Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Posted on 03/03/2012 11:34:22 AM PST by DestroyLiberalism
By the time the clock was about to hit midnight on FRIDAY, MARCH 2nd, a half-dozen advertisers had used TWITTER to notify their clientele that they had pulled their advertising from RUSH LIMBAUGH's syndicated program.
CALIFORNIA mattress store chain SLEEP TRAIN was the first to announce via TWITTER that it has pulled its ads from LIMBAUGH's syndicated PREMIERE NETWORKS show after the host referred to a college student testifying about contraceptive availability as a "slut," then demanded that women on the pill provide sex videos since the government mandates insurance pays for the pill -- comments LIMBAUGH asserted were made as a form of absurd humor.
The chain, which operates in the SACRAMENTO, SAN FRANCISCO, SAN DIEGO, CENTRAL VALLEY and INLAND EMPIRE markets, tweeted, "We don't condone negative comments directed toward any group. In response, we are currently pulling our ads from RUSH with RUSH LIMBAUGH (sic)."
National advertiser SELECT COMFORT, which advertises its SLEEP NUMBER mattresses on the show, also pulled its ads from the show, tweeting, "Recent comments by RUSH LIMBAUGH do not align w/our values, so we made decision to immediately suspend all advertising on that program." Neither company's tweets indicate for how long the suspension of ads will last.
Later in the day, QUICKEN LOANS sent out the following Tweet: Due to continued inflammatory comments -- along w/valuable feedback from clients & team members -- QL has suspended ads on RUSH LIMBAUGH program."
Apparently, LIMBAUGH only fueled the controversy over his comments about activist law student SANDRA FLUKE and her attempts to testify before Congress in favor of government-funded contraception, saying on FRIDAY, "when the left wants to pretend they have no sense of humor, they are excellent at it. Yesterday in the riff about it, 'Okay, okay, fine. If we're gonna pay for this, at least let us have something for it. How about some sex videos?' If anybody doesn't realize that we are illustrating absurdity here by being absurd and that that is the trademark of this program ... But oh, no! 'Oh, of everything else you've said, that's the lowest of the low. Demanding sex video? Who do you think you are?' Lighten up. I remember using that phrase all the way back in 1989: Lighten up."
He later added, "now, at the end of this week, I am the person that the women of AMERICA are to fear the most. What can I do to the women of AMERICA? Do I have the power to raise their taxes? I do not. Do I have the power to regulate their behavior? I do not. Do I have the power to make health care decisions for them? I do not. Do I have the power to withhold birth control pills from them? I do not. Do I have the power to audit their tax returns? I do not. Do I have the power to take their little four-year-old kindergarten student's lunch and throw it away and make 'em eat something else? I do not. Do I have the power to look into their personal life and leak the information to the media? I do not. Is there one bit of freedom that I can deny them? Can I raise their taxes? They want to blame me as being the person they should fear, when in fact the people doing all these things I just said I have no power to do, the DEMOCRAT PARTY (sic) is doing."
Once The Dominoes Start Falling....
LIMBAUGH'S rant certainly didn't quell the furor, as LEGALZOOM then tweeted that it "has suspended all advertising on the RUSH LIMBAUGH show."
Next to be heard was CITRIX, which went on FACEBOOK to announce, "We have listened to our customers & have decided to cease our advertising on The RUSH LIMBAUGH Show immediately."
But that may not be all, as PRO FLOWERS tweeted to its followers: "Rest assured, your feedback is heard. We heard about the comments and we will reevaluate our marketing plan."
What's more, CARBONITE CEO DAVID FRIEND posted this open letter to his customers:
Over the past two days we have received a tremendous amount of feedback on RUSH LIMBAUGH’s recent comments. I too am offended and very concerned about his comments. LIMBAUGH’s remarks have us rethinking our future use of Talk radio.
