We’ve got big news — Glenn Beck’s show is making less than half the money it was making when we started calling on companies to pull their advertisements from the show. This is huge and it’s thanks to you — more than 200,000 ColorOfChange members have spoken out, and 62 advertisers have listened.

Data from a media tracking firm shows how deeply we’re hitting Fox’s pockets; they are now sacrificing more than a half-million ad dollars a week to keep Beck on the air.

Of course, Beck and his supporters are fighting back with everything they’ve got. Today, we need your help to make sure the 62 companies who have pulled their ads from Beck’s show stand strong, and to turn up the pressure on his remaining advertisers. Please join us in thanking the companies that have pulled their ads, and in calling on his remaining advertisers to stop supporting him:

http://colorofchange.org/beck/hold/

During the last week in July, Beck’s show pulled in over $1 million from advertising. The first week in September, that number was down to less than $500,000, even as his ratings have gone up.1

It’s clear that our campaign is making a significant financial impact, despite Fox’s insistence otherwise.

What’s happening is a simple matter of supply and demand. Fox has a limited amount of time devoted to ads each day. If 62 companies refuse to run ads during Beck’s show, the demand for that time is reduced, and the rates the network can charge for the show plummet. In Beck’s case, almost no major companies are willing to advertise during either of his twice-a-day broadcasts, so Fox can’t collect as much ad revenue as they could before. If we can keep the advertisers away, Fox will have to decide sometime soon whether it’s worth losing money to keep Beck’s poison on the air.

Beck’s smear campaigns

Beck claims to be a patriot who asks hard questions and gives his viewers the facts. In reality, he consistently uses lies, distortions, and exaggerations to stir up anger and fear, and to distract his viewers from working towards real solutions to the problems facing our country. He seems determined to create an atmosphere in which the White House can accomplish nothing, and he’s doing it partly by launching vicious smear campaigns on Obama’a character, policies and advisers.

Last week, Beck and his supporters took credit for both Van Jones’ resignation2 and for the demotion of Yosi Sergant, who was “reassigned” at the National Endowment for the Arts following vicious attacks by Beck 3. And Beck has made it clear he’s got other targets.4

Holding the line

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, it’s making 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 harder it will be for him 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).

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:

http://colorofchange.org/beck/hold/

Thanks and Peace,

– James, Gabriel, William, Dani and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
September 14th, 2009

Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU — your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way. You can contribute here:

https://secure.colorofchange.org/contribute/

References

1. Propreitary study conducted by leading media monitoring organization using industry-standard data.
(for press inquiries, contact beckstudy@colorofchange.org.)

2. “White House Official Resigns After G.O.P. Criticism,” New York Times, 9-06-09

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/07/us/politics/07vanjones.html

3. “Beck Strikes Again; Yosi Sergant Reassigned at NEA,” Washington Post, 9-10-2009

http://tinyurl.com/oa5oyn

4. @glennbeck on Twitter, 9-03-09

http://twitter.com/glennbeck/status/3749169499

Fox News parent company News Corp saw a more than 95% drop last fiscal quarter in operating income for television and newspaper segments. Total income fell 47% to $755 million and revenue fell almost 16%. Unfortunately, Fox News Channel almost doubled their income compared to the same quarter the previous year due to increased ad rates, which likely rose because their ratings were up. It is also a sign that the economy may be taking a turn for the better – people are spending more money and companies can spend more to advertise.

Original Story

Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper that charges a fee for visitors to access its online content, believes that this is the only way for newspapers to survive. He points to the New York Times as an example of how online advertising is not offsetting the decline in print advertising revenue.

“People reading news for free on the Web, that’s got to change,” said Murdoch speaking at The Cable Show, an annual cable television industry event, in Washington, D.C.

Original Story