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Home Front: Culture Wars
Staples Boycotts Sinclair; Will It Boycott CBS?
2005-01-06
Staples, the office supply retailer, said it will stop advertising on Sinclair news broadcasts, after liberal activists complained that Sinclair was "placing partisan interest ahead of the public interest" by broadcasting conservative and pro-President Bush commentaries.
Simple enough. Conservatives can take their business to Staples.
Staples spokesman Owen Davis told the Washington Post that "concerns expressed by our customers" regarding Sinclair were indeed a factor in Staples decision to withdraw its advertising from the network.
Customers? More like liberal pressure groups: Last month, the Media Matters-led coalition launched a campaign to change Sinclair's news programming. Charging the broadcaster with ''continued misuse of public airwaves to air one-sided politically charged programming without a counterpoint," the coalition is encouraging Americans to call or e-mail their complaints to advertisers such as Staples, McDonald's Corp., Target Corp., Kraft Foods Inc., and Sprint. While other companies on the coalition's published list of Sinclair advertisers have sent either a stock response or no response at all to 37,000 e-mailed complaints, said Media Matters president David Brock, Staples responded that as of Jan. 10, it would no longer run ads on ''The Point." When the coalition learned of that response, Brock said it confirmed the information with Staples and then issued a press release. ''We hope that something like this could focus attention on the issue," Brock said. ''What we learned this fall is that Sinclair seemed to be susceptive to public pressure."
Still simple. Conservatives can now take their business to Office Depot.
The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative/free market think tank, said it has contacted Staples to ask if Staples will also stop advertising on CBS (or other media) if it receives complaints from customers.
Conservatives have already for the most part taken their business from See BS...
It has not yet received a reply. "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." On Sept. 8, two months before the November 2004 election, CBS News ran a fabricated story apparently intended to damage President Bush politically, then failed to correct its reporting until -- in the National Center's words -- CBS and Dan Rather "had become a focus of national derision."
Posted by:Steve

#16  So David Brock is once again a proven liar first, journalist second
Posted by: Frank G   2005-01-06 6:42:33 PM  

#15  2b, it is wonderful to think [more] clearly, but for some reason all my clothes now have yellow spots ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-06 5:27:23 PM  

#14  Dang The AOS is like wired this week.
Sounds like they discovered JavaScript or somesuch thing.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-01-06 4:59:27 PM  

#13  Boy, that didn't take long:

Statement about Staples media buying and Sinclair Broadcasting

In response to recent reports about Staples media buying and Sinclair Broadcasting, 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.

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.

Contact: Paul Capelli, 508-253-8530
paul.capelli@staples.com
Posted by: Steve   2005-01-06 4:34:00 PM  

#12  That was a heck of a piece of ASL yesterday. I've used it six times already.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-01-06 3:38:37 PM  

#11  Ha, ha! I just purchased a new HP 7310 from Amazon which I had planned to pick up from Staples today. *snicker* Seldom do I get such sweet revenge so fast.

It cost exactly the same price, but with free shipping, it's more convenient. That's the worst part for Staples, their sales staff actually sold me the machine, but I didn't have room to take it home, so I was going back to get it today.

I'll be sending them the receipt and maybe a copy of .com's sign language photo from yesterday's rantburg :-)

I think I recall hearing on the radio that Staples was recently bought out ...or merged with another Co. I wonder if that's behind this. Might have been the Office Despot...need to go have some more tumeric to remember.
Posted by: 2b   2005-01-06 1:21:04 PM  

#10  2b - be sure to FAX a copy of the receipt from a 'non-staples' store to the Staples HQ.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2005-01-06 1:08:17 PM  

#9  The liberal believes that the group has a right to control every aspect of everyone's life. He may permit many freedoms, but only those of which liberals approve. Abstract or general freedom holds no appeal for him. The limbic instinct of the inveterate liberal is to harry, regulate, and stifle the individual, of whose penchant for independent action he is profoundly distrustful.

