBuzz & Mrs. Fox Show HERE.
Republican South Carolina Debate: Live Blog Transcript CBS Debate 11/12/11
What: Republican presidential debate in South Carolina
When: 8pm EST and 7pm CST 11/12/11
Where: Airing on CBS and streamed on CBS.com
Live Blog Transcript as debate airs
POST DEBATE COVERAGE on The HillBuzz & Mrs. Fox Show at 930pm EST and 830pm CST
I will be writing a live blog transcript of this Republican presidential debate as it streams tonight on CBS.com. The last debate — moderated by CNBC — was an absolute disaster because the network did not provide a live stream on the Internet. I have not owned a television in many years and can only watch these debates online, so without a reliable stream from CNBC last time I really had to scramble to provide coverage.
I tried to plan ahead for tonight and asked a friend to find some alternative streams to watch the CBS debate in case anything happens to the CBS.com official stream. Here’s what she found for me:
1. This one is the main to CBS GOP debate streaming:
http://www.cbsnews.com/2718-250_162-1335.html
2. This one is at Shallownation site. Just scroll down to see the video. It’s below the flag image and below some silly advertising:
http://www.shallownation.com/2011/11/06/cbs-republican-presidential-debate-live-stream-video-nov-12-2011-wofford-college-spartanburg-sc/
3. This one is at Ustream:
http://www.ustream.tv/cbsnews
If you know of any other ones — or better ones — please add them to the comment thread below.
What are you looking for in this debate? How do you think the candidates will perform? Are you going to be watching the moderators to see how much they push Willard Mittens Romneycare’s candidacy tonight? Chime in below with your debate expectations and comment on whom you are rooting for and why.
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LIVE BLOG TRANSCRIPT begins at 800pm EST and 7pm CST:
And here we go….
Starts off with a little quote from each candidate….where CBS gives Willard Mittens Romneycare the most quotes…
They are calling it the “Commander in Chief” debate, with the focus on foreign policy.
I can’t even tell you how nice it is to have a debate on a network that will actually provide a livestream that comes through clear and professionally…it’s kind of Heaven after dealing with the CNBC debate issues.
Scott Pelly and Major Dad are the two debate hosts.
Pelly: Presidents deal with crises in their first year — Bay of Pigs, 9/11, etc. — what makes you able to be ready from Day One?
Major Dad: Here are the candidates: when Ron Paul’s name is said, huge yells.
CAIN: Asked about Iran weapon. First thing I would do is assist the opposition movement trying to overthrow the regime. Iranians are not our enemies the REGIME is. We need to get energy independence because Iran uses oil prices as a weapon. Oil is how they afford a nuclear campaign. We need sanctions. I know they have a program and are getting close to that weapon. Economic means is how they are getting the weapon. I would not use military means at this time. We need to deploy our Aegis fleet in that area if they have ballistic missiles.
ROMNEYCARE: This is President Obama’s greatest failing. He did not do what is necessary to deal with Iran. He should have encouraged the dissidents. He gave away our missile defense systems for nothing in time. (Romneycare throws a tantrum here…complaining about the time that he had…he starts shouting at Scott Pelly). Finally the president should have been credible about military action. If we re-elect Barack Obama then Iran will have a nuclear weapon.
It is worth putting in place crippling sanctions and working for regime change, then if nothing else works then use military action. It is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. The current president is not doing anything to stop that. This is folly and I am Mitt Romney and I am throwing a tantrum over running out of time to speak.
GINGRICH: Both of these answers are superior to the current administration. There are number of ways to be smart and a number to be dumb about Iran, and the Obama administration chose all the dumb ones. There are many covert ways to take down Iran using spies and tricks. We should support the Israelis in all they do. We need to break the regime and bring it down economically. And if that does not work, use every means necessary to do that.
PAUL: It is not worth war to prevent the Iranian nuke. I am afraid what is going on right now is similar to Iraq War popaganda. That was all orchestrated. It is not worthwhile, but you get a declaration of War from Congress if you do.
PERRY: Let me answer the previous question and not the one you just asked me. The issue that has not been raised is that this country can sanction the Iranian central bank right now and shut down their economy and Obama needs to make that stand today. Now, let’s complete the mission in Afghanistan. The mission must be completed without a timetable given to the enemy. It is irresponsible from all standpoints. There should be no timetables given to the military. As Commander in Chief I would discuss with commanders on the field and make progress. We should train up the Afghan security forces to protect that citizenry. It is a very complex part of the world and our military is doing the best that it can. We can’t telegraph pullout to the enemy.
SANTORUM: Taliban is not a neutered force yet. They are still a security threat. This is the most important national security issue, the Iranian nuke. All of us should be able to answer that question. We need to put tough sanctions in place for Iran. President Bush and President Obama did not give money to the pro-democracy movement in Iran. Sanctions is not going to be enough. You need to read the IEA report. We should be working with Israel right now. Take out the nuclear capability. We need to stop this before we have a nuclear explosion in Iran and the world changes.
BACHMANN: Surge troops have made a difference, but Obama’s dithering resulted in just 30k troops and if only there had been 40k troops then the military could have dealt with the problem in both provinces, not just the south. There has been improvement down in Khandahar. Obama has made the fatal decision that by next September our troops will be withdrawn.
– NOTE: moderators are interrupting every candidate, this is a bad format for debate –
HUNTSMAN: There is a lack of security in certain parts of Afghanistan. It is time to come home from Afghanistan. We uprooted the Taliban. We killed Osama. Our nation’s future is not Afghanistan and Iraq. We must withdraw completely and come home because the future is Asia and the Pacific Rim so we need to focus there. We need a small component of tactical intelligence troops and some commitment to train the Afghan national army. We are fighting an asymetric counter terror threat as a reality of 21st Century military.
ROMNEYCARE: We don’t negotiate with terrorists or the Taliban. With regards to our footprint in Afghanistan, we have to make sure we keep our progress there. The Commander in Chief has decided to bring the troops home in the middle of the next election instead of asking generals when it should happen. The timetable by the end of 2014 is the right timetable.
GINGRICH: I don’t think you should negotiate with the Taliban. This is so much bigger and deeper a problem than what we have talked about as a country. Guerillas always survive with a sanctuary and that sanctuary is Pakistan. It needs to be a much larger discussion. Pakistan and Iran are the problems and Afghanistan is the least important of the three.