We use more than 40 Talk show hosts to help get the CARBONITE message out to the public. The nature of Talk radio is that from time to time, listeners are offended by a host and ask that we pull our advertising. This goes for conservatives like LIMBAUGH and progressives like STEPHANIE MILLER and ED SHULTZ. We even get customers who demand that we pull the plug on NPR. As an advertiser, we do not have control over a show’s editorial content or what they say on air. CARBONITE does not endorse the opinions of the shows or their hosts.
However, the outcry over LIMBAUGH is the worst we’ve ever seen. I have scheduled a face-to-face meeting next week with LIMBAUGH during which I will impress upon him that his comments were offensive to many of our customers and employees alike.
Please know your voice has been heard and that we are taking this matter very seriously.
Wow - I’m very surprised.
Rush’s statement:
A Statement from Rush
March 03, 2012
For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.
I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit? In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone’s bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level.
My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.
Carbonite is nice under certain circumstances. I’d do both personal and Carbonite backups if I subscribed. Carbonite cannot be the only people offering offsite storage. Offsite is the key — a home fire or theft might burn up or steal all my external hard drives but the same fire or theft would not burn up or steal Carbonite.
I smell Media Matters at work.
As capitalists, we can recognize people's right to refuse to buy a product or service. I don't have a problem with boycotts in principle, though they usually don't work because most people don't link their purchase decisions to corporate behavior.
That's a little different with Rush Limbaugh, who is well known for being over-the-top with his remarks. There probably **ARE** advertisers buying time on his show who do not realize what he says on his show, and they could end up pulling their ads.
What needs to happen — and happen **RIGHT NOW** — is two things.
First, actual customers of these businesses pulling their advertising need to contact the businesses, explain that they are regular customers (providing purchase receipts or dates of purchase would be helpful) and suggest that antagonizing actual customers is a bad idea merely because liberals who may not be customers are organizing a pressure campaign.
Second, people who are regular listeners to Rush Limbaugh, especially if they are customers, should contact the business, explain the facts of what Rush Limbaugh actually said, and suggest that yanking an ad because Limbaugh called a sexually promiscuous woman a “slut” makes no sense unless the company is prepared to yank all of its ads from television and radio programs glorifying promiscuity.
Sending copies of the letters or emails to Rush Limbaugh would likely be helpful.
The logic behind both of those two points is pretty much irrefutable. If enough people protest, advertisers will see that while a brief suspension of ads on Rush Limbaugh's program may be needed to throw a bone to the liberals, they can then put the ads back on the air on the grounds that they've “punished” Limbaugh with the suspension but the ratio of complaints on both sides shows that Limbaugh has just as many supporters as opponents.
Now, some practical guidance from experience:
I've been on the staff of two different news organizations subjected to those boycott campaigns on separate occasions.
One of them was completely false and unwarranted, but resulted in my publisher asking my editor to re-evaluate our news coverage of a strip club owner who was involved in a public fight with a two-star general over placing his club off-limits. I responded by writing an extended op-ed piece making clear that contrary to the public attacks and boycott threats against our newspaper, I'm a conservative Christian who has absolutely no toleration for strip clubs, am not opposed to the Army, had previously worked as a civilian in Army Public Affairs, and was at the time attending a local church of a conservative Presbyterian denomination, the PCA, whose more prominent ministers included Dr. D. James Kennedy, then the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. (Side point: I've since transferred to a much more conservative church of a different Presbyterian denomination, the ARPs, and I'm well aware of the problems that happened at Coral Ridge after Dr. Kennedy's death, though that had nothing to do with my decision to leave the PCA.)
Basically, once the newspaper allowed me to make clear publicly that I don't agree with the strip club owner and was merely reporting what he was saying, not agreeing with it, the boycott threat went away since the people threatening the boycott found out to their surprise that not everybody in the media is a God-hating anti-military liberal.
