Staples
Staples Boycotts Sinclair – Should CBS be Next?
Office supply retailer Staples, Inc. has decided to withdraw advertising buys from news broadcasts on Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. television stations in response to an e-mail campaign by left-wing activists, according to reports by the Washington Post and other newspapers.
The activists had complained that Sinclair was “placing partisan interest ahead of the public interest” by broadcasting conservative and pro-President Bush commentaries.
Staples spokesman Owen Davis told the Washington Post that “concerns expressed by our customers” regarding Sinclair content was a factor in Staples Inc.’s decision.
The National Center for Public Policy Research has contacted Staples to confirm these facts and to ask if Staples would halt advertising on CBS or other media if it received complaints from customers. It has yet to receive a reply.
During the last presidential election, CBS News ran a fabricated story apparently designed to affect the election, then failed to correct its reporting until long past the point at which it had become a focus of national derision.
“If Staples wants to avoid supporting political media, it should start by boycotting CBS,” said National Center President Amy Ridenour. “Sinclair may irritate some on the left by being openly pro-American, but, unlike CBS, it didn’t team up with forgers in an attempt to play dirty politics on the eve of the last presidential race.”
Additional updates to this story, inclusing any response The National Center receives from Staples, will be made available on The National Center’s blog.
hattip: The National Center for Public Policy Research
Addendum:
Amy from NationalCenter.Orgemailed me this update on her experience with Staples:
“Addendum 2 6:41 PM: Paul Capelli of Staples just returned my call. I am posting this quick to get out the basic message, and will elaborate ASAP with an additional update with details.
Basically, it was a good call. Staples believes the facts have been misrepresented by MediaMatters.org. Staples is NOT, according to Paul Capelli, boycotting or declining to purchase future advertising from Sinclair Broadcasting or from Sinclair News.
I wanted to get this online, but will post soon with more details…”
I will post more of what he told me as soon as I get a chance but I wanted to first directly contact the bloggers who had written me about this, so they would know that the fault here, according to Staples, lies with Media Matters.
We’ll see, of course, if Media Matters disputes this, but this may come down to a case of a left-wing group trying to exaggerate its impact, and a corporation that did not quite know how to communicate the facts well after it happened.
Thank you, Amy!
January 5, 2005 - 10:08 PM on January 5th, 2005
“The Point” by Sinclair spokesman Mark Hyman, editorializes a pro-rightwing, pro-Bush during the news on a regular basis.
the group that banned Nightline’s broadcast, recognizing our dead; also shortly before the November election, planned to air a film critical of Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry’s military record. After the plan was publicized, prompting advertiser defections and a plummeting stock price, Sinclair instead aired an Oct. 22 special that incorporated parts of the anti-Kerry documentary and another film more sympathetic to Kerry.
Sinclair’s principles are wrapped up in their profit margin. they are biased & might as well call themselves fair & balanced. since that term now has become a joke, why not?
January 6, 2005 - 01:01 AM on January 6th, 2005
everyoen jumps on sinclair, but where is the heat for CNN, CBS and all the rest of the liberal media?
January 6, 2005 - 01:52 AM on January 6th, 2005
Sinclair actually operates a couple of CBS stations (http://www.sbgi.net/business/television.shtml).
I hate comercials anyway.
January 6, 2005 - 07:15 AM on January 6th, 2005
A pity that Sinclair did not stick by its guns. A Red State catalog listing might have helped their bottom line. That “Sinclair’s principles are wrapped up in their profit margin” is used as a pejorative tells a lot. We know that the major network care nothing at all for money.
January 6, 2005 - 07:29 AM on January 6th, 2005
It is funny how CBS is starting to use the “fair and balanced” phrase when talking about the direction of the news divison in their future.
Sinclair can pick up other advertisers.
January 6, 2005 - 07:35 AM on January 6th, 2005
When Sinclair is offically told by staples, I would thank them for their business. Then I would offer cut rate advertising to its competition.
January 6, 2005 - 08:17 AM on January 6th, 2005
Well, look what Jen did.
January 6, 2005 - 08:19 AM on January 6th, 2005
CBS fair & balanced. I didn’t know they were injecting comedy into the news.