Of course he does not think that he is stifling and imposing, but improving and instructing. For the unwilling he has no patience. The liberal is a creature of the homiletic herd, like a gnu wielding tracts, and believes in the "the masses," in their infinite plasticity and potential for uplift and betterment, guided by him. Particularly he wants to uplift those who do not want to be uplifted, as their independence might be infectious. He sees himself in the capacity of the patient mother of a society of wayward two-year-olds who must be diapered, formed, and taught.

Thus his love of government in all its meddlesome intrusiveness, pedestrian witlessness, and unrestrained drive for dominion. He-or rather more often, she-knows that without coercion, some people will not do as they ought: that they will besot themselves, behave wrongheadedly, teach their children heaven knows what, and march off in all different directions. They must be restrained. And since the restrained usually find ways of evading the constricting tentacles, ever more and more-detailed laws must be enacted to thwart each new escape. Thus the government will eventually come to dictate the altitude, material, color, shape, texture, and compressive strength of toilet seats.

Liberalism is a feminine creed, embodying the kindness, short horizons, modest familiarity with reason, and placidity of the sex. It wants to buy people nice things without reflecting on how to pay for them. It believes in goodness but doesn't often get much further, being benevolent while falling short of beneficence. As good mothers will, it tries to protect everyone from everything.

This is why the Democratic Party unrelentingly promotes security. Children must wear helmets while riding bicycles, swimming pools must not have deep ends, canoeists must wear life preservers, we must outlaw guns, and smoking, and drinking while driving, and we should all wear sunscreen so as to avoid melanoma. We must worry about safety until there is nothing left in life but its preservation.

With the seldom recognized totalitarianism of the female, liberals seek to impose happiness, whether desired or not, by therapy and mood-altering drugs, whether desired or not. People must be happy, must be safe, must be forcibly socialized to a life of orderly boring routine whether they want it or not. The herd will provide for all; the price is that all must yield to the herd. Thus the liberal aversion to any form of self-defense, whether conducted with a gun or a baseball bat. Self-defense is distressingly individual.
Courtesy of Fred Reed, Fred on Everything

Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-01-06 1:05:47 PM  

#8  COOL! I was just on my way out the door to buy a $400 HP printer at the local Staples. Seriously, I was!!

Off to Office Depot. Actually Amazon is easier. I spose I should send Staples a note to let them know.

No offense, Staples, it's just business.
Posted by: 2b   2005-01-06 1:02:01 PM  

#7  Sorry - it isn't politics. Staples, like any other large business, is looking out for themselves.

I suspect that if PETA could get significant numbers of people to complain that a brand of office furniture because squirrels were supposedly harmed during its manufacture, Staples would stop selling that brand.
Posted by: Pappy   2005-01-06 12:57:40 PM  

#6  Aw, hell - now I'll have to go all the way to Office Depot or Office Max.

Staples is more convenient, but if they're going to pull this crap....

They don't have to spend their money at Sinclair, and I don't have to spend my money at Staples.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2005-01-06 12:53:22 PM  

#5  Oops--my mistake--it was actually a different site, "ChooseTheBlue.com". Here's the page of retailers.

Surprisingly, the donations from Staples were 61% Republican and 39% Democrat? This article really seems contrary to where they're putting their money.
Posted by: Dar   2005-01-06 12:31:30 PM  

#4  Regardless of the recent media fiascos Target has been making (booting Salvation Army bell-ringers this Christmas, for example), they donated heavily Republican. I was trying to find the list of corporate donors and donations on BuyBlue.org that I'd seen some weeks ago, but they seem to have removed it. Target and Wal-Mart were both heavy "red" donors.
Posted by: Dar   2005-01-06 12:26:04 PM  

#3  Staples sucks anyway.

And I try to avoid Target ever since they kicked out Santa Claus. (salvation army bell-righers).

Looks like Office Depot for me too.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2005-01-06 11:38:44 AM  

#2  Well...I guess Office Depot is the place for me and my co-workers, eh?
Posted by: mjh   2005-01-06 11:34:21 AM  

#1  Staples = WIMPS. I don't have to buy at Staples. Left wing buttheads. Anti free speech nut jobs. The lefties want to be able to say whatever they want to say but want to shut down any disagreement. That is very un-American. By the way Target, I believe, is french owned.
Posted by: John Q.   2005-01-06 11:33:10 AM  

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