Buzzflash: Glenn Beck Loses All His Advertisers in the UK.

Via email:

Dear Turn Off FOX Friends,

We are incredibly grateful for your continued efforts to help our cause, and we wanted to take a moment to let you know that your travails have already taken effect.

Thanks to the work of StopBeck.com, Color of Change, and those amenable to the cause like yourself, Glenn Beck's program had to run in the UK without ads for six days straight. As much as FOX News President Ailes likes to boast of his network's ratings, those ratings mean next to nothing when your hosts become anathema to advertisers. When Rupert Murdoch had to air commercials strictly from his own companies to fill the space between segments, those of us against the vitriol spewed by Beck proved that we will not idly tolerate him as we forced Murdoch to reconsider the value of keeping Beck around.

Even with the 116 sponsors Glenn Beck has lost worldwide, though, his shows and the shows of his similarly hateful colleagues continue relatively unabated in the U.S. It's why we need a powerful (and peaceful) army of people like you dedicated to getting the message out about how FOX intentionally and frequently manipulates the news to fulfill its preconceived narrative. When looking to combat the network that advocates against education, you can use suggestions like the following from Marian in California to chip away at Faux News:


Those kinds of tactics work well at home, but there are a lot of establishments that force patrons to watch FOX News, as well. You can try to talk to the owners of the establishment and calmly tell them face-to-face that you would rather not be forced to watch a network that, for example, baselessly turns a university shooting into a story about a left-wing conspiracy. Otherwise, you could turn to our popular Turn Off FOX cards. The cards come in a variety of flavors and can serve as a free way to suggest your opinion to businesses or individuals around you. Have a friend still trying to think of something to give up for Lent? Suggest giving up FOX News. Still struggling to make up for Valentine's Day? You could always offer up the cards as a stopgap solution. From birthdays to bar mitzvahs, the cards work on so many levels because they work toward a worthwhile cause. Not to mention the fact that they're totally free.

As much as we can provide you with the tools and information to ward off the fear mongering of FOX Fraudcasting, we ultimately rely on your help to spread the message out to others. If you know people who might be interested in joining the cause, please forward this e-mail to them. If you have any stories about your own experiences with FOX, we would very much like to hear from you. And if you have any suggestions or tips, we always check our e-mails and look forward to reading yours.

So please help keep the campaign going strong. As we said, it has taken root in the U.K.; we now need to ensure that sponsors in the U.S. recognize what those in the U.K. have and to help them realize it holds true not only of Glenn Beck, but the entire network. Thank you for all you do, because as long as you help us to maintain our diligence against FOX, you empower the rest of the world to choose reason and respect over politicized vitriol -- and to choose to Turn Off FOX.

Sincerely,

The BuzzFlash Campaign to Turn Off FOX

Fight FOX. Forward this to a friend.

BuzzFlash | PO Box 618354 | Chicago | IL | 60661-8354

:kick:

Ugh! Well, it obviously wasn't very successful here, or I would have known.

Fox News is in the 'Sky News and Events' package on satellite, alongside such titans as 'British Eurosport 2' and 'Real Madrid TV': http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/entertainment-packs/news-events-pack/

So Beck gets into the UK inside that. I suspect his viewing figures are unmeasurable.

And the answer is 42.

that way I wouldn't even be tempted to look. I go to a clinic to see all my doctors. They have a TV at the adult end and one at the kiddies end. When someone has Fox on one of the patients always walks up to the TV and turns the channel. They never leave it on for more than a minute. They always say they want to watch a news cast not another bunch of bull.

And one patient was walking up to change the channel, a clip of Beck came up I will not post even with #@#% what he said as he hastily changed the channels. But then I live in the DFL area of Minnesota.

channel, that its unhealthy to watch that garbage. A couple have said how did that get on and go chew out who ever is at reception desk for changing it.

I never click on and of the fox nets.

I know amongst my fellow Democrats this may not be the most popular approach to take, but it is the approach that fits me best......don't watch. Without an audience the show becomes pointless within the Murdoch enterprise. Shaking down his sponsors doesn't seem to be in-alignment with what we value as free speech. It's only a matter of time before these tactics turn around to bite us in the butt. I don't have a problem with not watching and or individual boycotts of his advertisers, but to do so in such an organized manner seems to strike at the spirit of free speech. I disagree with Beck, but I don't feel like jerking his microphone away either.

I've listened to some of Beck's silliness, but with so many problems in the world today it looks like we should have higher priorities than de facto censoring a near comedian. I don't agree with Beck, but I respect his rights.

- Happy Liberal

It lets them know their image suffers because of association with him, and lets them know people avoid the show (which may not be as obvious to them as you think, with a show that is very obscure in the UK). By telling the advertisers that he's a bigot, they can decied what they want to do.

And Fox News still has the ability to broadcast him; they just don't get money for it. There's no free speech problem here.

One of the British Fox News advertisers seems pretty grateful that their attention was drawn to how bad Beck is - they stopped all ads on Fox News as a result: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/04/waitrose-fox-news-barack-obama

However, I would argue that his advertisers do not formally endorse his views or opinions. Corporations look at a program like Beck's and say, "who are his viewers, and how many does he have". If you are a marketing analyst who realizes Beck's regular viewers likely represent the same demographic as your primary customers or share similar attributes with your current customer base - what do you do?

See my point? Your not in the business of endorsing Glen Beck's opinions. You're interested in courting his viewers. Republican money spends just as well........

The advertisers may not see it as a big loss, and the size of viewership may have factored into their decision.

His show is about American politics presented in a sensationalistic fashion. Probably not very appealing to those in the UK. I can see why a marketing executive would likely believe continued advertising wasn't worth any potential damage to goodwill. Now, if Beck's show was one of the top 10 most popular in the UK, that would be a totally different analysis.

That is hilarious. When I first read this post, I decided to substitute Glenn Beck with Benny Hilly. Although, Hill was much more popular on this side of the pond.

They just show the programs that Fox News does in the US, and insert UK ads (or headlines and news pics when they can't sell the ads). They don't spend much money on the channel.

I was surprised to see Hannity and O'Reilly in Brazil, especially since the dozen or so Brazilians I asked had no idea who they were, nor did they bother to watch FUX News. Fortunately I could tune into BBC and Deutsche Welle, in addition to many Brazilian stations and other international networks.