Free Republic

One day in late spring in the early days of the George W. Bush administration, FDA inspectors visited the headquarters of Sargento cheese in Plymouth, Wisconsin—a routine visit as part of the federal government's efforts to ensure the safety of the food we eat. The inspectors took samples of cheese to test for bacteria. Sargento conducted tests on cheese from the same lot. A week later, the results from both sets of tests were in—the cheese was bacteria-free. Sargento, having gotten the all-clear from the government, shipped the cheese to stores across the country. Two months later, however, the FDA...

About halfway down a Facebook page devoted to organizing boycotts of companies associated with deep-pocket political contributors to Gov. Scott Walker, there was this sobering comment: "I don't think I can be part of this anymore," wrote Mary Possin, a small-business owner in Monona. Possin said she couldn't support the page's directions that consumers not buy products from businesses including Johnsonville Sausage, Sargento, Menards and M&I Bank. "Has anyone considered the impact on the workers of these businesses? They will be the ones who are hurt," Possin added, noting small businesses that carry boycotted products would be most vulnerable. "The...

Have a handful of left-wing advocacy groups been able to hurt Fox News’ “Glenn Beck” program by pressuring their advertisers to drop their ads? Online left-wing news sources are claiming victory after several advertisers – Sargento, GEICO, Lawyers.com, Progressive Insurance, Procter & Gamble, and SC Johnson – have decided to move their spots to other Fox News programming from Beck’s program. However according to Fox News, it’s not costing the network any revenue. ...more...

Mind you, this is a guy who beat Hannity — a show that airs in primetime — in both total viewers and the demo last Friday at 5 p.m. Every last one of these advertisers is simply biding their time, wondering how long they have to wait until nutroots wrath is appeased and they can start advertising on Beck’s show again. I give it six months. Less if Greta gets dumped and GB ends up moved to 10 p.m. Twenty companies have pulled their ads from Beck’s show in just the last two weeks. The moves come after the Fox...

Several national advertisers, including some Wisconsin companies, have pulled their commercials from the broadcast of the Glenn Beck Program on the Fox News Channel after Beck called President Barack Obama a "racist" who has a "deep-seated hatred for white people.... Several advertisers then removed their commercials from the show, including .... Racine-based S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. [and] Plymouth, Wis.-based Sargento Foods Inc., a privately held company, pulled its ads from Beck's show. Barbara Gannon, spokeswoman for Sargento, told BizTimes today, "I can confirm that we have instructed our media buyer not to buy any advertising that would appear during...

What constitutes "hateful speech?" It depends on the views of the individual, or in this case the advocacy group propagating the claim. Earlier this week, Plymouth, Wisc.-based Sargento Food, Inc., along with several other companies, pulled their advertising from the Fox News Channel's "Glenn Beck" program at the behest of a campaign by Color of Change, an advocacy group. ...more...