CAIN: We don’t know if Pakistan is a friend or foe. Pakistan is where Osama was found and eliminated. Pakistan has talked to Karzai and Afghanistan is going to side with Pakistan. There is a lot of clarity missing here in this whole region. Our relationship with Pakistan needs to be re-evaluated. What commitments is Pakistan willing to make to prove it is a friend? What commitments will it make regarding its military? What sort of regional agreement and strategy is possible? We need our allies to work together for things mutually beneficial to everyone.
PERRY: I think we are having an interesting conversation here, but Gingrich makes reference to foreign aid. We need to send a message. The foreign aid budget should start at zero dollars. Then we will have a conversation about whether a penny of tax dollars needs to go into those countries. Pakistan is sending a message to me that it does not deserve our foreign aid. Soldiers’ lives are being put in jeopardy. I say NO to foreign aid to countries that do not support the US.
Pakistan has been doing this for years. Their political people are not in charge of the country, their military are. I don’t trust Pakistan. We need to do foreign aid differently. American manufacturing, big companies, etc. who create economic aid need to be involved not just our tax dollars.
BACHMANN: Pakistan is a very difficult area because they have been harboring and training terrorists. I would reduce foreign aid to many countries. But Pakistan has a nuclear weapon. We have more Al Queda close to that nuclear bomb than anywhere else. We need to understand the intricacies of the middle east. Iran is working through proxies like Syra. The table is being set for worldwide nuclear war against Israel. Obama stands with Occupy Wall Street but not with Israel and he is not Israel’s friend.
GINGRICH: Perry makes sense. You should start at zero. We give Egypt $3 billion a year. You ought to start with zero and say “Explain why I should give you a penny”. The Pakistanis hid bin Laden for 6 years in a military city and then got mad at those who helped us find him. Why should we give them any money?
We need to rethink all of this. The degree to which the Arab Spring is an Anti-Christian Spring concerns me. The Coptics in Egypte are being persecuted. We should not support governments that are hostile to religions other than Islam.
SANTORUM: Pakistan is an nuclear power. We can’t be indecisive. We must make Pakistan our friend. As friends we need to get over our difficulties. We should treat Pakistan like Saudi Arabia. The terrorists come from there but we need to maintain our relationships despite that. We need a solid and stable relationship.
– BREAK: Note, the Lincoln-Douglas style debates without moderators are so much better. When there are moderators like this, all the candidates get interrupted. There’s no reason for this interruption. It really defeats the purpose of having a debate. There should also not be so many people up on the stage: Huntsman and Santorum need to be left out of future debates. In December, one or two others need to be cut as well so that more time can be spent by people like Cain and Gingrich talking about their plans for our country. My suggestion is to cut Mittens Romneycare and Rick Perry in December, and have the debaters be Cain, Gingrich, Bachmann, and Dr. Paul.
GINGRICH: I think Romneycare brings up things on his radio shows and so do I. Compared to this administration, everyone on this stage is a huge improvement over Obama. I would specifically adopt the Reagan/Thatcher/John Paul II policy towards Iran. I would repudiate what Obama has done with the United Nations. I would apply LEAN Six Sigman to Defense to save the Navy.
CAIN: The approach to making a critical decision: first, surround yourself with the right people. I will use that thinking to put together the Cabinet and ask experts for alternatives. Because I will have a multiple group of people making multiple recommendations, I will get the best answers but I will make the decisions.
SANTORUM: My agenda is to surround myself with people who do not share my point of view. I follow through and do what I say. I follow through. I surround myself with people who will execute what I promised the American public I would do. The issue we talk about before is that Iran must not get a nuclear weapon. I hope that some of the things that we talk about here like covert activity…there are scientists turning up dead and computer viruses taking down Iran…I hope the US is behind all of this and I will do more of this. My laser focus is to prevent a nuclear Iran.
PERRY: I remember the Department of Energy tonight. I have been thinking about it. (big laughs from audience). Well, there are plenty of places that should have oversight on nuclear energy. The most important thing from a strategic point of Commander of Chief is important because I am Commander in Chief in Texas and I have had hands on commander in chief experience. I have met generals and dealt with the Department of Defense. I have people help me make decisions. I surround myself with extraordinary people who have backgrounds. I will put the country on secure tract and secure the southern border with Mexico.
CAIN: Stance on torture. I believe that following procedures established by the military. I do not agree with torture period but I trust the decisions of our military leaders on what is torture and what is not. Now Cain is asked about waterboarding. I agree that waterboarding was enhanced interrogation technique and I would return to that policy. I see it as an enhanced interrogation technique.
BACHMANN: If I was president I would use waterboarding because it was effective. Barack Obama is using the ACLU to run the CIA. We have no CIA interrogation anymore. It is as though Obama has decided we wanted to lose the war on terror.
PAUL: Torture is illegal by our laws and international laws. Waterboarding is torture and many other things. It is illegal under our law and international war and is impractical. There is no evidence you get good information. That is what you get because torture is uncivilized and unAmerican.
BACHMANN: I have to say something on this — get interrupted by the moderator and shut down.
HUNTSMAN: I am lonely in Siberia. I have two boys in the United States Navy. We have a name brand in the world. I have lived overseas four times and been an ambassador three times. We project liberty democracy and human rights. Waterboarding is torture. If we lose the ability to project values, then we lose it all.
ROMNEYCARE: Absolutely it is important for an American president to order the death of an American citizen who is supporting an enemy abroad. That person is fair game. Let me talk about foreign policy. I would be guided by an overwhelming conviction that this is an American Century where America leads the free world and the entire world. America is an exceptional nation. I believe the way to conduct foreign policy is by making America stronger.
Moderator scolds audience and tells them not to boo anyone.
GINGRICH: It is the rule of law that if you engage in war against the United States you are an enemy combatant. You should not go to court. There is a huge gap here between criminal defense being in American law and waging war against the United States being outside law. The correct thing in war is to kill people who are trying to kill you.
PERRY: Some say the 21st Century is the century of China, but I don’t believe that. Reagan said that Russia will end up on the ash heap of history. I think the Communist Chinese government will end up on the ash heap too. It is important to have virtues. We need to use all of our resources, including the private sector. We need to fight the cyber war. It is a great issue to face and we must win int.
