Mark Tapscott: Boycotts can work both ways, Wal-Mart
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
August 20, 2009
Wal-Mart has joined a handful of craven corporations caving to demands from the radical Left that they withdraw their advertising from Glenn Beck's Fox News program to protest what the repressive zealots view as unacceptable speech by the controversial cable host.
Beck's critics are four political activists with an outfit called ColorofChange.org. They are outraged that Beck called President Obama a "racist" with "an abiding hatred of white people." Is Beck correct? I have no idea, but he has a right to voice his opinion, just as the four people with ColorofChange have a right to theirs.
But this quartet beating the drums for repression aren't satisfied just to publicize their disagreement with Beck, they also want to silence him because, they claim, he is trying "to convince the American public that President Obama's agenda is about serving the needs of Black communities at White people's expense."
Beck's views are, according to ColorofChange.org, "repulsive, divisive and shouldn't be on the air." Funny, I don't recall that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of expression to everybody except those whose opinions the four members of ColorofChange.og find "repulsive and divisive."
There is more to be said later in this space on ColorofChange. For the moment, the focus here is on Wal-Mart, which has joined Geico, Men's Warehouse, Proctor & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, Sargento, and a few others in pulling advertising from Fox that might have been slated to run during Beck's 5 pm slot.
Shareholders in these corporate monuments to brainless marketing will be interested to know that Beck's audience is bigger than those watching all of his competitors on MSNBC, CNN, CNBC and HLN combined. Don't be surprised if those same shareholders also wonder who should be served first - the millions of potential customers watching Beck or the Potemkin creation of a former MoveOn.org organizer and his three cohorts.
My guess is that many among Beck's viewers - and millions more people who have never watched his show - would be outraged to know these corporations are aiding and abetting a vicious, hypocritical campaign to slander him by an outfit apparently created for just such a purpose. Many of these viewers will also want to know what they can do to help Beck.
I have a suggestion for them - Boycott Wal-Mart. Remind these corporate cop-outs that politically inspired boycotts can go both ways, but the economic consequences are likely to be far more devastating to those who depend on consumers whose political views span the ideological spectrum.
Or, to put it more bluntly for the marketing geniuses in Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters, there are far more Americans who agree with Beck and/or simply love the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment than the anti-free speech comissars on the extreme fringe of the far Left who are trying to shut him up.
And, given the likely demographic overlap of Beck viewers and Wal-Mart shoppers, the monster Big Box store chain is the perfect target of a counter-boycott. Can you guess who is more likely to feel pain first - the cable news guy whose ratings are skyrocketing as Obama's plunge or Wal-Mart?
Being an ink-stained wretch from the chronically under-paid world of newspaper journalism, Wal-Mart has long been a regular stop for my family. Over the years, we've spent thousands and thousands of hard-earned dollars on everything from Ol Roy dog food to countless bags of mulch for the yard.
How many dollars will we be spending at Wal-Mart as long as Wal-Mart supports the Beck boycott? Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.
Does Wal-Mart have low prices? Usually but the difference is never so great that we can't afford to check out stores like K-Mart, Target, and Costco. Who knows, we just might lose the Wal-Mart habit for good.
And in an age of viral marketing and Internet saturation, this column might even be the start of something that will make Mike Duke, Wal-Mart's new CEO and president, see his marketing department in a whole new light.
More from Mark Tapscott
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