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Our campaign to hold Glenn Beck accountable for his race-baiting and fear-mongering has been a great success, with 62 advertisers making it clear that they don’t want their brands linked to Beck’s vile rhetoric. Up until now, however, there’s been a question of what the real consequences are for Beck and for Fox, especially as Beck’s ratings have soared. It’s starting to become clear.
Today, we’re announcing that Glenn Beck’s show has lost over 50% of its advertising dollars since just before our campaign started. From our press release about the news:
The advertising boycott of Glenn Beck has cost the controversial host over half of his estimated advertising revenue since it was launched by ColorOfChange.org a month ago. This according to data analyzed from industry sources.
Estimated advertising revenue [the total amount of advertising money being spent during a block of commercial time for a program] was collected on a week-by-week basis for a period of two months. According to the data collected, the amount of money spent by national advertisers on Beck’s program per week was at its highest at approximately $1,060,000, for the week ending August 2, 2009. ColorOfChange.org launched their campaign at the end of that week and since then, 62 advertisers have distanced themselves from Beck. Data collected for the week ending September 6, 2009 shows Beck’s estimated ad revenue at $492,000, equal to a loss of $568,000.
"Fox News Channel has consistently claimed they haven’t lost revenue as advertisers abandon Glenn Beck, but the numbers prove otherwise," said James Rucker, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org. "Fox News Channel has a limited amount of ad positions. If 62 companies refuse to run ads on two of their 24 hours of programming, they are losing inventory. No matter how high Beck’s ratings have been lately, advertisers still see Beck as toxic and don’t want him associated with their brands. There is no way that Fox News Channel is making the money they should be making with Glenn Beck."
Our campaign is working. Respectable companies don’t want to be associated with Beck or support his show with their dollars. It’s resulting in a major loss of funding for his show, and at the same time making it clear that Beck’s race-baiting and fear-mongering are far outside the mainstream.
The longer Beck stays isolated, the more of a problem he’ll be for Fox, and the less he’ll be able to spread his lies and distortions. If we can keep the pressure on, Fox will have to make a choice: 1) drop Beck because it doesn’t make business sense to keep him; or 2) communicate to the world that they’re so intent on providing a platform for race-baiting and fear-mongering that they don’t care if they lose money (a serious problem for a public company like News Corporation, the owner of Fox).
Thanks for everything you’ve done to make this effort a success — none of it could have happened without the more than 200,000 of you who have stepped up to be a part of this campaign. More than ever, it’s time to keep the pressure on. You can help by joining us in thanking the advertisers that have stopped supporting Glenn Beck, and calling on those whose ads are still running on his show to follow suit.
37 Comments
Thanks James. Keep up the good work. I watched Beck on 9/12 and recorded the advertisers in case you and others find this info useful.
I will join you in thanking the advertisers that have stopped supporting Glenn Beck.
Thank you, James Rucker and Color of Change.
By the way, Howard Kurtz (in this morning’s WaPo0 chat) is underinformed about the number of advertisers who have pulled out of the Beckapalooza on FOX:
I have let Kurtz know the number is 62, but you may also wish to contact him yourself here.
True, advertisers may have simply shifted their spots…but by putting another show in Beck’s place they’d rake in more money. He’s not holding his own water. There’s “dead airtime” that must be filled…in PRIMETIME. That’s not what the sponsors want.
I also imagine that Fox may have offered the remaining advertisers cheaper ad rates. You see, it behooves even advertisers that want to be on Beck’s program to vpproach FOX about “the pressure”. They will then get cheaper spots or perhaps more ads (since the spots open up from the defectors).
Has the number of spots for Rockstar and the “We Want Your Grandma” Neptune Society gone up? If so it’s because they are getting great deals…This would be a barometer of how the boycotts really hurting Beck and Fox.
Perhaps you might want to include some data about what the ad revenue for Beck’s show was throughout the past year, instead of just where it’s gone from the high point. That drop off in revenue will look a lot more impressive if Beck was pulling in a million a week steadily throughout the year.
OMG – first comment in Kurtz’s online – he wrote that Kenya was Obama’s “native country.”
The birthers have made it unconscious now.
Thank you,James. I needed this post! I’ve spent the day researching Glenn Beck’s receiving the “Keys to the City of Mt.Vernon,Wa” fiasco on Sept. 26th. Been talking to the MacIntyre Hall folks to find out who’s paying for the hall..[Mayor Bud Norris], who owns the hall, who supplies security , venue restrictions,etc.
I don’t view this as a political issue. My line in the sand is honoring a man who has openly advocated the assassination of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, an elected official of the United States. Especially on a college campus in a building funded by tax payer dollars.
This can not go unchallenged. This is our county, too.
I’ll know more tomorrow.
You go, Girl! Or Guy, as the case may be…
Looks like you’ve got a nice local issue/protest cooking up…local really helps, because it’s so obviously “authentic,” so the creative thinkers of wingnuttia have a much harder time pushing back…keep up the good work!