ROMNEYCARE: China has an interest in trade. They have 20 million people coming from the farms and into the cities every year. We need them to understand that they must play by the rules and not hack into computer systems and take patents and designs and counterfeit them. They can’t manipulate their currency. They have to play by the rules if they want open trade. They should want to collaborate. We can’t just sit back and let them run over us.
You need to bring an action to the WTO to hit China as a currency manipulator. We can’t sit back and let China run all over us. There is already a trade war.
HUTNSMAN: Well, I speak sophomore high school level Chinese, so I am an expert here. China is about to embark on a generational transition. We need to reach out to the Chinese so they will like us when they take over the world. The young Chinese people are going to control the world and we need to reach out to them and befriend them.
– BREAK: CBS moderators are AWFUL. One of them tried arguing with Gingrich that killing terrorists is wrong and that these people should be taken to criminal court, like they are bank robbers or car thieves or something. I swear, these people who end up in “journalism” are a special blend of crazy and stupid.
PERRY: Every country needs to start at zero in financial aid. Israel is our good friend and that is a special case. Zero Based budgeting is where we need to go. Every country needs to make their case on why we should give them aid. Why in the world should our federal government get a pass?
NOTE — this is the end of the first hour, and most CBS stations are leaving the debate now. Coverage on line will continue. Next up, Lindsey “Bette Davis Eyes” Graham and Jim DeMint will be asking questions.
It was weird they went to commercial, talked to Perry for like 30 seconds, then went to another commercial. What a poorly planned debate segment/news coverage. Shame on CBS.
Technical note: for some reason, the stream is now acting up. It was great the first 40 minutes, and now it’s cutting in and out. Looks like we can’t ever win on this.
BACHMANN: Is asked about military spending. Talks about having a fixed cost system for defense weapons development. Talks about the need for modernization with just about everything. We continue to abide by outdated models when everything is now affected by technology. No one wants to be in Obamacare. I will repeal Obamacare — she gets cut off again by Moderator.
CAIN: talks about Obama mishandling all the Middle East revolutions and allowing Islamist governments to take over. Scolds Obama for saying the president of Yemen should go.
Moderator asks about Syria and the Arab League voting to sanction Syria.
GINGRICH: Obama has made people feel they cannot depend on the United States.
PAUL: Asked about covert operations in Syria. No — it’s a tragedy and it would be nice if they would accept different views but we should not get in the middle of that and prop up those different dictatorships. We get in trouble propping up these different dictatorships we have supported.
ROMNEYCARE: Of course it is time for the Assad dictatorship to end and we should use covert activity to do that. In Syria, you have Syria in place and we need to help Turkey and Saudi Arabia who are putting pressure on him.
CAIN: I would reverse all of Obama’s policies. I would keep Gitmo open, I’d allow enhanced interrogation techniques against terrorists and would not pamper them,
SANTORUM: Civilian courts are not for terrorists.
PAUL: We’re in a mess because we have a bad foreign policy. We are at war against a tactic and there is no limits to it. We create monstrosities and come up with all these vacillations and allow the President to decide who must be assassinated. If you want to live within the law and obey the law, because otherwise it will be very bad for all of us.
We can’t make the President the prosecutor, the jury, and the executor.
Bachmann wants to speak but the moderators don’t let her again and disrespect her — the moderators treat Bachmann like she does not even exist and she lets them do it.
– Do you notice, that while Bachmann is never allowed to speak, almost every other question is given to Willard Mittens Romneycare?
BACHMANN: Paul might disagree with this, but we should not treat terrorists like they are citizens. We need to take these people out and we need to use all means to get information from them.
PAUL: I authorized the effort against Osama. But the rest of the last ten years were a waste. We should not give up so easily on our rule of law.
Senator DeMint’s question now: (Bette Davis asked her question earlier).
Of course, it’s Romneycare who gets to talk first.
ROMNEYCARE: We need to eliminate programs like Obamacare that would save $94 Billion a year. We all love public broadcasting and the national endowment for the arts, but we can’t afford them and we should not borrow from China to have them. We need to devolve almost everything to the states. The federal government is too overburdened with excessive personnel and the public workers should not earn more than private sector workers.
HUNTSMAN: We need to recognize that debt is a security problem. Greece and Japan have their GDP going to debt. We need to tackle the debt and spending. The Ryan Plan sets out a template that puts it all on the table. We need to send Medicaid to the states. We need spending down to 19% of GDP.
NOTE: It looks like so many people are now trying to listen to the stream online that it’s crashing.
The stream keeps cutting in and out because too many people are trying to use it.
CAIN: I will make a decision on Pakistan after consulting with commanders on the ground and having conversations with Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is unclear where we stand with Pakistan. It is unclear where we stand with Afghanistan. We have to tread lightly and get all the info. Pakistan is one of 9 nations with a nuclear weapon.
Victory needs to be clearly defined. The mission and definition of victory need to be clear.
ROMNEYCARE: The right way to deal with Pakistan is to recognize it is not like other countries. This is close to being a failed state. It has four centers of power: intelligence services, military, political, and Islamists. We need to get a better handle on all these groups.
SANTORUM: talks about Pakistan moving nukes around in delivery vans and other weird security lapses.
GINGRICH: We rely too much on “friends” for intelligence.
HUNTSMAN: There is a crisis in Europe over debt and contagion. Let me just say about Pakistan because it is clear. There is one man in charge there. General Beanni is in charge. The president is not in charge. I would call special ops in Tamps and call a SEAL Team in and take out the loose nukes. That’s my leadership. Europe has a few problems.
We need to keep Europe’s problems from spreading to our banks.
Almost out of time in the debate now
PERRY: Talks about French and Germans dealing with Euro crisis and how Euro was supposed to be a competitor to the dollar.
Don’t forget to listen to The HillBuzz & Mrs. Fox Show tonight at 930pm EST and 830pm CST immediately after the debate for recap and commentary. The episode auto-archives as a debate recap for podcasting if you missed the debate entirely.
MYSTERY OF THE DAY: What's the Left gain by lying about the Glenn Beck Restoring Honor Rally attendance?
Please chime in with your theories on this, because there’s a mystery to be solved regarding the deliberate efforts by those on the Left to lie about the attendance of Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally in Washington, DC last month.
