Posted on 10/21/2003 5:49:00 AM PDT by Tumbleweed_Connection
At least one sponsor temoparily withdrew advertising from the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, after advocates of homeschooling complained about last week's two-part report on the "dark side" of the "largely unregulated" home school movement. Homeschool advocates claim that CBS News' telephone switchboard was so overwhelmed by the high volume of viewer complaints that some calls couldn't get through to its Los Angeles bureau. But CBS News is not backing down, despite the criticism. A network news spokeswoman reiterated on Monday that the network continues to stand by its story. North Carolinians for Home Education proudly announced on its website that the effort "to let CBS's sponsors [know] what you think" is making headway. The group's president, Hal Young, appeared in the CBS report as the only person to defend homeschooling against charges that it may help hide child abuse from the public eye. "It's working, folks," says a headline on the website of North Carolinians for Home Education. The site also posted an e-mail response from Claritin customer relations officials, saying that the allergy drug company "pulled our advertising spots" from part two of the CBS News report on homeschooling. (The two reports aired as an Eye on America segment on the CBS Evening News on October 13 and 14.) "We apologize that you were displeased with our advertising placement for Claritin allergy products during the CBS nightly news," said the Claritin e-mail response to complaints about the ads it ran. "We were unaware of the content of this specific news segment when the advertising spots were purchased several weeks ago. We pulled our advertising spots from the second portion of the news story and those did not run on the evening of October 14th," the e-mail explained. Dana Bicsko, a spokeswoman for Schering-Plough Corporation, the makers of Claritin, confirmed that her company did indeed issue the e-mail announcing that the Claritin ad had been pulled from CBS News. Since the first segment of the homeschooling report aired last week, homeschool advocates have urged other supporters to contact CBS News and its sponsors to register their disapproval with what they see as the negative portrayal. The two-part CBS News report included several examples of parents who had "taught their children at home" but who had ended up abusing and killing the children. Texas mother Andrea Yates, who drowned her five children in a bathtub, was listed as one of the examples. The series concluded by noting that no states require "criminal background checks" of the parents who homeschool their children. The North Carolinians for Home Education webpage lists the contact information for nearly three dozen sponsors of CBS News and the phone numbers for CBS News's Los Angeles bureau, the e-mail address for reporter Vince Gonzales, producer Barbara Pierce and several CBS comment lines. The group urged homeschool advocates to contact the network and its sponsors to protest the controversial reports. The Virginia-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) claims that the network's Los Angeles bureau phone lines were shut down by the high volume of irate calls last week. "The phone [LA Bureau] number became a non-working number [last] Tuesday afternoon," Ian M. Slatter, the director of media relations at the HSLDA, told CNSNews.com . "People kept having trouble with that number for at least a couple of days," Slatter said "Because there have been so many calls coming into [CBS] people have been shunted to a voicemail" to register their comments, Slatter added. Slatter also said that Vince Gonzales, the CBS correspondent who reported the homeschool segments, "turned off his number very quickly as well" in response to viewers' calls. Since the reports aired last week, Slatter said his group has received "lot of e-mails thanking us for taking on CBS and their false reporting." "The response has been overwhelming. People are thankful that we have stepped up with our letter to CBS, and that we are actually seeking a formal response to from the presidents of both CBS and Viacom," he added. HSLDA's president J. Michael Smith, in a letter dated October 17 to CBS and Viacom (the parent company of CBS), said, "The goal of the CBS story was to plant the seed in the public's mind that there is a link between home education and child abuse." CBS News has been sending e-mail responses to people who complain about the segments via the Internet, according to Slatter. The e-mail reads: "As our reports point out more than once, the vast majority of homeschooling parents are doing a good job of both raising and educating their children. The point of our series is to report that some bad parents are hiding under the cover of the homeschooling movement. That is important for the public to know. Thank you for your comments. The CBS Evening News Staff" Calls to CBS News reporter Vince Gonzales and CBS's Los Angeles bureau were not returned. CBS News publicist Andie Silvers declined to comment on the record regarding the reaction the network has received from viewers and the temporary loss of at least one sponsor. But Silvers did tell \b CNSNews.com, "We continue to stand by our story."
I think we have our work cut out for us.
CBS is sticking it in our face!
I just saw that on Drudge and came over here to mention it as well. Boy, reading that story got my ire up. I would be willing to participate in a preemptive boycott - that is, get the word out to all potential sponsers that they will be boycotted if they run commercials during this movie. I don't think we can wait until after the fact. We have the right to choose where we spend our money and I will not be spending it on any product or service that associates itself with the smear of a great man.
