I would like to darken Andrew Breitbart's day. Following the inspirational and dogged work of @stopbeck at Twitter who has helped peel advertiser after advertiser off of Glenn Beck's show, I want to call out the advertisers on http://bigjournalism.com who are supporting the unethical journalistic practices of Mr. Breitbart and his proteges.
Action calls below the fold.
UPDATE: When you contact advertisers, use politeness and call attention to the fact that their ads appear on the site. It may well be they are unaware.
First, contact ie.edu, a spanish university advertising business journalism programs on bigjournalism.com
The dean is dean@ie.edu and director of communications is dircom@ie.edu
Here is the email I sent:
Dear colleagues:
I see with interest that you are advertising your program in business journalism on bigjournalism.com, the site of Andrew Breitbart.
Are you aware that Mr. Breitbart carries out practices antithetical to ethical journalistic practice?
Specifically, he has promoted edited videos contributed to him without fact checking which have had the following effect:
Led to wrongful dismissal of at least one employee of the organization ACORN who was portrayed, incorrectly, as assisting a pimp of underaged prostitutes (who was in fact a protege of Breitbart posing as a pimp with a friend). The ACORN employee actually called the police to report the incident and is suing Breitbart for false light/defamation.
Led to the temporary dismissal of USDA official Shirley Sherrod. Mr. Breitbart peddled an edited video which seemed to suggest that Ms. Sherrod was publicly making racist statements towards white farmers (she is African American) from 20+ years ago. In fact, the full, unedited video showed that Ms. Sherrod was describing her personal evolution from assuming the said farmers needed no help to a position of actively helping them keep their farm and understanding that economics, not race, were a far bigger issue in the loss of farms in the 80s. Ms. Sherrod has indicated she plans to sue Mr. Breitbart for false light/defamation.
My point is that Mr. Breitbart claims to be a journalist, but his lack of research and fact checking of the videos he shows on his sight and purveys in public discourse would not be tolerated by any mainstream media organization.
Are you sure you want to support such an endeavor with your advertising dollars?
Sincerely,
Second, contact Angie's List -
On twitter: @angieslist
Phone: 1-888-888-LIST (5478)
Email: http://www.angieslist.com/...
Third,
contact safecount.net
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/...
On Twitter: @safecount
Phone: 800-962-7470
Finally, contact Anderson Cooper and CNN. Yes, they have ads on bigjournalism.com
On Twitter: @andersoncooper & @cnn
Email contact of Anderson Cooper: http://www.cnn.com/...
General email to CNN: http://www.cnn.com/...
Stick it to Breitbart!