We were at the rally, and there was easily a million people there. Here’s an overhead shot:
Click to embiggen
Now, this doesn’t even show ALL of the people, because the Washington Monument is not in this shot. We saw, with our own eyes, people piled up onto the Washington Monument’s hill, which is across the street from where this picture ends on the bottom.
Also know that the area under all of the trees is packed with people. It’s more densely packed, in fact, than the exposed area because the tress provided much-needed shade. It was a sweltering, hot, bright and sunny day…so if you could remove the trees in a photo like this, you’d see a vast horde of people beneath them.
CBS News keeps reporting that only “78,000 to 96,000″ people were at this rally.
One of the Lefty sites we monitor regularly is AintItCoolNews.com, which is ostensibly an entertainment site…but it’s also a terrific place to get a window into the Left’s political thinking as well, because every so often AintItCool runs a political thread when something in entertainment news crosses over into politics. Such as the fact John Stewart is planning a Halloween Eve rally to “put Glenn Beck’s to shame” (in their words).
If you’ve got the stomach for it, read the comments that follow on that post. Be warned, the posters there are unmoderated, use crude language, and are generally something like 15-25 year old unemployed males with a lot of anger and misogyny in them.
But, even some of them call AintItCoolNews out for using the obvious CBS lie…to which the AintItCoolNews authors respond by saying, “Well, CBS should get the money back it paid its crowd estimators then”. But, yet, they still use the clearly fake “78,000 – 96,000″ crowd number…because they claim CBS is a reputable source and will just stick to that.
We’re curious about a lot of things that are going on all at once with this.
(1) If the Restoring Honor Rally, picture above, only had “78,000 to 96,000 people” in attendance, then how many people does CBS think came to the I Have A Dream Speech held back in 1963…37 years, to the day, before Glenn Beck’s rally. Here’s a photo of that crowd:
Click to embiggen
Is this “78,000 to 96,000″ people as well, according to CBS?
Look at how the reflecting pool is surrounded by a massive crowd…that you can see flowing over the street at the top and onto the hill where the Washington Monument sits. This is the same scene we saw at Beck’s Restoring Honor rally. We have never seen an aerial shot of Dr. King’s I Have A Dream speech, so we don’t know how full the parks next to the reflecting pool on either side were, but we imagine them to be similar, based on the density of the crowd shots seen in the Beck rally aerial.
We’ve always heard that King’s crowd was between 500,000 and a million people, closer to the million.
That’s the same number of people that were easily at Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally.
We don’t know what CBS or the Left thinks it gains by lying about this.
(2) With Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert set to hold their own rally on October 30th, we wonder how large the crowd will be in CBS’s estimation. Do they already have that number in their heads? Will it be a BILLION PEOPLE even if two dozen kids and a three legged dog show up?
The American media has truly jumped the shark, folks.
It’s now as credible as Baghdad Bob during the fall of Iraq when this Minister of Propaganda for Saddam Hussein went on television every day claiming US troops were nowhere near Baghdad…as tanks rolled by him and American G.I.s smiled and waived to the cameras, carrying our flag, taking control of the city.
Yet, Baghdad Bob kept to his talking points, and kept feeding the same lies to whoever would listen.
What was the point of this, really? Has anyone ever figured this out?
Broadcasting fake news reports about what was really going on in the country couldn’t have helped anyone in Iraq. Claiming US troops weren’t in the country, that Saddam was firmly in control, and that “there was nothing to see here” could have only led to shock and surprise when those non-existent, imaginary American soldiers showed up at Saddam loyalists’ doors, announcing the end to his reign of terror.
This is the same fate the Left has set itself up for. CBS, AintItCoolNews, Jon Stewart, and the rest can keep pretending that a million people did not come to Washington at great expense to protest what’s happening to this country…and these same people can continue to delude themselves that Americans are loving Leftist control of our government…but they are going to be shocked and stunned come November when tens of millions more people join the Restoring Honor attendees at the ballot boxes across the country and boot as many Leftists as possible from office.
So, why keep lying about just how aggressively and majorly this administration is opposed by the American people?
Who does this help?
(3) We can’t, for the life of us, understand why Democrats and others on the Left insist on having their own counter-rallies to the Restoring Honor event…because there is just no way they are going to get as many people to attend their events as Glenn Beck did for his. There are a number of factors behind this, but the most important one is the vast enthusiasm gap between people who were motivated to come out to support the Restoring Honor event and those who will turn out to show support for what the Left is doing to this country.
It cost a lot of money to come down from Chicago to be there in Washington, DC to spend the day listening to Glenn Beck’s presentation. We know people who flew all the way from HAWAII to attend the Restoring Honor rally, at even greater expense. Whole families made the trip up from Florida, across the country from Oregon, down from Maine, you name it. At great personal expense, because they just had to lend their voices to that crowd and be there to swell Glenn Beck’s numbers so the event could not be ignored…no matter how much CBS and others tried to fudged those crowd figures.
We just don’t see many people making this sort of sacrifice to come see Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert from Comedy Central, or to attend a Democrat-sponsored rally advocating the joys of Obama’s wealth distribution scheme or the horrors of Obamacare reality setting in (have your premiums gone up yet? If not yet, just wait a month).
Do Democrats really believe they are going to top the Restoring Honor rally’s attendance?
Do they honestly think the pictures taken of Jon Stewart’s crowd will surpass those taken of the Restoring Honor and I Have A Dream events?
Do these people really succumb to their own hype and delusions?
(4) Does Jon Stewart realize that October 30th is not only the day before Halloween, but it’s also just three days before the November 2nd midterm elections?
This is important for a few reasons.
Let’s start with his expected attendance for this event. Some of you might not understand how big a deal Halloween is in major cities like Chicago. Some of you were surprised that we started thinking about Halloween costumes back in August. That’s because this is one of the major, fun events of our year…and the last hurrah before the weather gets too cold for most people to go out and be all crazy. Halloween’s on a Sunday this year, so most of the major parties are going to happen on Saturday October 30th.
