Sunday, March 04, 2012

Carbonite caves in to the Left's efforts to silence Rush Limbaugh $CARB

William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection is closely following the Left's efforts to silence Rush Limbaugh through advertiser boycotts.

Liberal groups have seized on a strategy I didn’t think would be effective, but has had some success, to go after advertisers of prominent conservative media personalities. ... ...Media Matters explicitly seeks to bring down Fox News and investigate its executives, and Fox News advertisers have been targeted by groups like Color of Change, which has targeted Glenn Beck, Eric Bolling, Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan and Andrew Breitbart.

Now Rush Limbaugh advertisers are the target because of an analogy he used... [and the controversy] distracted from the attack on religious freedom which is the heart of the controversy.

As has become the pattern, Rush’s advertisers immediately were attacked and threatened, and several gave in quickly, like Quicken Loans and Sleep Number, pulling their advertising.

No advertiser was more associated with Rush than Carbonite, an online computer back up company. Rush often would read Carbonite’s ads himself, and would tout their service.

Carbonite initially took a principled position, asserting that it advertises on both conservative and liberal shows, and that its advertising does not constitute an endorsement of what any particular host says... Indeed, Carbonite still advertises on the show of Ed Schultz, who makes unhinged attacks on the Tea Party and conservatives daily, and called conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham a slut (for which he later apologized).

...Saturday night, the CEO of Carbonite issued a statement withdrawing advertising from Rush’s show notwithstanding that earlier in the day Rush has issued an apology... This is an attempt find something, anything, to force Rush off the air. Ms. Magazine has launched a campaign do do just that by going after Clear Channel Communications, whose stations carry Rush’s program.

Today's Leftists have a totalitarian mindset. They despise free speech.

Unable to win in the marketplace of ideas (remember Air America?), the would-be despots of the hard Left instead try to silence the voices of those with whom they disagree.

The Statists, the Marxists, the progressives -- what ever name you prefer to call the hard Left kooks that now dominate the Democrat Party -- would be at home in the Soviet Union, or North Korea, or Venezuela. They are an appendage of centralized government and bent on retaining their white-knuckled death-grip on power.

Their anti-American efforts must be stopped. And Carbonite is as good a place to start resisting these regressives as any.


Update: Dan Riehl has more details on Carbonite's P.R. debacle (hat tip: BadBlue.com).

12 comments:

Rose said...

Ms. Fluke's spiel is an insult to women with REAL health issues, like breast and ovarian cancers.

Shame on anyone who falls for this false meme.

Shame on Carbonite, whose business should stand for free speech more than anything else, and has now failed in that regard.

There's really only one question that must be answered here: What did George Stepahanopolous know - and when did he know it?

Who did he meet with? Where? How much of the plan has he seen? What else does he know? Whose plan is it? What is coming next? How does he feel about being such a tool?

It's a Pulitzer Prize winning story. He could tell it himself by coming clean - or some enterprising reporter could get to the bottom of it.

Meanwhile I am relieved I do not use Carbonite, and now I NEVER will, despite the urging of colleagues in the past. More than that - I will spread the word that they do not stand for free speech, they have gone Animal Farm on us.

wally said...

Insurance is a risk pool for unlikely events. Mandating coverage for expected costs is not what insurance is for.

Right Truth said...

We've used Carbonite for years. Is there a reliable alternative? If so people could stop Carbonite, let them know why we are rejecting their service, and use something else.

Debbie
Right Truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

directorblue said...

I've heard good things about Mozy:

http://mozy.com/

The_Bad said...

"Insurance is a risk pool for unlikely events. Mandating coverage for expected costs is not what insurance is for."

THANK YOU! Indemnity is entirely about trading a large unknown loss (auto accident, heart attack, etc.) for a small known loss (your insurance premium). You want free birth control? There's a method that has 100% success rate: don't have sex if you cannot afford the consequences.

Luddite said...

The left needs to silence Rush prior to the election. Rush stepped into it, to be sure.

Anonymous said...

I suggest you write an article about an alternative to Carbonite. I would be interested in an alternative. In the same fashion why aren't conservatives doing the same thing to MSNBC's advertisers?

Anonymous said...

If all Carbonite users in Rush's audience drop the service, Carbonite will change their minds.

Nahanni said...

As Glenn Reynolds pointed out the founder of Carbonite is a big MoveOn backer. I already knew that which is why I never used their services.

I also will not (just to name a few things) use Progressive Insurance, Google (if I can possibly avoid it), Apple products or services (easily avoided-for now) nor buy anything from Barnes and Noble for the same reasons. I haven't bought a vehicle made by GM or Chrysler in 37 years only because they make crappy cars that are unreliable and fall apart.

Do your research into who are Obama and the Democrats biggest donors and supporters then shop accordingly.

Anonymous said...

Because of your caving to the left, you may have them, I will never use carbonite!

Anonymous said...

I tuned into The Rush Show and they were doing a Carbonite Commercial. I believe someone is telling a tale-LOL.

Anonymous said...

When I recently turned on The Rush Limbaugh radio show, I noticed they were doing Carbonite Commercials. If you don't believe me, check it out for yourselves.