September 10, 2009

Beck Watch: Who’s Still Advertising?

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Glenn Beck earned another scalp today as the President’s communications director for the National Endowment of the Arts, Yossi Sergant, was asked to resign for urging politically inclined artists to support the Obama administration’s agenda. This comes after Obama’s green jobs czar Van Jones was forced to resign after Beck repeatedly (and successfully) portrayed him as a liberal ideologue.

For the past few weeks, Color of Change has been urging advertisers to withdraw their support from Beck’s program after his racially charged remarks about Barack Obama. They boasted this week that 62 major advertisers have already joined the boycott. And Media Matters recently got on the case, tracking which advertisers have stayed loyal to the widely popular Glenn Beck program. Here’s today’s list:

  • Lear Capital
  • Legacy Publishing Company (The Total Transformation Program)
  • The Foundation for a Better Life
  • News Corp. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • Carbonite
  • LifeLock
  • Mortgage relief hotline 1-888-336-5967
  • Ashley Furniture (Which previously stated it had “pulled” its advertising from Beck)
  • Rosland Capital
  • National Review
  • Conservatives for Patient’s Rights
  • Merit Financial
  • Superior Gold Group
  • Loan modification helpline 800-917-8549
  • IRSTaxAgreements.com
  • Clarity Media Group (The Weekly Standard)
  • Roche Diagnostics (Accu-Chek Aviva)
  • Zero Technologies (ZeroWater)

For a program that used to include ads of AT&T, UPS and Bank of America, it’s clear that Beck’s advertising has taken a serious hit. But as he continues to earn scalps, it appears that his persuasive potency hasn’t yet felt the same strain.

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That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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