Tucker Carlson Faces Advertising Boycott Over Immigration Comments -- 2nd update
19 Dicembre 2018 - 4:14PM
Dow Jones News
By Benjamin Mullin
Advertisers continued to pull commercials from Fox News program
" Tucker Carlson Tonight" after the show's host said on-air that
certain immigrants were making the U.S. "dirtier and more
divided."
TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., Ancestry.com and IHOP on Tuesday
said they had pulled their ad spots from the show, one of several
news-and-commentary programs that anchors Fox News' prime-time
lineup.
They followed several other advertisers, including the
personal-finance site NerdWallet, that had removed spots from the
show since Mr. Carlson's remarks last Thursday.
"We stand for welcoming folks from all backgrounds and beliefs
into our restaurants and continually evaluate ad placements to
ensure they align with our values," an IHOP spokeswoman said in an
email. "In this case, we will no longer be advertising on this
show."
The controversy began after the show featured a segment about a
group of migrants from Central America encamped in the Mexico
border city of Tijuana. Mr. Carlson compared the caravan's effect
on Tijuana to the consequences of illegal migration in the U.S.,
concluding the segment by saying that "unregulated" immigration
made America "poorer and dirtier and more divided." He reiterated
that point of view on his show Monday night.
Fox News blamed the boycott on advocacy groups including Media
Matters and Sleeping Giants that called out advertisers who
sponsored his show. "We cannot and will not allow voices like
Tucker Carlson to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation
efforts," the network said.
Media Matters and Sleeping Giants said it was the advertisers
who ultimately decided to pull their TV spots. "Fox News executives
are dismissing advertiser concerns and implying that their
advertisers are either pawns of Media Matters or were duped," Media
Matters said.
Advertisers boycotting Mr. Carlson's show have moved their ads
to other shows on the network, and no revenue has been lost as a
result of the boycott, according to a Fox News spokeswoman. Several
advertisers have kept their ads on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," she
said.
The Wall Street Journal parent News Corp and Fox News parent
21st Century Fox Inc. share common ownership.
Laura Ingraham, who hosts the Fox News show "The Ingraham
Angle," has also weathered an advertiser backlash in the wake of
controversial remarks, most recently after she compared immigration
detention centers to "summer camps."
The effectiveness of a sustained protest against a TV host isn't
determined by advertisers alone, said Rashad Robinson, the
president of Color of Change, a nonprofit civil-rights advocacy
organization. It is too early to tell whether the ad boycott of Mr.
Carlson's show will affect the host's status at the network, Mr.
Robinson said, in part because that could be influenced by other
factors such as internal pressure within the organization.
Mr. Carlson's show is among the network's most popular and its
ratings haven't suffered since his remarks, according to Nielsen
Media Research.
Although advertiser boycotts allow consumers to flex their
muscles by putting pressure on TV networks, they run the risk of
permitting marketers to determine what speech is OK and what isn't,
said Matt McAllister, a communications professor at Pennsylvania
State University. Advertisers are ultimately interested in the
bottom line, "so they're not a neutral party in deciding what ideas
should circulate and which shouldn't," he said.
Write to Benjamin Mullin at Benjamin.Mullin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 19, 2018 09:59 ET (14:59 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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