[lbo-talk] Air America on Ad Blacklist?

[Michael Givel]

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2983

Media Advisory

Air America on Ad Blacklist? ABC document: Sponsors shun liberal
network

10/31/06

An internal memo from ABC Radio Networks to its affiliates reveals scores
of powerful sponsors have a standing order that their commercials never
be placed on syndicated Air America programming that airs on ABC
affiliates.

The October 25 memo was provided to FAIR by the Peter B. Collins Show, a
syndicated radio show originating on the West Coast.

Headlined "Air America Blackout" and addressed "Dear Traffic
Director"-referring to the radio station staffer who coordinates
programming and advertising-the memo gives the following order to
affiliates:

Please be advised that Hewlett Packard has purchased schedules with ABC
Radio Networks between October 30th and December 24th, 2006. Please make
sure you blackout this advertiser on your station, as they do not wish it
to air on any Air America affiliate.

The directive then advises ABC Radio Network affiliates to take note of a
list of other sponsors who do not want their programming to run during
Air America programming.

Please see below for a complete list of all advertisers requesting that
NONE of their commercials air within Air America programming.

The list, totaling 90 advertisers, includes some of largest and most
well-known corporations advertising in the U.S.: Wal-Mart, GE, Exxon
Mobil, Microsoft, Bank of America, Fed-Ex, Visa, Allstate, McDonald's,
Sony and Johnson & Johnson. The U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Navy are
also listed as advertisers who don't want their commercials to air on Air
America.

The ABC memo is evidence of the potentially censorious effect that
advertisers' political preferences can have on the range of views
presented in the media. When Al Gore proposed launching a progressive TV
network, a Fox News executive told Advertising Age (10/13/03): "The
problem with being associated as liberal is that they wouldn't be going
in a direction that advertisers are really interested in.... If you go
out and say that you are a liberal network, you are cutting your
potential audience, and certainly your potential advertising pool, right
off the bat." (See Extra!, 11-12/03.)

FAIR's call to the ABC contact person listed on the memo, to ask if
similar "blackout" lists exist for other shows, including
conservative-leaning programs, has not been returned.

Click here to subscribe!

A special offer: buy a subscription to Extra! for two years at $40 and
get a FREE copy of Jeff Cohen's latest release, Cable News Confidential:
My Misadventures in Corporate Media - a scathingly witty and painfully
frank account of what for-profit media are really like. U.S. orders
only.

Gloria Tristani on Benton media studies, Diane Farsetta on RTNDA and
video news releases (10/27/06-11/2/06)

Feel free to respond to FAIR ( fair at fair.org ). We can't reply to
everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate
documented examples of media bias or censorship. And please send copies
of your correspondence with media outlets, including any responses, to
fair at fair.org.