Did you know that media watchdog Media Matters' primary goal was the destruction of small business in America? It's totally true, in Rush Limbaugh's head.
Media Matters founder David Brock penned this op-ed in Politico, which attempted, among other things, to explain that letting Limbaugh's advertisers know that they were sponsoring a three-day tirade against a private citizen, in which she was labeled a "slut," and a "prostitute" wasn't really a first amendment issue.
There is a myth that advertiser actions, like those now targeted at Limbaugh, impinge on his constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech. The truth is just the opposite: They are a demonstration of the power of the First Amendment.
We are not a government entity attempting to stifle Limbaugh’s speech. Instead, we are using our right of free assembly to join together and raise our voices against Limbaugh. We are, in fact, engaging in the marketplace of ideas, one in which people, examining all of the facts, can choose whether it is in their financial interest to support hate radio.
To which Limbaugh responds, "Brock wants to kill small business in America."
Seriously.
By putting small business in the crosshairs of their war on expression, Media Matters is causing real harm. They are hurting these businesses, their employees and their families. As a business owner, imagine waking up one morning and being assaulted by hundreds of coordinated attacks from operatives who never were or will be your customers.
These Media Matters mobs bear a simple message: Renounce our enemies or become one of them. They distribute target lists of advertiser phone numbers, email addresses, Facebook links and Twitter handles, and then they come out of nowhere, en masse, against selected advertisers in rotation. They barrage small business with threats until they cancel their advertising.
Uh huh. Small businesses
like Acura, American Express, Discover Card, Exxon Mobil, McDonald's, NBC, Radio Shack, Home Depot. You know, the little guys just struggling to make ends meet.
Let’s be clear — most advertisers aren’t making a political statement when they decide where to spend their money.
That's right. And when they find out the kinds of political statements that their advertising dollars are paying for, they decide to spend their money elsewhere. Which is precisely what's happened to Limbaugh. He's tried pretending that he's the victim, that he was
set up by a vast left-wing conspiracy. That failed, so now he's trying to say that his advertisers, those businesses that have left him in droves because of the hateful things he said, are the victims. You'd have to be a dittohead to buy that one.
There was one victim here: Sandra Fluke. The woman Limbaugh relentlessly attacked for three days running. No amount of bluster and blather from Limbaugh is going to change that fact.
