William A. Jacobson
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Ten Top Reasons I’m Happy About The Glenn Beck Boycott
A group called Color of Change is putting pressure on advertisers to stop running ads on the Glenn Beck show on Fox News because Glenn Beck said mean things about Barack Obama. Apparently several advertisers, including Geico, Sargento Cheese, and others, have succumbed to the fear.
Needless to say, the enlightened visionaries of the left-wing blogosphere are jumping for joy at the boycott. Much like the boycott of Mormon-owned businesses in the aftermath of Prop. 8 in California, the boycott aims to silence — not just criticize — opposing political speech.
Is it any surprise or coincidence that this boycott is taking place against a vocal opponent of Obama’s health care restructuring and cap-and-trade plans just at the moment that opposition to such plans is coming to a head? No, the boycott simply is one part of the overall push to silence opposition, much like calling protesters un-American and political terrorists.
Nonetheless, I am happy to see this boycott. Here are my ten top reasons:
The boycott will fail, as do virtually all boycotts.
The failure of the boycott will be a huge victory for freedom of speech.
The failure of the boycott will diminish the power of the boycotters.
The diminished power of the boycotters will empower grassroots opposition to health care restructuring and cap-and-trade.
The boycott reveals once again that many liberals are hypocrites who only want freedom for their speech.
The boycott reveals that the left-wing blogosphere is afraid of other voices being heard.
The boycott reminds us that large corporations are spineless in the face of liberal pressure groups.
The boycott reminds us also that we should not confuse large corporations with free markets or free enterprise or freedom.
The boycott will tell us whether Fox News has a spine.
The boycott is a reflection that Democrats have few positive arguments in support of their agenda and need to create enemies.
Entire article at Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion
William A. Jacobson is an Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Cornell Law School
