February 1, 2003
Take Back the MediaAn email about Take Back the Media described that group's call for a boycott of the companies that advertise during the Rush Limbaugh Show. There's a full article on CBS MarketWatch. You have to sign up as a member of MarketWatch to read the article, which is annoying. But the contents of the article are interesting, and suggest that the boycott strategy might be a good one if we want to erode corporate support for heinous media figures like Limbaugh. The MarketWatch story commented that boycotts are thought of as a right-wing tactic, which surprised me since I'm old enough to remember the boycott of grapes called for by Cesar Chavez and the union of migrant farm workers. I also remember the boycott of Nestle's because they promoted powdered baby formula over breast-feeding in countries where mothers lacked access to sanitary water supplies and often over-diluted the powdered formula because it was so expensive. Then there was the boycott of canned tuna, because the methods used to catch the tuna also killed dolphins. When I thought about it, though, I couldn't really remember a popular leftist boycott in the 1980s-1990s. Americans have no sense of history, so I suppose it makes sense that in twenty years a leftist tactic could be revised into a right-wing tactic. It is always good to see progressives organizing and taking action against the right. There's been all too little of it lately (although there's more of it than we see, given the pretty much total right-wing control of the media). While the right in the U.S. has grown more cohesive, organized and powerful, the left has almost disappeared. The few remaining progressives lack visibility, not to mention organization and a compelling vision of what a free and democratic United States would look like. It may be that the pending U.S. war against Iraq brings more progressives out of the woodwork, but that remains to be seen. One thing is for sure--ranged against the wealth, political power, and resources of the American right-wing, progressives are going to find even publicizing our existence an uphill battle. It's important that we not cede effective tactics like boycotts to the right, and it is good to see that Take Back the Media is reclaiming a potentially powerful strategy. Posted by kalital at February 1, 2003 7:50 PM Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsPost a comment |
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