There’s a massive overlap between people who are fans of Jon Stewart and people who are the sort who live in big cities and want to go to Halloween parties on October 30th, where they can wear zany costumes and get really drunk and possibly score with someone dressed up as slave-girl princess Leia, thus fulfilling a quest they’ve been on since first seeing Return of the Jedi as a child. As much as these people might enjoy watching the fake news Stewart delivers, we don’t see them spending money they don’t have to go all the way to Washington DC and miss Halloween parties for whatever Stewart’s doing at the Lincoln Memorial that day. It’s just not going to happen in impressive numbers. Stewart and Colbert are delusional if they believe they have greater sway over their fans than random girls dressed up as Carrie Fisher do.
Washington, DC is not a Halloween party town. Chicago is. New Orleans, New York City, and San Francisco are. If people are going to travel the weekend of Halloween, it’s not going to be to the US Capital…where, trust us, the bar scene pales in comparison to what these other cities offer.
So, this just doesn’t make any sense to us: if Stewart and the Democrats are trying to beat Glenn Beck’s attendance, and “blow him out of the water” as AintItCoolNews claims, then this is a ridiculously picked weekend to attempt this. And that’s not even factoring in the potential cold during that time of year. It’s always hit or miss up here in Chicago whether or not there will be snow on the ground at Halloween, and we don’t know what the weather in DC is like in October, but we bet it won’t be as nice out as it was the last weekend of August.
Then there’s the proximity to the November 2nd elections…with Halloween weekend being the last real chance to reach any voters at home through canvassing efforts. Just as we think there will be a large overlap between Jon Stewart viewers and people who want to party on Halloween, we think there’s a massive overlap between Jon Stewart viewers and people who’d actually want to go canvass door to door for Democrats.
Stewart plays to the Left, and that’s his base. The Left needs to be out in full force Halloween weekend, triaging their losses and attempting to pull last minute voodoo on voters to get people to vote against their own economic best interests and keep Democrats in power. Having these activists head to Washington, DC for a comedy show at the Lincoln Memorial is disastrous to the Democrats’ cause.
It’s pulling money, manpower, and other resources to the Capital…which does Democrats no good in battleground contests they need to win to keep 2010 from being the biggest disaster since 1896 or so.
Either Jon Stewart is an absolute fool, or he’s setting Democrats up for a major routing, because he thinks this is funny.
This is a lose-lose situation for both Stewart and the Left: Stewart is not going to get a big crowd, so his influence will be diminished and his stature will shrink to his actual diminutive physical proportions; for the Left, Stewart’s just giving their most motivated activists an excuse to blow off canvassing and head to a big party, under the pretense that they will “stick it to Glenn Beck by getting a big attendance at the Stewart rally”. So, Stewart’s career will lose luster, as Democrats lose all those volunteer bodies to a big Halloween weekend party that we can’t imagine anyone but the most ardent, die-hard, committed Leftists will attend.
It’s madness, really.
With the final result being organizations like CBS trying to inflate Stewart’s numbers…and then getting caught in lies because if they claim Stewart topped Glenn Beck, when we have photographic proof of Beck’s crowd size, then they’ll have to cop to how fabricated their crowd estimates are. There’s no way Stewart draws more than 50,000 people to this thing. That’s 5% of the attendance at Beck’s rally…and we’re being very optimistically generous to Stewart, whom we actually believe will get about 20,000 people out that day.
But, hey, that’s 20,000 Democrats who won’t be in their home districts canvassing door to door on the weekend that canvassing matters most…so more power to Jon Stewart, we guess.
Please chime in below with your thoughts on WHY exactly CBS feels the need to lie about the Glenn Beck Restoring Honor Rally numbers…and WHY Lefty sites like AintItCoolNews then deliberately perpetuate CBS’s lies, when it seems the authors there know for a fact CBS is lying about that crowd size.
What do any of these people gain, for the Leftist cause, by doing this?
What is the goal of these lies and does it actually accomplish anything net-positive for the Left?
Can you help solve this mystery?
UPDATE from CtH: I made a one page printable graphic of the above images for anyone who wishes to introduce a sliver of doubt into the minds of people who still trust CBS.
http://news.webshots.com/photo/2122020390056011884WrmRTI
The Race Industry vs. CBS: Why isn't a black anchor replacing Katie Couric?
Here’s something we touched on yesterday, that we think could be a great exercise in turning the Race Industry against the Leftist Media, whereby the two then do damage to one another, in which America then wins.
Katie Couric, by all accounts, has been fired from CBS News, due to her dismal performance as anchor. The network apparently consulted with Jim Henson Productions about replacing her with a lifelike, felt puppet, but has apparently decided to do something more fabulous, and has opted to hit the Meatpacking District instead of Avenue Q for Couric’s likely replacement, Anderson Cooper.
What, no one in Harlem can read the news on TV?
The current president certainly proves how well a biracial man can read off a TelePrompTer, to endless critical acclaim and perpetual adoration from his cult of personality.
There’s never been a black nightly news anchor.
Why is that?
We’re suggesting CBS make a deal with Lester Holt at NBC, to make him the next CBS anchor. NBC, because it is clearly RAAACIST, will never give Holt an achorship on either NBC itself, or its little-watched sister network, the whites-only MSNBC (where the likes of Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Keither Olbermann, and others prevent black anchors from sharing the lineup with them).
So, why can’t NBC let Holt out of his contract so he can make history as the unprecedented first black anchor in television history?
Why can’t someone like Holt replace Couric as anchor?
Anderson Cooper is a vile, spoiled, entitled gay man. As gay dudes ourselves, we can call him out for what he is: an elitist who looks down upon regular Americans, from his perch as a pampered Vanderbilt, and a closeted man who thinks he’s too clever by far and too fabulous indeed. He should not be our first gay anchor. We deserve better.
And we think it’s time the Race Industry and Media went to war with one another, for mutually assured destruction. The bonus, for us, would be seeing Cooper screwed out of something he wants, that anchorship. It would also be wonderful if Couric was replaced with a former underling at the Today Show, a man who used to fetch her coffee and endure her daily tirades. With Holt replacing Couric, everyone would win.
Plus, considering everything we’ve heard about Holt, we know him to be a kind, dignified, hard-working man who would do an excellent job. So, it’s not like we’re trying to get Grace Jones to anchor the news. Though, you know, that would be quite fabulous too.
How do we goad the Race Industry into putting pressure on CBS to replace Couric not with a Vanderbilt, but with a Holt? CBS will resist, so there’s potential to fire up the Al Sharpton, Henry Gates, Jesse Jackson race-baiting locomotive to run full steal against the tarnished “Tiffany Network”. Which, we believe, will peeve the network off enough to perhaps hit back against the Race Industry in return.