The second threat was at a different newspaper and I confronted it head on. Basically a local business owner got mad that I ran a photo of a wrecked car in which a rural high school student had died after a high-speed crash. (No photos of bodies, just the vehicle — I do not and will not run dead body photos.) When he started calling my advertisers to complain, I got in front of the ball, personally called all our significant advertisers in advance, explained the situation, said I would not stop running crash photos under any circumstances since people need to see the consequences of irresponsible driving, and offered details from the police report which showed the driver was even more irresponsible than had been publicly reported and easily could have killed more people than just himself. It probably didn't hurt that the high school cheerleaders were doing a fundraising campaign at the time, and I ended up making the first business contribution to that campaign.
The end result is not one advertiser pulled their ads, and several advertisers told me that when the complainer called, they responded to him in not very nice terms.
Bottom line: in a capitalist economy, people have every right in the world to organize boycotts. Boycott targets need to get in front of the ball and respond with facts. In the long run, facts usually win.
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Hang about 10 of them in the bouquet and call it a rubber tree.
Rush apologized on his website. argh.
For over 20 years, I have illustrated the absurd with absurdity, three hours a day, five days a week. In this instance, I chose the wrong words in my analogy of the situation. I did not mean a personal attack on Ms. Fluke.
I think it is absolutely absurd that during these very serious political times, we are discussing personal sexual recreational activities before members of Congress. I personally do not agree that American citizens should pay for these social activities. What happened to personal responsibility and accountability? Where do we draw the line? If this is accepted as the norm, what will follow? Will we be debating if taxpayers should pay for new sneakers for all students that are interested in running to keep fit?In my monologue, I posited that it is not our business whatsoever to know what is going on in anyone’s bedroom nor do I think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level.
My choice of words was not the best, and in the attempt to be humorous, I created a national stir. I sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for the insulting word choices.
......................
They are not offended, it was all fake outrage.
Well, it did seem rather obvious as details emerged, that Ms. Fluke was probably not personally a “slut” but merely a “slut sympathizer.” But this is hardly jumping the shark, not for someone of Rush’s stature. Live and learn. I’m sure Rush will be more circumspect in the future. There would have still been a lot of funny and pointed things Rush could have said about the situation without actually personally calling Ms. Fluke a “slut.”
So now do we boycott...Rush?
I did the same and this is what I got back.
Thank you for contacting Sleep Number. My name is Jim. I’m sorry that you feel that you cannot do business with us due to our decision to suspend our advertising with the Rush Limbaugh show. While I understand you’re upset about this situation, we’ve found that the recent comments made on this program don’t align with the values of our company. I appreciate your viewpoint and I’m happy you took the time to bring your concerns to our attention. We’ve set up a phone line for you to call regarding Rush’s comments. This line is available for you to leave your thoughts or concerns on the matter. We’ve also forwarded your comments to our Public Relations Department for further consideration.
Local Number: 763-694-8332
Toll Free Line: 800-640-0651
Keep it up... they are noticing.
GM used to advertise on Rush. They stopped and they went bankrupt.
Coincidence?
/s
I just sent off an email (which he probably won’t read)....quoting the Bible. Matthew 24:3-15
If anything it probably should have gone like this
I apologize to Ms. Fluke for calling her a “slut” because it now appears that she probably was not personally involved in the kind of sexual activity that she is calling for taxpayer support of. I will be more careful about this kind of thing in the future. I still believe Ms. Fluke is a sympathizer to sluts and a cheerleader of sluttish behavior.
A very ‘narrow’ apology .... “wrong words, insulting word choice” only. He didn’t take back anything he said, really - if anything he doubled down on Obama’s getting involved (”don’t think it is a topic that should reach a Presidential level”). He may have apologized for not choosing his words regarding Ms. Fluke carefully, but this “apology” is VERY carefully worded.
Guess I’ll just quit buying anything from anybody...
Go ahead and post the verses from whatever version you choose (and it probably has nothing to do with the case).
Well, I hope not. Maybe now we can talk about...oh I don't know....maybe the economy?!
He may cancel my 24/7, but I am sending him Bible quotes again and again.
