Calls To Boycott Tucker Carlson’s Sponsors Go Viral
In the wake of the release of damning recordings of Tucker Carlson expressing misogynistic views during his time as a regular guest on a “shock jock” radio show in the early 2000s, calls are increasing for a boycott of companies that continue to advertise during Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox. According to HuffPost, while appearing as a regular weekly guest on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show from 2006 to 2011, Carlson was recorded calling Britney Spears and Paris Hilton the “biggest white whores in America,” and referring to Martha Stewart’s daughter, Alexa Stewart, by using a variation of the “c” word.
Among the sponsors who still advertise on Carlson’s show are Proctor and Gamble, Capital One, Mitsubishi, Lincoln Motor Company, and Ford. Early Monday morning, the hashtag #FireTuckerCarlson was trending on Twitter, adding fuel to fire. In a response to a HuffPost inquiry on the matter, Mitsubishi wrote that the company makes advertising decisions “based on demographics and psychographics, not politics.”
“Our strategic marketing intent is to share our key product news with consumers through a variety of media channels. We will monitor the situation and adjust our advertising if necessary,” the company wrote.
But some consumers and critics are reacting with loathing regarding Carlson’s comments — comments which included calling women “extremely primitive,” praising a teacher for sleeping with underage boys as “doing a service to all 13-year-old girls,” and even defending Warren Jeffs. Jeffs is the former leader of a splinter sect of Mormons who, at that time, had a warrant out for his arrest for arranging marriages between underage girls and septaugenarian leaders in his cult. Said marriages were reportedly offered as rewards for loyalty.
Fox News won't fire Tucker Carlson.
Fox News is a misogynist network. The men are lecherous.
O'Reilly was fired not for his words, but because his serial abuse was a liability.
Tucker can say all the hateful things he wants. Why? Hate is Fox's business.#FireTuckerCarlson
— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) March 11, 2019
It isn’t the first time that Carlson and his sponsors have faced a consumer backlash due to his ill-chosen, perhaps repulsive words. Carlson, who is also the heir to the Swanson frozen foods fortune, drew fire as recently as December of 2018 for suggesting that immigrants make the U.S. “dirtier.”
“We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided,” he said in comments referring to the iconic Emma Lazarus poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty. “Huddled masses yearning to breathe free? Nope, cynical shakedown artists who have been watching too much CNN.”
Following that controversy, Carlson lost some 20 advertisers, including IHOP, Bowflex, and Ancestry.com.
In response to the current uproar, Carlson has called the comments “naughty,” but has thus far not offered an apology. He invited anyone who disagrees with his views to come on his show and debate him on their merits.
Other companies that continue to advertise on the Tucker Carlson Show include Sony Pictures, Samsung, Liberty Mutual, AstraZeneca, and Progressive.