The Couric Replacement is a wonderful opportunity to create strife in the ranks of the Left. The DNC depends on both the Race Industry and the Media to use as extensions of the party, when the party needs thuggery and propaganda, respectively. Pitting the two against one another means weakening the DNC by extension.
It is a marvelous opportunity to inflict upon the Left the sort of mischief it pulls on others every day.
How do we capitalize on it?
Does Hera punish those who mistreat Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin?
Months ago, we upset a lot of crazy people for noting that bad things seem to happen to people who are bad to Hillary Clinton.
We don’t believe Hillary Clinton has anything to do with this, and we don’t think Hera atop Mount Olympus dispatches flights of furies to punish those who wrong her, but sometimes we wonder.
Bill Richardson = disgraced, indicted, future Arby’s assistant manager
John Edwards = disgraced, indicted, exposed as a philandering campaign funds misappropriating criminal
Ted Kennedy = dead
Tim Russert = dead
Robert Novak = dead
HRH Princess Caroline of Kennedy = humiliated
Chris Dodd = disgraced, soon to lose his Senate seat
Harry Reid = soon to lose his Senate seat
Claire McCaskill = wakes up every morning as Claire McCaskill
Kathleen Sebelius = basal cell carcinoma deformed face
We don’t think any of the above is funny. We don’t particularly take any joy in any of it either. We just note it all happened…to terrible people…people who were terrible to Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, who we personally think is one of the greatest people on the planet right now.
And we think Hera agrees.
Know who else is pretty damn great?
Sarah Palin.
Know who else Hera, or at least Artemis, seems to like a lot?
Sarah Palin.
We have no idea if this is true, but it sure seems plausible: apparently, according to a growing number of sites out there, word is spreading that CBS has video surveillance footage of David Letterman sexually abusing women…footage of him in areas backstage doing vile things to people who work for him. People — we assume all women — who have no real choice but to let Letterman inflict his perversions upon them, lest they lose their jobs.
And with unemployment in major cities like New York reaching 20% when freelancers (who can’t score gigs) and the underemployed are factored in, you can imagine what lengths people have to go to if they want to keep their jobs these days.
Sexual predators take advantage of situations like this — and we imagine lawyers could successfully argue CBS creates a toxic environment in the Ed Sullivan Theater that enables this sort of predation.
We imagine there are many women out there, and who knows, maybe some men too, speaking to lawyers about what responsibility CBS has for David Letterman’s shortcomings.
And we imagine they are VERY short indeed, in the Worldwide Pants department.
The gist of LameCherry’s piece on this is that CBS seems to want an excuse to get rid of Letterman…and might have been wanting such an excuse since Letterman made jokes about Alex Rodriguez, a 34 year old man, statutory raping 14 year old Willow Palin at a Yankees game this summer. When that happened, the liberal Left came running to defend Letterman, the same way these loons run to defend Roman Polanski, who raped a 13 year old girl he drugged and forced himself upon.
But, enough Americans stood up and let CBS know it was unacceptable…that Letterman is unacceptable…and that while the Left laughs and laughs over the sickest most deviant things, Middle America isn’t laughing.
Hera and Artemis aren’t laughing.
It’s believed any surveillance videos of Letterman’s perversions will come to light during the trial of his alleged extortionist. If that’s true, we can’t imagine how Letterman survives on the air.
That image of him doing whatever it is he’s supposed to be doing backstage, with whomever he’s doing it with, will certainly guarantee a wonderful divorce settlement for his wife. As we understand it, even the most iron-clad pre-nups have clauses that allow a wife to enact great financial revenge if their husbands do something this despicable.
We hope Regina takes this pig who wears diapers to the cleaners.
We hope CBS fires this awful wretch of a human being.
We hope Hera and Artemis really are up in the stars looking out for Hillary and Sarah…and making sure those who wrong them get everything coming to them in return.
******
Great Merciful Zeus, the Letterman sex tape indeed appears to be real. The story originates in The National Enquiror, which, in the The Golden Age of Hope, Change, and Unicorns, is actually the most respected and consistently accurate published piece of journalism around.
The National Enquiror was the only source reporting on John Edwards’ career-ending affair and illegal misappropriation of campaign funds to pay for his mistress…while the MSM pretended they never heard of Rielle “Lisa Druck” Hunter.
The National Enquiror was the only publication accurately reporting on just how sick Ted Kennedy really was…while the MSM pretended he was getting better…and Harry Reid actually said at one point that the cancer that finally sent the wealthy, entitled murder to meet his Maker was in remission.
The National Enquiror has a pretty damn good batting average.
If they say David Letterman’s caught on tape being a loathsome pig copulating with one of his subordinates, then that tape exists, baby.
There are apparently so many people who hate the cantankerous Letterman at CBS, and so many people in the nation who hate him after what he did to poor Willow Palin, that it sure seems pretty guaranteed the tape’s going to get out.
What a disgusting pervert.
Time to start writing, calling, and emailing Letterman’s advertisers again…to ask them why, after repeated incidents show what a degenerate Letterman is, they continue to support his program.
New calls for David Letterman to be fired
Jokes about raping children, sexual harassment of staffers, a secret bedroom over the Ed Sullivan Theater...what on Earth is wrong with this vile pig?
Here’s a call in the New York Post for David Letterman to be fired for sleeping with so many subordinates and staff members that he has testified that he “doesn’t even know” how many of them there were. That’s stunning.
Stunning.
You don’t even know how many staff members you’ve slept with, Dave?
Hopefully, the wheels are turning in the heads of many of those women (at least we assume they are all women), who collectively could band together in some sort of action action CBS now that this particular cat is out of the bag. Then maybe David Letterman will know how many of his employees he bedded down in “the secret bedroom over the Ed Sullivan Theater”. They’ll be labeled Plaintiffs 1-110 or so, to help Letterman since he can’t count.
When Letterman joked about 14-year old Willow Palin being raped at the New York Yankees game she attended with her mother, and a large enough part of the country stood up in disgust against this to force him to come out on TV and backpedal and make excuses for himself, we saw definite cracks in Letterman’s hold on power at CBS. He may have survived those cries for his ouster, but we have a feeling Letterman ultimately won’t be able to remain at CBS through the fulfillment of his current contract.
