Throughout history people have been desperate to avoid conflict. Many are willing to do anything to stave off a fight. In politics it is no different.
Corporations have spent untold millions in “donations” to radical environmental groups or hustlers such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in the hope of buying some goodwill should any unexpected controversy arise. It’s never worked.
When something went wrong, as it always does, or some controversy (real or contrived) breaks, the very people they had cultivated were out in front of a bank of cameras demanding “justice,” which usually comes in the form of another, larger, check.
The same thing happens in the news business. Fox News let Bill O’Reilly go this week because people who never watch their network, who never would watch their network, pressured companies to pull their advertising from the top-rated show in cable news history.
That the companies caved isn’t a surprise -- caving to left-wing mobs is what companies do. But if Fox had not caved, advertisers would have come back to O’Reilly. It would be financial malpractice to avoid running ads to the largest audience possible, and companies don’t remain successful committing financial malpractice.
But bad publicity always trumps spine.
The mob that went after O’Reilly is the same mob that went after Glenn Beck and the same that always has gone after Fox. Letting Beck go, then Roger Ailes, did not appease them. Neither will O'Reilly.
To the fascistic left, Fox News can’t do right because its existence is wrong. As long as it exists, they will find something to be upset about and demand action on. And advertisers will cave.
I don’t know what Bill O’Reilly did or didn’t do, but I do know nothing was proven.
Companies pulled their ads not over proof, but over allegations. You’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but conservatives are simply guilty. Meanwhile, Democrats such as Bill Clinton, who were proven guilty, are still praised as if they were innocent.
I have to wonder how many of the companies who pulled their ads from O’Reilly’s show have donated to the Clinton Foundation? How many executives of those companies donated to...
