FOX NEWS, HOME DEPOT AND THE SIERRA CLUB

Last week I discussed the fight between Fox News and Daily Kos. This battle is expanding.

One Bill O'Reilly advertiser, Home Depot, has been defending its choice to keep advertising on a show that advocates violence, uses anti-gay, anti-black and anti-Semitic rhetoric, and generally tells lies on a routine basis.

The Defense by Home Depot, as reported by some on Daily Kos who received replies, was that the campaign against Bill O'Reilly's advertisers was threatening Home Depot's green initiatives. Yep...that is what they said. Somehow they were threatening to stop their green initiatives (which required considerable pressure from progressives to force them to start in the first place) if we questioned their advertising on a show filled with hate speech.

To me that is the stupidest excuse I have ever heard.

Let's for one moment review some facts. You can find a whole catalog of Bill O'Reilly hate speech here. Some Key Bill O'Reilly quotes from our public airwaves:

But I'll tell you what. I've talked to the commanders, and they tell me, look, you deploy us down there [the Mexican border], we stop the drug traffic dead, we stop it dead, all right. They're not even going to try.

We'd save lives because Mexican wetbacks, whatever you want to call them, the coyotes -- they're not going to do what they're doing now, all right, so people aren't going to die in the desert.

Yep..."Mexican wetbacks."

And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

Yep...Blow up San Francisco. That is what he calls patriotism.

But do you understand what the New York Times wants, and the far-left want? They want to break down the white, Christian, male power structure, which you're a part, and so am I, and they want to bring in millions of foreign nationals to basically break down the structure that we have. In that regard, Pat Buchanan is right.

Defending the "white, Christian, male power structure" along with Buchanan.

And, not included in the catalog that I could see, was telling a Jewish caller (an American citizen) he should "move to Israel" if he didn't like combining Christianity and American government.

And the list goes on. You can read even more on Media Matters.org. And here is a discussion of a recent show where Billy managed to be offensive to both "Mexicans" and gays.

THIS is what Home Depot is supporting with its advertising money.

The Sierra Club, perhaps irritated by Home Depot's claims that the anti-O'Reilly push will threaten Home Depot's green initiatives (that they were forced to undertake), has joined the campaign against O'Reilly. This comes from their website:

Tell Home Depot to Stop Supporting Fox News

Make a call to Chair and CEO of The Home Depot Francis Blake's Office. Phone: (770) 433-8211

Make a call to Vice President for Environmental Innovation, Home Depot Ron Jarvis's Office. Phone: (770) 384-4835

Make a call to Chief Financial Officer of The Home Depot Carol Tomé's Office. Phone: (770) 433-8211

Note: To reach CEO Francis Blake's office, you will need to press 0# and then verbally request to talk to him.

The following is just suggested language. You can use your own words if you wish.

Hi, this is [YOUR NAME] calling from [CITY, STATE].

Right now, Home Depot is telling us consumers that it supports the environment and that it is fighting global warming.

I am very concerned, however, that you are running ads on Fox News—an avidly anti-environment program. Through misinformation, Fox is delaying our efforts to solve the world’s biggest environmental problem, global warming.

Fox denies that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, argues that climate change is “a hoax,” and refutes widely-accepted scientific findings about the problem. One Fox commentator even argued that trees cause more pollution than cars.

The biggest thing Home Depot can do to help the environment is promote truth and science on global warming.

I urge you to pull your ads from Fox as soon as possible. Global warming is an urgent problem and there’s no time to waste with misinformation.

If the Home Depot is serious about protecting the environment, it must stop advertising on Fox.

Thank you.