True, his viewers don’t give a damn what he does to women — the people who like Letterman like him because he is an unfunny pig, and that’s what they want to watch late at night.
BUT, CBS will suffer as a whole with Letterman on the air. The more people get angry about his treatment of women, the less likely they are to tune into CBS to watch its other programming. CBS is the network of Letterman…the network that has no problem with the sexually charged and toxic atmosphere Letterman creates there.
We are not at the point where the majority of the public makes the connection that CBS executives have no problem with Letterman and his behavior, have no excuse for allowing it to go on, and cannot convincingly claim they don’t encourage and support his antics because at every juncture that’s presented where discipline could have been applied to Letterman, nothing is done.
The American pasttime is baseball for a reason…people tend to give others “three strikes” before they are out.
We think that’s overly generous, but Americans are a forgiving lot by nature. in our book, Letterman’s had two very strong strikes against him in 2009.
If more women come forward now, feeling emboldened that all of this is already out in the open, so that they personally would not go down in history as bringing Letterman down (but instead would allow the 48 Hours Producer to take all the heat, with them just coming forward now as other women who were abused by this man), then watch Letterman’s contract end early.
Or, maybe something else will happen that will be that “third strike” that finally makes CBS take action. The more testy and on edge Letterman gets, the greater the likelihood of this sort of thing happening. Letterman’s rattled, so who knows what he’ll do next.
We can only hope CBS watches whatever that is closely and FINALLY does the right thing and takes him off the air. They can always use health reasons as an excuse too. Letterman in fact does have a bad heart…so it’s an ideal time for him to leave the stage to spend more time with his family and concentrate in getting better.
There aren’t enough doctors in the world to fix what’s really wrong with this man, but medical problems, real or imaginary, could be just the fix CBS needs to take Dave off the air.
MARS CANDY is a big advertiser on David Letterman's show. What is MARS CANDY's position on joking about raping 14-year-olds?
David Letterman made disgusting, reprehensible, inexcusable jokes about Alex Rodriguez from the New York Yankees raping 14-year-old Willow Palin on Tuesday 6/9/09.
On Wednesday, 6/10/09, Letterman then compared 14 year-old Willow Palin to one of disgraced former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s prostitutes.
This is in addition to the vile things Letterman “joked” about Sarah Palin herself: alleging she has a crack cocaine problem, calling her “a slutty flight attendant”, insulting her intelligence, and degrading her as a woman, mother, and chief executive of the largest state in the union.
MARS CANDY is a big sponsor of David Letterman’s show.
David Letterman would not have a platform to joke about raping and forcibly impregnating minors without MARS CANDY. Everyone who works at MARS CANDY has a duty and obligation to urge their CEO to yank the ad dollars flowing from Snickers, M&Ms, and other MARS products into CBS and David Letterman’s nightly pigfest.
Use this thread to record your calls, emails, and letters to MARS CANDY. We will update with contact information for every C-suite level executive at MARS CANDY, since being one of Letterman’s biggest sponsors means MARS CANDY endorses the content of Letterman’s show, including his promotion of the raping and forced impregnation of minors by Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees.
Eating a Snickers bar means you’re helping David Letterman make jokes about rape.
Buying some peanut M&Ms keeps the lights on in the Ed Sullivan Theater, where Letterman promotes the exploitation of children.
Giving your child a Mars bar for a treat means David Letterman has another day on the air to brutalize someone’s daughter.
Think about where you spend your money in an economy where money’s so hard to come by for all of us. Do you really want to give that money to MARS CANDY?
If you believe this was the last straw and you’ve had absolutely enough of this garbage, as we have, please make your opinion heard to the people at MARS CANDY so they can reconsider their support for the most sexist and misogynistic program on television.
MARS CANDY
Mars North America
100 International Drive
Mount Olive, New Jersey 07828
1-973-691-3536
1-800-627-7852
FAX: 1-973-691-3829
The very BEST way to convince MARS to abandon Letterman as a sponsor is to FedEx letters to the CEO, CFO, CIO, etc. We’ll find the addresses for you. FedExes bypass the regular mail room and go right up to the boardrooms at the executive level. They will be on the desk of the CEO in the morning, guaranteed. Regular letters will be read by underlings…FedExes go right to the top. So, if you have time to craft a very good, well-written, well-reasoned argument for WHY MARS CANDY needs to drop the Letterman show from its ad buy and no longer support the misogyny at CBS, then it might very well be worth the price that FedEx will cost to get in front of someone important who will actually read it.
Just a tip on what we know will get through to these people.
David Letterman has got to go, and MARS can help make that happen by canceling its ad buy — before households everywhere think of statutory rape every time they think of Snickers.
UPDATE: MARS CANDY is owned exclusively by the Mars family. John Franklyn Mars is the company Chairman.
Products include: 3 Musketeers, Combos, Dove chocolate, Kudos, Mars Bar, Milky Way, Skittles, Snickers, Starburst, Twix, and Whiscas cat food
Chairman: John Franklyn Mars
President and CEO: Paul S. Michaels
MARS, Inc.
6885 Elm Street
McClean Virginia 22101-3810
(703) 821-4900
FAX: 703-448-9678
List of David Letterman's Advertisers
On June 8th, 2009 David Letterman “joked” about 33-year old Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees statutory-raping 14 year-old Willow Palin during the game at the new Yankees Stadium. Willow Palin was the only Palin daughter at the game with her mother, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Letterman “joked” that Palin’s “daughter got knocked up by Alex Rodriguez” during the game. Sex between a 33 year-old and a 14 year-old is statutory rape. Letterman then followed this vulgarity up on June 9th, 2009 by comparing 14 year-old Willow Palin to one of disgraced former Governor Eliot Spitzer’s prostitutes, while calling Governor Palin herself “a slutty flight attendant”.
Every day, add the advertisers you see on David Letterman or his website to this thread so a constantly updated running list is maintained.
Tell the following four companies you will no longer be patronizing them so long as they continue to advertise on Letterman:
Mars Candy (click for address and C-suite names)
Kellogg’s (click for address and full list of C-suite execs)
We’ll have better results if we focus all our might on the four advertisers (like Olive Garden, Mars Candy, Kelloggs, and Johnson + Johnson), but here are other advertisers of David Letterman as well. As one poster put it, “Aside from the cars and electronics, most of Letterman’s ads are for baldness, sexual dysfunction, pain relief, and vitamins. What does that tell you about the man?”
