Tucker Carlson Boycott Is Dumb and Dangerous

Media writer Jack Shafer doesn't want fickle companies having a say in coverage
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 20, 2018 9:20 AM CST
Advertisers Need to Stop Boycotting Tucker Carlson
Fox's Tucker Carlson.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Big advertisers keep pulling out of Tucker Carlson's show on Fox News over his comments that immigrants make the nation "poorer" and "dirtier." Media writer Jack Shafer is no fan of Carlson and his "retrograde views on race, minorities, gays, and women," but he's even less of a fan of this boycott, he writes at Politico. It's a dangerous idea to let fickle corporate advertisers have a say on what people can and can't say on news shows, he writes. He notes that one of the latest companies to ditch Carlson was IHOP. "Seriously, I barely trust IHOP to make my breakfast," writes Shafer. "Why would I expect it to vet my cable news content for me?"

Shafer takes issue with the notion that advertising on Carlson's show is tantamount to endorsing his views, noting that's not how advertising works. If a company takes out a full-page ad in today's Washington Post, does that mean it endorses the Post's views? Of course not, per Shafer. Left-leaning groups such as Media Matters for America are encouraging companies to bail on the Fox show, and Shafer thinks it's a mistake. Critics of Carlson have other ways to express themselves: petitions, pickets, whatever. "But please keep your hands off of Carlson's advertisers," writes Shafer. "In the long run, you'll be hurting only yourself." Click for his full column. (More Tucker Carlson stories.)

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