Air America blacklist; "offensive programming"?

As previously discussed, mysterious forces have encouraged around one hundred very large advertisers to avoid advertising on Air America Radio. Tin-foil hat wearers claim this is a "blacklist" and is part of a "conspiracy", despite Jim's Bunch disclaiming all responsibility (XE83-371P).

Now, the MSM - in the person of the free Pasadena Weekly - has dug into this story. According to them, AAR flack Jamie Horn says:

"This is nothing new. We have been dealing with this since we launched two years ago. It is unfortunate that some advertisers are afraid of supporting the progressive voice in this country."

A Navy spokesman says:

"The US Navy employs a media strategy to leverage programming that effectively reaches the Navy's target market -- potential recruits -- and that type of programming typically does not include 'All News,' 'All Talk' or 'News/Talk' radio formats."

Nestle says:

"It is our policy to ensure communications are associated with neutral positions. Our policy does not single out Air America, but applies to political programming in general."

And, Hewlett-Packard responds titularly:

"Media relationships are chosen to extend HP's reach to certain target audiences and not based on media content. The relationships should not be construed in any way as endorsements of such content. As a general practice, HP strives whenever possible to avoid ad rotations that include offensive programming."

ABC told the PW that such blacklists are common, but didn't provide them with any similar lists for Sean Hannity or Larry Elder. Note, of course, that the original memo was apparently smuggled out of somehwere.

The PW couldn't reach eHarmony for comment, and we didn't even bother trying.

Posted in Meta at November 9, 2006 07:17 AM

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