The Tea Party organization FreedomWorks is ramping up pressure on the NBC/MSNBC-owning cable provider Comcast.
On Thursday, the group launched a campaign to get the 22 million households that subscribe to Comcast to dump the provider saying in an email and a video, "You're paying for Al Sharpton's salary" (video follows with commentary):
"It's a disgrace Sharpton has his own TV show. It's even worse that your money is making him rich."
That video is also going to become part of a commercial to air in certain parts of the country where Comcast is a dominant cable provider.
The organization's "Stop Funding Comcast Media Bias" page reads:
Comcast’s news organizations, especially MSNBC, have aggressively promoted President Obama’s political agenda through its biased news coverage. MSNBC’s hosts have consistently gone beyond responsible journalism by manipulating news events to advance a left-wing political agenda. Comcast cable subscribers can take action against Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and his biased media empire by changing their cable TV service provider. By exercising marketplace choice, consumers can prevent their money from supporting media propaganda and paying the salaries of Al Sharpton and Chris Matthews.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, FreedomWorks sent out 2.3 million email messages Thursday to its vast membership concerning this matter.
This isn't the first time FW has gone after Comcast.
The group organized a protest at the company's annual shareholder meeting in May.
FW members Tom and Deneen Borelli appeared at the meeting with the former asking CEO Brian Roberts, "Why would a conservative person in any state want their money to go pay for Al Sharpton’s salary?"
Great question. Let's see how the 2.3 million people receiving this email answer it.
Stay tuned.
*****Update: Reached by email, Tom Borelli added:
We launched the Stop Comcast campaign to warn the corporate owner of NBC and MSNBC that conservatives are no longer willing to pay for the news outlet's propaganda. Comcast's business model that includes both content and delivery offers an opportunity for politically conservative families to send a financial message to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts that they are not willing to pay for biased content that opposes their values. Many of our grassroots activists are extremely frustrated over the way MSNBC twists the news to support the left-wing political agenda, and our action center allows them an opportunity to strike back.
I'm confident our grassroots activists are unwilling to financially support the likes of Sharpton, Matthews and the other radical hosts that undermine conservative efforts to promote prosperity.
By hitting Comcast's revenue stream, our campaign enables grassroots activists to take meaningful action against media bias.
The Stop Comcast campaign follows our participation at the company’s annual shareholder meeting where we warned Comcast CEO Brian Roberts about the financial consequences of having Al Sharpton as a host on its network.
