According to the Los Angeles Times, Lieu wrote a letter to Lowe's CEO calling the company's removal of ad spots from the program "bigoted, shameful and un-American," as well as "profoundly ignorant."OK, that's fine. He has an opinion. But soon he's on the ramp flying over the shark:
The senator also called for Lowe's to reinstate its advertising, along with an apology, or contend with legislative action.In other words, Lowe's (or maybe the other 60+ advertisers who've pulled their ads since the show began) should have to continue buying ad time even if they choose not to. If they refuse, a legislative body will punish them. Most people would call that fascism. How ironic the CNN story would follow that by quoting Russell Simmons as follows:
"This can't happen in America, [Lowe's] needs to fix this immediately...There are American principles at stake here," Simmons told Entertainment Weekly. "This country is built on religious freedom. This is the kind of hate that tears the country apart."Yep, there are American principles at stake here, he's just confused about which ones. The main one is a business' right to advertise as they see fit without government mandate so long as there are no laws being broken. Maybe Lowe's shouldn't have pulled the ads if they were only about pressure from the Geller-backed group, but it's more likely they saw the storm coming and decided to pull the rip cord hoping nobody would notice. Either way they lose. This is why I don't like boycotts.
Ironically, this story amounts to a ton of free publicity for the show thanks to Lowe's. Meanwhile the store will probably draw the attention of the non-partisan, non-religious, non-Obama supporting Obama backers of OWS.
2 comments:
Straight from the mouths of the people who support the government mandates.
You just have to wonder if people really listen to themselves talk. Someone should ask Simmons if he should be forced to advertise on FOX News.
From what I have heard so far, Lowes is not hurting from this decision.
No, it won't hurt them very much. Many people still associate Islam with the 9/11 attack, which is apparently the reason for the show to begin with.
I don't think they were trying to make a statement, they just realized after the fact that the show was controversial and decided to flee. Someone probably got chewed pretty good.
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