# Can the Republicans force businesses to advertise on right-wing media? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 6, 2024, 10:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330 "2024-08-06T10:30:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/21 "2024-08-07T15:25:55Z")
> [@Fortyfold](#): > > Don’t know what the US laws are, but in the case of _Stop Funding Hate_ they’re organised as a type of UK non-profit business that shouldn’t be involved in politics. So hate is a political issue, now? As for “collusion”, that’s what we call the “right to free association”. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/22 "2024-08-07T15:31:04Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > > In the lawsuit, X argued that advertisers’ refusal to return was anticompetitive. “By refraining from purchasing advertising from X, boycotting advertisers are forgoing a valuable opportunity to purchase low-priced advertising inventory That could be a useful argument in a shareholder’s lawsuit against the company, arguing that the board isn’t adequately representing the interests of the shareholders. In the absence of such a lawsuit, though, we must assume that the shareholders are okay with this “loss”. It seems to me that they are the only ones with any real standing in this argument. ---
**Author:** ![Fortyfold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7c8e57/32.png) [@Fortyfold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fortyfold)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/23 "2024-08-07T15:31:14Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Right wing media has to live with the consequences now that they’ve joined a cult and become too controversial for many legitimate companies. The controversy isn’t generated by the people who consume the media, it’s coming from people who don’t, and don’t want anyone else to either. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/24 "2024-08-07T15:40:46Z")
> [@Fortyfold](#): > > The controversy isn’t generated by the people who consume the media, it’s coming from people who don’t, and don’t want anyone else to either . I don’t actually see a _controversy,_ although Jordan is trying to stir one up. But to your point, you’re probably right that the consumers of right wing media are porobably not the driving force behind these company’s actions. However, the reason these outlets _exist_ (Fox News, NBC, CNN, etc) is ultimately to sell ad time. If they become so toxic that selling advertising time becomes difficult, that’s on them. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/25 "2024-08-07T15:52:53Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > If they become so toxic that selling advertising time becomes difficult, that’s on them. Exactly. I highly doubt that most of the companies that refuse to buy ad space on outlets like Fox News or X are actively trying to drive those outlets out of business; taking strong political stances like that is simply not something that most major businesses do. They’re making a business decision that placing their advertising in a toxic, poorly-moderated space is bad for their business, and will anger more customers than it’ll attract. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/26 "2024-08-07T17:22:27Z")
I am a movie buff. I love old Hollywood films. All my life, I have heard sanctimonious lectures on how horrible McCarthyism and the blacklists were. If you don’t want liberals impoverished because some right-winger glibly accused them of communism, then don’t impoverish conservatives because some left-winger glibly accused them of fascism. ---
**Author:** ![Pazu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pazu/32/15522_2.png) [@Pazu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pazu)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/27 "2024-08-07T17:28:32Z")
Who is playing the role of HUAC in your equivalence statement here? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/28 "2024-08-07T17:34:57Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > If you don’t want liberals impoverished because some right-winger glibly accused them of communism, then don’t impoverish conservatives because some left-winger glibly accused them of fascism. There’s a difference between making false accusations and making accurate accusations. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/29 "2024-08-07T17:51:16Z")
I find it revealing that when I read that Musk is suing Mars, I first thought he was suing the planet. For playing hard to get, I suspected. He still might. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/30 "2024-08-07T17:57:20Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > If you don’t want liberals impoverished because some right-winger glibly accused them of communism, then don’t impoverish conservatives because some left-winger glibly accused them of fascism. Oh, that’s so sweet! You think they’ll stop if we play nice. It wasn’t that long ago that the sitting president publicly demanded that NFL teams blackball Colin Kaepernick for his left wing views. I guarantee that he and others on his side would do it again in a heartbeat, fully willing to use the power of the government to punish lefties for having the gall to be politically active. We will not stop them by playing nice and appealing to their sense of fairness. They have none. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/31 "2024-08-07T18:17:42Z")
“Free market! Free market! Free m- what’s that? A billionaire isn’t making money because he destroyed one of the most recognizable brands on the globe? You know, sometimes the market needs to be regulated.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/32 "2024-08-07T18:28:51Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > I am a movie buff. I love old Hollywood films. All my life, I have heard sanctimonious lectures on how horrible McCarthyism and the blacklists were. The reason the McCarthy hearing were such a farce is because it was the government punishing people for saying things the government didn’t like. What Jordan is proposing here is basically the same thing: the government punishing people for _not_ saying things the government _does_ like. The issue in both cases is _the government_ dictating what ideas the public is and is not allowed to hear. If RKO had wanted to pump out nothing but Red propaganda film, that should have been their right to do that. Likewise, if they wanted to pump out nothing but anti-Red propaganda. Comparing advertisers not wanting to be associated with Elon Musk with McCarthyism entirely misses what the problem with McCarthyism was. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330/33 "2024-08-07T21:08:57Z")
I have it on reasonably good authority that Congressman James Comer (R-KY 1st, Ranking Member - House Oversight Committee) is on the verge of _blowing the lid right off of_ the whole **[VHS vs. Beta scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videotape_format_war)**. /s [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-republicans-force-businesses-to-advertise-on-right-wing-media/1005330.md?page=1)