Neither do states require "criminal background checks" of the parents who have children.
I don't see what CBS's point was, except to smear the homeschool movement!
I checked and www.boycottcbs.org is available. We could have it up in running in 24 hours for about 15 bucks and 5 bucks a month on verve hosting. I would be willing to spring for the cost of the site and participate on a development and maintenance team. I wonder if any webmaster Freepers would want to manage it or other freepers would want to participate in the development? I know how to code but I don't think it is something I could adequately maintain on my own. Putting a team of freepers on it (of which I would happily be one) would be the most efficient and effective way to set it up.
I envision the site would:
I know there are other sites out there that chronicle Rather's bias but this site would be specifically event driven with the mission of correcting errors, exposing lies and bringing financial pressure to CBS as a way to hold them accoutable to the truth.
Thoughts? Like I said, if we get a group together, we could be live in 24 hours.
I for one will no longer be watching it, and I plan to email the sponsors and tell them why. Hittem where it hurts!!!!!!!!
I am not a webmaster, and I am retired, but I would be willing to support it with a few bucks.
Whatever it takes to fight these special interest groups who are paid activists, not vounteers.
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As many of you know, CBS recently ran a two part series on homeschooling that was outrageously bias and misleading. Today, it has been reported that they are planning a TV movie that will smear Ronald Reagan. We have put up with Rather for so long but enough is enough. CBS needs to be held accountable to the truth. We need to do something.
Free Republic is about grass-roots conservatism. Therefore, I propose we create a website at www.boycottcbs.org. The domain is available. I am willing to put up the money for domain registration and web hosting. (This runs $15 bucks and $5 buck a month, respectively.) What I am looking for in this thread is to flush out this idea and recruit volunteers to participate in the development and maintenance of the site. I simply cannot do it alone. We need people who are able to commit the necessary time to this project. At minimum, we would need:
1. Webmaster - oversight responsibility of development and content
2. Programmer - Assist the webmaster in site development
3. Content manager - Develop and coordinate website content
4. Promotion dirctor - responsible for getting the word out and generating traffic
5. PR manager - Handle external communication
6. Technical manager - responsible for technical coding - e.g. scripts, php, etc.
7. Discussion board manager - responsible for maintenance of discussion boards (a discussion board comes with a verve hosting account so this would be maintenance rather than development)
8. Content volunteers - responsible for monitoring and reporting sponsers and stories on CBS
. That is a start. Other needs can be discussed once we develop of core team. I envision the site would at a minimum:
1) Document bias in news stories and programs.
2) Identify and counter their left wing agenda.
3) Provide context and correct errors and expose outright lies in their stories and television programs.
4) Provide sponser information to facilitate boycotts and contact.
5) Provide opportunities for public discussion and interaction via discussion boards, reader reports, chat etc.
If you are interested, reply on this thread and also contact me through freep mail. All comments concerning this proposal are welcome.
I am aware of that site. However, ratherbiased.com is focused pretty much exclusively on Dan Rather. The site I propose would apply to all CBS programming. Also, the ratherbiased.com site does not include boycott information. Facilitating boycotts of CBS sponsors would be a core mission of the proposed site.
Actually, the support comes from the perceived viewership as it is applied to the number of persons watching the show, that will watch the commercial presentations, and subsequently purchase the products, which in turn results in the network being paid for the time based upon the potential exposure. That's why Super Bowl commercial spots cost so much.
Kinda convoluted, yes, but I fight it in my own little way.
I "PVR" (Tivo) the shows on CBS that I like. Actually, there are only two of them, both on the same night: Survivor and CSI Vegas.
I then watch them at my leisure and zap the commercials.
I get to enjoy the shows without the commercial crap, takes less time and I am able to do it at my pace and time.
To tell the truth, I have absolutely no idea who or what sponsors those two shows. Nor do I care.
Commercial television hates the PVR's and Tivos, for that very reason.
And I am sure, that as a upper-middle-class, middle-aged white male with a disposable income, that I am right in the middle of the demographic spectrum that many of the commercials are trying to reach.
You would think that the final end result would be that commercial television would suffer as a result of sponsors realizing that this is done and pulling or reducing the time they purchase, therefore causing the networks to be unable to produce the shows.
It appears the opposite has occurred, though.
I'm sure there are statistics somewhere out there that supports that.
Not that anyone cares, except a tv-time salesman.
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