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For Immediate Release
July
27, 2007
Contact
Tracy Fleischman, call 310-204-0448 ext 140 or email
LOS ANGELES – Today, a coalition of leading bloggers and online activists announced a first-of-its-kind campaign to hold Rupert Murdoch’s FOX accountable for its lies and smears by hitting FOX where it hurts – its bottom line.
An online tool launched last night has already signed up thousands of Internet users to monitor local businesses that advertise on Fox – and call them each time FOX spreads blatant lies or misinformation, demanding they pull their ads. This initiative was unveiled last night in a new 2 minute YouTube video distributed by Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films called Fox Attacks: Bloggers – which compiles FOX’s latest attempt to marginalize bloggers by comparing them to the KKK and Nazis. Within hours, this video has over 30,000 views on YouTube.
“Imagine a world where every time Fox says something truly outrageous, thousands of people across the country instantly call local Fox advertisers, alert them to the outrage, and urge them to hold Fox accountable by pulling their ads. This is what we have created,” said Jim Gilliam Vice President of Media and Strategy for Brave New Films.
Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, adds, “Far from hurting or dissuading us, Bill O'Reilly's and Fox News' dishonest attacks on the work bloggers are doing is proof of the positive impact we're having on the political process. Fox News has long been a standard bearer for the right-wing machine, but their days of unchallenged partisan supremacy are over. We look forward to the battle ahead.”
This video is the fourth in a series of short Fox Attacks videos released this year by Brave New Films, all of which are located at FoxAttacks.com. Other videos expose how FOX implies Barack Obama is a terrorist, maligns black leaders and calls black churches a cult, and continually denies the existence of global warming. The first three videos – Fox Attacks: Obama, Fox Attacks: Black America, and Fox Attacks: The Environment – have over 1.4 million views on YouTube combined, more than FOX's nightly audience of under 900,000.
The previous videos, combined with online activism by online activist groups and blogs, stopped Fox from landing two Democratic presidential debates.
The new campaign and YouTube video are spreading rapidly across the Internet, distributed by bloggers and online activists. Led by Brave New Films, the coalition announced today includes blogs DailyKos.com, FireDogLake.com, CrooksandLiars.com, OpenLeft.com, MyDD.com, ThinkProgress.com, AMERICABlog.com, TheYoungTurks.com, JackandJillPolitics.com, and others. It also includes the Campaign for America’s Future and MoveOn.org Civic Action.
"Fox is a Republican mouthpiece masquerading as a 'fair and balanced' news organization, and many local advertisers probably have no idea about the misinformation Fox asserts as fact," said Adam Green, civic communications director for MoveOn.org Civic Action. "Every time Fox spreads some blatant piece of misinformation, their local advertisers will hear about it and be urged to hold Fox accountable."
Other coalition partners include Huffington Post blogger Lane Hudson, blogger Digby, TheNewsHounds.com, Rick Pearlstein of TheBigCon blog, Republicoft.com, DownWithTyranny.com, SeeingTheForest.com, Garlin Gilcrest II of TheSuperSpace.com. A complete list of coalition members can be found at www.bravenewfilms.org/foxads/coalition.
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More information:
All videos are at:
www.FoxAttacks.com
The case against Fox - example by example:
http://foxattacks.com/facts.php
"How Netroots Killed The Fox Debate," Politico, March 13, 2007
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0307/3097.html
"Nevada Democrats cancel candidate debate co-hosted by Fox News," Associated Press, March 9, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2fljdz
Netroots get 5 Democratic presidential candidates and the DNC to not support a second proposed Fox debate. Links:
John Edwards, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton , Bill Richardson , and Chris Dodd and DNC
Pollster Mark Mellman reveals Fox’s audience is more reliably Republican than gun owners and white evangelicals:
http://thehill.com/mark-mellman/hounding-fox-news-coverage-2007-03-20.html
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