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.
I agree. I bet he’s meeting with Rush just to appease his lib users - it’s for show only - at least I hope so.
I'd like to know that as well.
Rush should look into some small start up business's to deal with. He can try it out (as he does) and then perhaps promote small start up business's get a leg up!
Small business, as MOST of these companies were, grew large once Rush started advertising them, and giving them away. Small business IS the backbone of America. Let's make them HUGE.
Not only does Rush help small start up business's, but help jump start the economy....something barry SUCKS ON PURPOSE at.
I gave up watching Fox News (pretty much) some time ago, however just by chance I happened on Fox News Special Report on Friday evening.
A new regular from the NY Times went in to a rant about Rush comments, and it went unchallenged by anybody.
All taken out of context
Fox is just such a joke and disgrace now, I came to that conclusion quite some time ago.
Rush really talked positive about the sleep number bed and they do this to him! How about a big screw you to them AND no business. Get another brand air bed if that is what you want.
That just means you can't read their tweets unless they approve you as a follower. If you put @SleepNumberBeds in your tweet, they will get it.
No offense but I don’t buy any products from his advertisers in the first place so they could pull them all and it wouldn’t matter to me.
Todays WASH POST feigns offense....
Last year they were all supprtive.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/boston-hosts-latest-slutwalk/2011/05/08/AFMHt9QG_video.html
VIDEO!!
That’s the liberal line.....Glen lost his advertisers and was drummed off the air. Didn’t happen. Glen left to start his own internet network and work for himself.
Dear people,
This business first popped up in George Stephanopolis's question to Mitt Romney in a debate about whether states could ban contraceptives. Everyone then wondered out of which orifice George had pulled that one and why he wasted 5 minutes of the debate on it since no one had been talking about such a thing anywhere at any time. It later turned out that it was already in the works as a campaign issue by Democrats running for reelection who sent out a fundraising letter claiming that Republicans in Congress were already meeting to ban contraception.
Obama then ordered religious organizations to provide contraception. When those and other organizations said, correctly, that he did not have Constitutional authority to mandate that they do this, a House committee was organized to discuss Obama's Constitutional overreaching. It was at that meeting that Eleanor Holmes Norton tried to get Sandra Fluke in to testify about contraception. She was told that the meeting was about Constitutional overreach, not contraception. EHN and another Congresswoman made a big scene for the cameras falsely claiming that there were only men, no women, testifying, though there were two women scheduled to testify in a later session. This also was used in Democrat campaign literature to push their meme about Republicans trying to eliminate contraception.
Finally, this group of Democrat politicians organized a meeting in Congress for Fluke to testify. Fluke is a long time activist who deliberately enrolled at Georgetown to fight its insurance policy regarding contraceptives. This all was a set up. You and others have fallen for it. Rush did not. He rightly called her to task for claiming that a third party should pay for her contraceptives in order that she and others could continue a sexually libertine lifestyle.
It should have been expected that you and other advertisers would get complaints by an extremely vocal minority which represents the tiniest fraction of a percent of Rush's listening audience, complaining about something they heard someone else say that he said. I heard what he actually said that day and the next and, given Ms Fluke's (and Nancy Pelosi's) political grandstanding, it was innocuous and an example of reductio ad absurdum ("illustrating absurdity by being absurd" as he has done for years) to illustrate her and the Left's position regarding both sex and contraception/prophylactics and their demand that they be accommodated in the matter by third parties on both ends.
You guys do yourself no favor capitulating to the vocal, extreme left for two reasons: 1. they hate you on principle as a private business, 2. Rush's listeners far outnumber them and represent a greater income stream both actual and potential for your company.
Use the video especially.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/boston-hosts-latest-slutwalk/2011/05/08/AFMHt9QG_video.html
Planned Parenthood and other leftist orgs were sponsoring and promoting these things, including the Washington Post.
I bought a Tempurpedic (best money I ever spent) and I”ve NEVER bought any of the others...but I’l make my voice know to them. Boycotts work both ways. eff ‘em.
Again, all of these advertisers knew about Rush and his “controversial” opinions. Then he made the mistake of defending the Catholic Church- and the sh!t hit the fan. Make this an anti-Catholic issue and you’ll stop this crap immediately!
Where’d you find the email address for Carbonite?
The joke is that they are talking about people instead of ideas. Rush talks about ideas. Anyone can gossip on TV about what someone supposedly said.......I want to hear ideas debated.
They have a form on their website. http://carbonite.custhelp.com/app/ask/contact_method/email/partner/carbonite
Yet when CNN called us Tea Baggers.......**crickets**
I agree with you!
I want to Carbonite.com, clicked on ‘contact us’ in the lower left corner of their web page, then “Support for
Home & Home Office” button, then ‘Email’ then rattled off a message in defense of Rush and my outrage at their stance in support of a 30 year old political activist lawyer that is lesbian who lies about her motives as a “student” and her need for contraception.
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