Think Progress Goes after Bill O’Reilly’s Advertisers

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:45 pm

The battle between Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly and Think Progress took another turn today as the progressive blog has started a campaign targeting O’Reilly’s advertisers in an attempt to get him to stop what they call his harassment machine, and his practice of “mafia style harassment.”

Here is the background on the story courtesy of MSNBC’s Countdown:

Think Progress has documented 40 different victims of O’Reilly’s style of journalism. As Think Progress put it, “O’Reilly has hired producers whose job is to track, harass, and intimidate anyone whom O’Reilly perceives as an opponent. That’s not “journalism” — that’s a mafia-style operation. And we need to put an end to it.” The course they have chosen to put an end to O’Reilly is by pressuring his advertisers through a petition. O’Reilly’s advertisers include Capital One, Lincoln, Volvo, Sharp, and AT&T.

The problem with their strategy is that online petitions are worthless, because they take no effort by the protester. If Think Progress wants to mount a real campaign they need to organize protests at the offices of O’Reilly’s sponsors, have people make phone calls and write letters, real letters not form letters. Until they move this story out of the Internet and cable news realm, and get it some wider attention, it will go nowhere. What would pressure advertisers most is if people quit watching O’Reilly’s show, but I doubt that his audience is offended in any way by O’Reilly’s methods.

O’Reilly does this shock journalism gimmick to start feuds and generate ratings. He also tends to consider anyone an enemy that doesn’t agree with him, or dares to question him. Although, his ratings are still winning his time slot by a handy margin, he is feeling some heat from Fox News’s latest rating success, the Daffy Duck of conservatives, Glenn Beck. This whole feud could help Think Progress raise funds to continue its work, so I am all in favor of this feud. I hope O’Reilly puts them on his show every night. I support Think Progress and the Center for American Progress, so the more attention they get, the better.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association