Fiction, yes. Comedy, no.
January 6, 2005 - 10:28 AM on January 6th, 2005
Did anyone else notice that the spokeswoman in Lisa’s piece refers to CBS as ‘teaming up with forgers’ and Sinclair as being ‘pro-American’? I wasn’t aware that being anti-Kerry was being pro-American. Both networks have work to do, especially CBS because of its fine journalistic tradition. But CBS’s trangressions have not been proven to be deliberate on the part of the network, while Sinclair’s bias is policy.
January 6, 2005 - 10:32 AM on January 6th, 2005
Sandy, representing Robert Mugabe well today. Don’t you have an appointment in Sri Lanka to misappropriate UN funds? I hear the UN people’s first task was to assure themselves of the abailability of 24 hour catering. Do caterers know how to effecively distribute aid?
January 6, 2005 - 10:40 AM on January 6th, 2005
10,
PCD, you have responded to nothing I said except to spout UN conspiracy theories that have nothing to do with this post or my comments you are directly addressing. Can you please stop evoking a certain Zimbabwean dictator whenever you address me, as well?
January 6, 2005 - 10:53 AM on January 6th, 2005
wallywest – i think i may have heard some critiques of CBS & CNN that you mention in #2. maybe even on this site, tho i’d have to check to make sure.
Sinclair gets a little heat and it’s back to attacking the usual suspects, without commenting on the subject at hand.
now that’s good politics. dishonest, but typical.
January 6, 2005 - 10:54 AM on January 6th, 2005
test
January 6, 2005 - 10:59 AM on January 6th, 2005
This infatuation with Goats is interesting.
January 6, 2005 - 11:04 AM on January 6th, 2005
bahhh…
January 6, 2005 - 11:05 AM on January 6th, 2005
15 – goat roper…grow up!
January 6, 2005 - 11:12 AM on January 6th, 2005
Sandy, can you stop practicing the Policies of Mugabe in your posts? Can you stop trying to spread assets and wealth you don’t own to your friends?
Can you stop kissing up to Annan and the UN?
January 6, 2005 - 11:12 AM on January 6th, 2005
Sandy, can you stop practicing the Policies of Mugabe in your posts? Can you stop trying to spread assets and wealth you don’t own to your friends?
Can you stop kissing up to Annan and the UN?
January 6, 2005 - 11:15 AM on January 6th, 2005
who would you like sandy to kiss up too?
January 6, 2005 - 11:16 AM on January 6th, 2005
Give it up PCD, Sandy is a Marxist at heart.
January 6, 2005 - 11:54 AM on January 6th, 2005
17,18,20.
You guys are having a discussion that has nothing to do with what I’m saying. If you want to argue with what I’ve said, go ahead. If you’re just going to slander me, I have no point in being here.
20 – I’m certainly a democratic socialist. That doesn’t make me a Marxist (which is either an academic description of one’s conceptual viewpoint, or a violent revolutionary).
January 6, 2005 - 12:00 PM on January 6th, 2005
21 – we don’t quibble with technicalities here, sandy. you’re just a damn commie.
remember, you’re either with us or against us. in the black & white world that Bush has fantasized, there is no nuance, no mitigation, no gray.
just moral certitude, that just happens to include an immoral war and the deaths of thousands of innocents.
you damn commie.
January 6, 2005 - 04:00 PM on January 6th, 2005
To clarify that Staples does not have a policy against advertising on Sinclair Broadcasting news, Staples has the following statement:
Our media buying process with Sinclair Broadcasting stations has recently been misrepresented by an organization with no affiliation to Staples. Staples regularly drops and adds specific programs from our media buying schedule, as we evaluate and adjust how to best reach our customers. We do not let political agendas drive our media buying decisions.
Staples does not support any political party. We advertise with a variety of media outlets, but do not necessarily share the same views of these organizations or what they report. As we have done for a number of years, Staples will continue to advertise on Sinclair Broadcasting stations.
January 6, 2005 - 10:07 PM on January 6th, 2005
but not on a news program that is blatantly unfair, biased & in the bag for extremists.
January 8, 2005 - 07:37 AM on January 8th, 2005
Even the mouth pieces for the left can’t get it right!:roll: