CAIR Continues To Claim Success In Michael Savage Boycott Campaign

THE BOYCOTT THAT WASN'T

CAIR-Less Claims Dog Islamist Anti-Talk Radio Campaign







For more than a month, the Council on American- Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been making a series of boastful claims that its advertiser boycott campaign against syndicated talker Michael Savage has been a roaring success.

Despite serious questions about the validity of CAIR's claims, its publicity arm continues to spit out press releases on a regular basis. By now, the gullible reader might believe the extremist Islamist group has cost the Talk Radio Network, Savage's national syndicator, millions of dollars.

But a closer look at their own releases reveals their "success" isn't what it seems: are they really driving advertisers away, or simply convincing Muslim- fearing corporations to reaffirm longstanding aversions to associating with controversial political programming?

Worse, CAIR is now hiding behind an "interfaith" group that is supposedly leading the charge, which may be an attempt to mask the overtly Islamist nature of the campaign.


We're not the only ones who have noticed their trickery: Accuracy In Media issued their own press release yesterday to refute CAIR's claims. AIM says CAIR is backing away from some of its boasts, but this site isn't so sure, based on their latest missive.

Previously, we've covered CAIR's claims here and here, but their continued push to convince America they've ruined Savage's show forces us to revisit the issue.

And since our last update, you may have heard that Savage has filed suit against CAIR, which is great way to turn the tables and play offense for a change.


For whatever reason, CAIR is determined to prove that they've been able to badly damage Savage's show and that's why this hasn't gone away quietly. But the most recent press release reveals just how desperate they've become to claim success. Take a look:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Hate Hurts America Community and Interfaith Coalition (HHA) today announced that Sprint Nextel, one of the nation's largest communications services providers, will give radio stations instructions that its ads cannot run on "The Savage Nation" or on "any other program that promotes racism or hatred."

In a letter to HHA, a Sprint Nextel official said:

"We would like to thank your organization for bringing this matter to our attention. We investigated whether Sprint did have spots running during 'The Savage Nation' and indeed we discovered spots did run on KERN-AM in Bakersfield, CA during the program in question, as part of a general advertising buy.

"To be clear, Sprint did not specifically purchase airtime during this program; rather we purchased the daypart where this show aired and unfortunately, we were not aware our spots would be running during such a program.

"We have taken the following actions to ensure that our advertising will no longer run on this show: 1. All national and regional radio schedules were checked to see if spots ran within this program in any other markets. 2. Immediate instructions were given to all stations to pull remaining spots from this program/daypart and moved to other dayparts. 3. Moving forward, instructions will be given to stations that Sprint radio advertising cannot run during 'The Savage Nation' or any other program that promotes racism or hatred."

WOW, did they really catch a Sprint ad on Savage's Bakersfield affiliate? That's earth- shattering! What's next, Visalia? Merced? The possibilities are endless.

Beyond that, it couldn't be more obvious that Sprint Nextel is simply reaffirming a longstanding policy of avoiding all radio programming of a controversial nature, not just Savage. Many companies do that, in the mistaken belief it is risky to do so. (The truth is quite the opposite, as Rush Limbaugh sponsors have long understood.)


What makes the press release even more annoying is that it repeats past claims that we've already debunked here. And for good measure, Media Matters is thrown into the mix:

Advertisers that have already stopped airing, or refuse to air commercials on "Savage Nation" include AutoZone, Citrix Systems, Universal Orlando Resorts, TrustedID, JCPenney, OfficeMax, Wal-Mart, and AT&T.

Michael Savage has a long history of rhetorical attacks on a variety of minority groups.

SEE: Michael Savage (Media Matters) http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/people/michaelsavage

The Hate Hurts America Community and Interfaith Coalition includes public officials and civil rights advocates, as well as representatives of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Latino, and Asian communities.

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

The bottom line is that companies are foolish to play into CAIR's hands without first looking into the group and its activities. As any listener would know, Savage's program has never attracted many mainstream corporate advertisers.

Stations carry The Savage Nation because it generates significant ratings, which in turn bolsters the entire line-up, leading indirectly to higher overall ad rates. Nobody takes his show expecting much sponsor action during his particular three hours.

Though they still don't seem to realize it, CAIR is going to lose this battle, as listeners rally around hosts targeted by Islamic extremists. Hiding behind phony "interfaith" groups isn't going to fool anyone.


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Bottom Savage image: SF Chronicle