His show has usually been Fox News third-highest show, behind Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. And since Fox News host Glenn Beck has come on the scene, he has been a thorn in the side of the left-wing machine.
But his July 28 "Fox & Friends" criticism of President Barack Obama's comments on the racially-charged Cambridge, Mass. incident in which a local policeman arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has sent the liberal nutroots over the edge. After left-wing storefronts drew attention to Beck's analysis, groups want to viewers to boycott his sponsors.
"Beck's wildly offensive charge, spurred by the recent controversy over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was the latest low in a longstanding conservative narrative that ludicrously paints white men as the victims of ‘reverse racism' and oppression by minorities. Beck's egregious attack has prompted Color of Change to launch a campaign urging Beck's advertisers - which include GEICO and Proctor & Gamble - to stop sponsoring the shock jock's divisive hate-mongering," Tana Ganeva wrote for the liberal Web site Alternet on Aug. 3. "It's about time."
Good luck with that. Beck's latest book, "Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine," has dominated The New York Times bestsellers list for seven weeks now. He has a wildly popular TV show and a top-5 radio talk show. Boycotting Beck's advertisers will be easier said than done. In fact, it could backfire and solidify fan support for him.
But the campaign launched by Color of Change, a non-profit organization that "exists to strengthen Black America's political voice" isn't an actual boycott, but a plea for people to fill-out a Web form that is set up to send an e-mail to Beck's advertisers.
The left has made efforts to boycott other conservative pundits in the past, including, repeatedly, Rush Limbaugh. Those were so successful that Limbaugh signed a deal reportedly worth $400 million last year.