He caved. He always said “it’s not time to panic, I’ll tell you when it’s time to panic” (not verbatim).
Well guess what.....I AM IN A PANIC. YOU JUST BOWED TO THE EVIL.
No wonder they have never discussed Sheriff Joe’s investigation and poo pooed us “birthers”.
I am SICK!
Along with Rush, we deplore the infantalizing of women by leftists and encourage women to take control of their own health. We also dislike the manipulations of the left that use a 30 year old public dole lawyer to pretend she is a penniless law student at hearings used to attack freedom of religious beliefs in our country.
The left is staying on message and using the issue of contraception as a wedge to marginalize and defeat conservative thinking in the Unitied States. Read Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. You are being manipulated by Rule number 13 : Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. He further states: “One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other.”
Stop being manipulated. You are being manipulated and the ignorant are being manipulated. There are a lot more conservative women than leftist women. We are concerned.
Sleep Train Mattress Centers
2204 Plaza Drive
Rocklin, CA 95765
Phone: (800) 919-2337
Fax: (866) 293-5719
Email: customerservice@sleeptrain.com
To walk back calling her personally a slut offends the words of Christ just how?
She probably belongs to the drunk bar. Her Linkedin profile says she graduated in 2003 nine years ago. Hardly a student and one that is 23.
I still remember Marta's sleep number...75.
He states his gift is a loan from God...therefore, he shall hear from Him.
... and a political whore if not one personally.
A slut is a slut. She isn't apologizing about it either. Neither should he.
There was nothing to apologize for... He is a fool to back down. A fool, and I didnt think he would...
Post them... make your case that it’s talking about Rush at all. If you can.
Savage warned Rush and the others that their turn was coming.
And now here, at the comment to which I pinged you, you have Rush apologizing, something I don't remember Savage ever doing (though I'd be interested in being reminded if he did).
I took a different position from Rush at Is Tool Better Than Slut? because I attacked what Ms Fluke was actually doing. (I don't particularly like Rush and would not defend anything he says or does --stagecraft and agitprop. Rush has got the microphone and pretty much can defend himself without my help.)
Anyway, Savage remains the pariah amongst the rest, especially now that Rush (schmuck) has apologized.
Two wrongs doth make a right... surely that’s in the KJV somewhere?
These advertisers said nothing when conservatives have been called sluts.
Let’s make sure we post loudly those advertisers that refuse to take action when conservatives are called sluts.
Certainly it looks like Rush left himself a lot of room to call Ms. Fluke a lot of things other than slut. Tool is a good way to put it.
An apology was demanded of Rush and he did it.
Mark 13:10-15.....
10And the gospel must first be published among all nations.
11But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
12Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.
13And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:
15And let him that is on the housetop not go down into the house, neither enter therein, to take any thing out of his house:
Thanks to Avoiding Sulla for the ping. Who’s next on the obozo hit list? (recent, unconfirmed rumor that Rush has apologized. blood in the water to the marxists)
Think I'll send some to a liberal friend while I'm at it!
(recent, unconfirmed rumor that Rush has apologized. blood in the water to the marxists)
_________________________
Not unconfirmed. It is on www.rushlimbaugh.com and is linked to on his Facebook page.
I said he apologized ..... and it was a carefully crafted, very narrow apology.
You obviously didn’t read the words I sent.
Thank you.
For the record, the above comment has the dashed phrase in the wrong place. It should read as follows (although Rush does much the same thing).
...what Ms Fluke was actually doing — stagecraft and agitprop. (I don’t particularly like Rush and would not defend anything he says or does....)
Be serious. His influence is 10% of what it was when he was on Fox.
Nor did I see it coming.
No need to post them all. If you have a Bible and have actually read it, you would know of what I am speaking.
I dare you to open your Bible, if you have one, and start reading.
Rush just issued an apology. Saw it on Fox.
Oops, I’m late. Grrr. sorry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.