I would guess that Glenn Beck’s program does a lot of good for Fox News quite apart from its advertising revenue. It has immense value as synergy. Essentially the program itself is one big advert for a certain corporate sponsored right-wing view point.
The more Glenn Beck is seen as persecuted by the left the more valuable he will be to Fox News as a sign of how they are standing strong against the liberals.
It’s kind of the opposite of MSNBC pulling Phil Donahue off the air before the Iraq war despite his getting good ratings at that time.
ding. kinda like an infomercial without info.
You and your group have shown great leadership on this important issue. Thanks.
How does this a-hole manage to stay on the air after encouraging people to assassinate elected officials? I keep thinking if we had Michael Moorse, or anyone on the left talking like him, his ass would have been shipped to Gitmo or worse.
And why do the manly men of the GOP cry so much?
Oh that’s good. But there are so many of these right wing nasty stupid, blowhards when one goes down another pops up.
I blame the management/owners /program directors for go after dollars irregardless of the hate these guys spew.
They used to call it entertainment, but it’s not meant as entertainment and it’s not entertaining.
Can I be the first to say, Glen Beck has lost over 100% of his mind.
The more I learn about Color of Change, the more I like.
Only 50%. We need to keep the heat on. I will not be happy until the other 50% are gone. Let’s see how much Rupert like him and how much air time he gets when all the ad revenue disappears.
Keep it up!
Yes he lost advertisers, but others have stepped up to replace them. One of them is Darden Restaurants, mostly know as Red Lobster and Olive Garden. Olive Garden is the only advertiser to drop its ads on the David Letterman Show when he had that blowup with Sarah Palin. I guess the Reich-wingers have to stick together.
These are folks very susceptible to public protest. If people make a point of telling their franchisees that they’ll take their business elsewhere…that’ll get back to corporate.
Just don’t be seduced by the assertions that “why make the employees suffer for the corporate decision”. You are taking your business to another firm who is more aware of public sensitivities (and likely more sane in regards to their employees) and thus balancing the scale…tell the manager “send the unemployed workers over to….[fill in name of another Restaurant]”. Tell them…”When you stop advertising on FOX I’ll return, it’s your corporate that is responsible…not me.”
Beck’s lost 50% of his ad dollars, and 100% of his marbles.
I guess now that GB has lost 50% of his advertisers it means he is damn near as low as CNN,MSNBC,ABC,CBC and ABC combined….
Nothing is as low as Glenn Beck.
I hear all of this Beck criticism on lots of sites and post, however no one is specific on anything he has said that is wrong.
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200908310007
http://www.politicususa.com/en/Beck-Obama-Kids
Factually, ethically and legally wrong.
How much has his audience grown while his advertisers have been bailing?
Thank you for reporting this stuff. The MSM are such tools and enablers when it comes to the crapfotainment of folks like Beck that it’s embarrassing. Too bad they’re too dense and greedy to be embarrassed…until the ad revenues start drying up. One can only hope the process continues until all the wingnuts and anti-intellectual blowhards that somehow have a voice on TV these days end up on the streets looking for work with the rest of “the common people”.
Starting to feel the hurt now, you son of a bitch?!?
Who is it that you’re addressing? If it’s Beck, I don’t think that this is going to hurt him any time soon, if at all.
Beck is in show business, where the saying is, “no publicity is bad publicity.”
I really think Beck probably does have a mood disorder. That, plus the fact that two members of his family committed suicide, make Beck a high risk for suicide.
That is an awful comment considering the highest risk for suicide and by far the highest number of suicides occur among teenagers and young adults in out country. I guess you are proud of your vitriol.
I am a cancer patient and there are also a high number of cancer patients that commit suicide.
If you haven’t noticed you are paying for advertising on Glenn Beck yourself. GM advertises on Beck, Hannity and Rush. I think that they are hypocrits for taking money from GM and the left is showing hypocracy by having government funds go to these guys.
It shows you that the Government, left or right, does not care about what the people think.
Lose a 22 year old daughter and then go through an extremely heavy chemotherapy regimen and tell me if the thought of suicide does not cross your mind.
As long as Beck’s ratings continue to climb, Murdoch will ride out the storm. He figures that at some point progressives will lose interest. Maybe we should consider upping the ante. Maybe it is time to contact NewsCorp institutional investors and ask them if investing in lies and extremism is consistent with their fiduciary duty.
We need a similar campaign for the entire Fox Network. This organization is ruining our country. No doubt about it.
Your so right! If you allow people to broadcast any kind of crazy sh*t that they feel
like, how a we maintain a democracy?
You misunderstand. I didn’t say they should have their FCC license taken away. I meant those of us who reject their fearmongering and divisive and destructive antagonism should boycott their advertisers…
The behavior of this network is socially destructive… not a difference of opinion. I respect their right to free speech. We also have our own right to drown them out…
What I can’t understand is thinking that this bunch of loons are destroying the country. They’re just a voice for views that exist in this country in more people than any of us would care to acknowledge.
Running a boycott campaign may make you feel better when they put up some particularly odious sh*t, but it’s futile and short-sighted.
Only a long, long war of education wins this.