Liberal actors and activists, livid over Tucker Carlson’s comments on immigration, have begun launching an advertiser boycott, but the Fox News host isn’t backing down.
In a segment last week, Carlson argued that Democrats view immigration to America as an obligation, and atonement for our nation’s past sins. He said that allowing it to continue unfiltered and unchecked leaves our country worse off.
“Our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this,” he said, noting people such as Nancy Pelosi and Paul Ryan. “We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided.”
Liberals have latched onto the ‘poorer and dirtier’ portion of Carlson’s comments.
When the insurance company Pacific Life saw the segment ended with one of their advertisements, they decided to ‘reevaluate their relationship’ with Tucker’s show, and the leftist boycott was now in full swing.
.@pacificlife pulled their ads after this segment, where Tucker Carlson said “We have a moral obligation to accept the world’s poor [political leaders] tell us, even if it makes our own country poorer, and dirtier, and more divided.” pic.twitter.com/DBqccT9zon
— Salvador Hernandez (@SalHernandez) December 14, 2018
Boycott against Tucker Carlson picks up steam
Since the controversial segment, four companies have pulled their advertising from Carlson’s show – Along with Pacific Life, SmileDirectClub and Nautilus, the makers of Bowflex, as well as employment search engine Indeed.com all asked for their ads to be pulled.
“As a company, we strongly disagree with Mr. Carlson’s statements,” a statement from Pacific Life reads. “Our customer base and our workforce reflect the diversity of our great nation, something we take great pride in. We will not be advertising on Mr. Carlson’s show in the coming week as we reevaluate our relationship with his program.”
Naturally, this isn’t enough for far-left zealots who despise free speech. Hollywood director Judd Apatow joined the fray, trolling companies on social media in an effort to get them to boycott Tucker’s show as well.
Hey @pfizer – what does it say about your company and your moral positions if you advertise on @tuckercarlson’s show? He and @FoxNews get rich off of dividing our country and spewing lies and hate at immigrant communities who are just trying to survive. Maybe choose another show.
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) December 15, 2018
For their part, Fox responded with their own statement: “It is a shame that left-wing advocacy groups, under the guise of being supposed ‘media watchdogs’ weaponize social media against companies in an effort to stifle free speech. We continue to stand by and work with our advertisers through these unfortunate and unnecessary distractions.”
Tucker won’t back down
Carlson is hitting back at his critics, refusing to remain silent in the face of a boycott that imperils his business and livelihood.
“You’ve seen it a million times, it happens all the time,” he said of the boycott. “The enforcers scream ‘racist’ on Twitter, until everyone gets intimidated and changes the subject to the Russia investigation or some other distraction.”
“It won’t work with the show, we’re not intimidated,” Carlson insisted. “We plan to say what’s true until the last day.”
He’s clearly not intimidated. This is, after all, a man who had his home attacked by a mob of Antifa goons a little over a month ago. And he’s still speaking his mind. Isn’t this the kind of person advocates of free speech should be getting behind rather than running away from?
A recent poll showed that Republicans view Tucker as their favorite host. Any boycott by these companies is likely to backfire in spectacular fashion, just as it did when they tried this tactic against another Fox host, Laura Ingraham.