Microsoft (Bing)
Boston Market
Best Buy
Icy Hot
Wyeth (Centrum Vitamins) click here for C-suite exec addresses
Chase Bank
Macy’s
Kia
t-Mobile
Cadillac
Johnson + Johnson (Aveeno & KY Brand)
Merck (Rogaine)
Cricket
Samsung
Sanofi-Aventis (Ambien)
Mazda
Jet-Dry
Saturn
eBay
Intel
Lexus
TV.Com
On the Border Restaurants
CBSsports.com
JohnFreida.com
DiTech
Earn My Degree
True Credit by Trans Union
Bowflex
Rahal Racing (partner with David Letterman in racing ventures that earn him lots of money):
http://automobiles.honda.com/ – Honda supplies Letterman’s cars with engines
If is far, far more important for you to contact CBS’s advertisers. Only pressure on CBS’ revenue stream will get the executives there to take action against David Letterman. Think about it: CBS knows EXACTLY who and what David Letterman is. They have never had a problem with him or the vulgar, misogynistic things he says and does before. Only if advertisers abandon the network will CBS rethink its commitment to airing the Late Show with David Letterman. Write to the biggest, family-friendly advertisers above first and foremost, but here’s CBS’ contact information as well, in case you are looking for that too:
CBS Contact Info: (212) 975-4321
CBS Executives:
Nina Tassler = nina.tassler@cbs.com
Kelly Kahl = kelly.kahl@cbs.com
Kim Sartori = kim.sartori@cbs.com
Les Moonves = lmoonves@cbs.com
Reason: remember when Michael Phelps was caught with his marijuana bong? Kellogg’s cereal dropped him like a hot potato because its brand image is child-focused for most of its products. Speedo won’t ever drop Phelps, no matter what he does, but we doubt he’ll ever have his face on a McDonald’s happy meal again either.
No candy company will want to be associate with raping 14 year-olds.
Kelloggs won’t want to be involved in another messy advertising relationship after Phelps.
A concerted effort against family-friendly advertisers of Letterman will work, but it will require persistence.
“M&Ms: the candy for people who think rape is super funn!”
“Kelloggs: the breakfast cereal for misogynists and perverts who exploit minor children!”
“Johnson + Johnson: household products for when a 62-year old pig’s own johnson needs statutory rape to get going!”
Now, this should have brand managers racing for the phone if a focus and spirited effort is directed at hammering them each and every day until their ads stop appearing on Letterman’s show and website.
In this economy, a loss of three or four big advertisers like that will indeed be noticed by CBS.
UPDATE #2: Some advertisers, such as Best Western, are claiming they do not advertise on Late Night with David Letterman. This is apocryphal: Best Western buys banner ad space on CBS.com, and these ads appear on CBS.com when you click on the David Letterman page on that site. Best Western, Aerosoles, Paramount’s new Star Trek movie, and other banner ads pop up on every page of David Letterman’s site. This is paid advertising Best Western and these other companies CHOOSE to buy from CBS.
If you are an advertiser upset people who despise rape and refuse to allow Letterman to get away with promoting the rape of minors in New York, then you need to get on the phone to your ad buy account execs and yank your web ads from CBS.com.
No one believes you do not have the power to do this. If Best Western has agents who can post here, then you have agents who can call your advertising firms and stop giving your money to CBS and David Letterman.
It was consistently reported that WILLOW Palin, 14 years old, was in New York, attending events with her mother. Not 18 year old Bristol.
There is NO EXCUSE for Letterman and his writers to “make the mistake” of attacking “the wrong” Palin daughter.
None.
Just as there is no excuse for Best Western or any other advertiser to justify their support for Letterman by claiming, “we only buy ads online, not on TV”.
Best Western: the hotel to stay in if you love jokes about raping minors!
UPDATE #3: Some advice on how to write a good letter to corporate America.
UPDATE #4: Sarah Palin on The Today Show, 6/12/09. As Palin states, there was only one Palin daughter at that Yankees game: 14 year-old Willow Palin. Letterman deliberately said the Palin daughter at the Yankees game was impregnated by Alex Rodriguez during the game. That’s statutory rape of a 14 year-old by a 33 year-old baseball player. Palin calls Letterman out for, days later, trying to spin it that he was talking about “some other daughter” being forcibly impregnated at that baseball game — a daughter who was thousands and thousands of miles away, while 14 year-old Willow was the Palin at the Yankees game, in proximity to Alex Rodriguez. The joke makes no sense if it was indeed about Bristol, and the fact that Letterman never used “the Palin daughter’s name” seems like he deliberately built wiggle room for himself with his Obots and MSM enablers if he got called out for his joke about statutory rape.
Anyone advertising on Letterman’s program shares accountability for the content of his show because without your ad dollars corporate America, Letterman wouldn’t be on the air.
UPDATE #5: Why Democrats like Al Sharpton effectively use boycotts to affect public policy and corporate responsibility — and why conservatives allow the MSM to attack their own with impunity: it all boils down to the simple fact that Democrats never give up, never let up the pressure, while Republicans have poor follow through and don’t effectively organize. More on this from Sebastian Gray, with inisight into how David Letterman could inspire Republicans to see all this as a very teachable moment.
UPDATE #6: As of June 18th, Olive Garden, Embassy Suites, and Hellmann’s Mayo have all pulled their advertising off The Late Show with David Letterman, costing CBS millions of dollars in ad revenue through the end of this year. We’d like to see the pressure continue on Mars Candy, Kelloggs, and Johnson + Johnson until Letterman loses these three big advertisers as well, so keep making those calls, writing those letters, and faxing these three big sponsors until they join Olive Garden in sending Letterman and pigs like him the message that statutory rape is not funny and sexism and misogyny will no longer be tolerated in a world where Letterman could have never gotten away with making racial statements in the same vein. Continued pressure on Mars Candy, Kelloggs, and Johnson + Johnson will make Madison Avenue advertising execs see that attacks on women inspire a whole army of Al Sharptons to stand up for women in the same way the black community rallies when it believes racism is afoot.
