Ben Cohen tosses something out there, so by Cokie’s Law, we’re required to take it up:
Advertisers pulling their brands from Beck’s show is a signal that there are boundaries that cannot be crossed. It is a warning to Fox that their bottom line will be affected if it continues to promote such hateful speech, and that a growing cross section of the public are turning their backs on the Fox brand.
And the bottom line for Murdoch is that he cannot tolerate it for long.
And the problem with this line of reasoning? The various advertisers that have pulled their products have done so from Beck’s program, and/but not from FOXnews as a whole. The bottom-line is just the same; those ads just moved to another time slot, and less-caring ads moved from that other time slot into their place. The Masters has a harder time paying its way than does Glenn Beck, for Christ’s sake. And so, Murdoch, ever conscious of the bottom line without regard to particular policy (here Cohen and I agree) will say: gimme gimme gimme.
Lemkin 