Ugh, this just makes me so darn mad. Okay, so last week Staples seemed to be pulling its advertising from Sinclair Broadcasting networks, because Sinclair runs a pro-conservative nightly commentary from its VP, Mark Hyman, every night. Media Matters For America wanted there to be a counterpoint offered to progressive commentators, and in lieu of that asked advertisers to pull their ads. So Staples came out and said they would.
And we all rejoiced. But we rejoiced too soon. A day later, Staples was saying they would continue advertising on Sinclair, just not on their news programs. Disappointing, but still better than nothing.
Well, today we officially got handed our 'nothing'. Full text below the fold.
Statement about Staples media buying and Sinclair Broadcasting
To clarify that Staples does not have a policy against advertising on Sinclair Broadcasting news, 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. We do not let political agendas drive our media buying decisions.
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.
The link
Actually, Staples DOES support a political party. In fact, they support two. The Democrats, with 40% of their political donations, and the Republicans with 60%.
And they've clearly indicated now that they don't support OUR voices at all.
The only possible option for us now is to boycott Staples in a massive, organized and ongoing way. Not because they give money to the Republicans, but because they told us they were with us, and then, like John Kerry, they sold us out when the pressure got high. Now Drudge can crow about it on his front page and O'Reilly can say Media Matters did the wrong thing.
I will not spend another dime at Staples. I encourage you to do so too.