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By Dr. Tom Borelli originally posted at Conservative Review.
Big business treatment of conservative Fox News host Laura Ingraham and former national security adviser Susan Rice reveals an extreme anti-conservative bias.
The threat of boycotts over a single tweet prompted companies to abandon advertising on Ingraham’s Fox News show, “The Ingraham Angle,” but in the same news cycle, Netflix appointed Susan Rice to its board of directors. The sharp contrast shows that big business leaders fear the political Left but not the Right.
The political Left uses a network of advocacy groups to seize upon every opportunity to silence conservative voices by intimidating corporate advertisers. Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly and host Sean Hannity were targets of intimidation campaigns.
Shortly after Ingraham tweaked Parkland, Florida, shooting survivor David Hogg about college rejections in a tweet, the left-wing advocacy machine kicked into high gear. Fox News nemesis Media Matters posted a list of Ingraham’s recent advertisers on its website on March 29, one day after her tweet about Hogg.
Hogg took a lead role in targeting Ingraham’s advertisers by using Twitter to highlight companies that run ads on her show, using the hashtag #BoycottIngrahamAdverts. Media Matters head Angelo Carsone also used Twitter to target advertisers, as did other left-wing activists.
Like clockwork, about 15 advertisers abandoned “The Ingraham Angle.” Before Easter, Ingraham apologized to Hogg in another tweet, but the damage was done. Ingraham took a week’s vacation, and Fox News issued a statement saying she would return as host to her show.
Some also used Twitter to defend the Fox News host, threatening to boycott the companies that stopped advertising on the program. However, these tweets didn’t have an impact on advertisers, because big business does not have the stomach to support conservatives. Their default option is to cut and run when pressed by the Left.
In contrast, the decision by video streaming service Netflix to appoint longtime Democrat official Susan Rice to its board of directors shows the company has no fear of conservative backlash.
In 2012, as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice outraged conservatives when she lied on five Sunday morning talk shows about the cause of the terrorist attack in Benghazi. During the interviews, Rice blamed the attack on an anti-Islam YouTube movie, but at the time, Rice and the Obama Administration knew the attack was the work of terrorists. Essentially, Rice sacrificed her integrity to protect former President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Elevating Rice to a top corporate post is the equivalent of Netflix kicking sand in the face of conservatives. Given the left-wing political views of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, the appointment of Rice, and the possibility of a show hosted by former President Obama and wife Michelle, suggests a deeper political agenda.
Hastings is a huge Democrat donor and a vocal critic of President Trump. At the height of the 2016 campaign, Reed said Trump, “…would destroy much of what is great about America. Hillary Clinton is the strong leader we need, and it’s important that Trump lose by a landslide to reject what he stands for.”
Hastings didn’t just want President Trump to lose; he wanted him buried. The Netflix CEO also attacked Trump supporter Peter Thiel. Both men are on the board of directors of Facebook, and Hastings used his committee position evaluating other board members to slam Thiel over his support of then-candidate Trump.
In an email obtained by The New York Times, Hastings wrote to Thiel:
“I’m so mystified by your endorsement of Trump for our President, that for me it moves from ‘different judgment’ to ‘bad judgment.’ Some diversity in views is healthy, but catastrophically bad judgment (in my view) is not what anyone wants in a fellow board member.”
By appointing Rice, Netflix is ignoring the company’s own code of ethics. Netflix demands that all employees and its officers and directors follow its ethical rules including honesty and integrity: “Netflix Parties are expected to act and perform their duties ethically and honestly and with the utmost integrity.” Rice’s lying to the nation about the Benghazi attack for political purposes violates any interpretation of the meaning of “honesty and integrity.”
Netflix is getting backlash on social media over Rice, but not enough to affect the board appointment.
The disparity between big business reactions to Ingraham and Rice is stark. Advertisers run for the hills because left-wing activists mount a social media campaign hammering a conservative over one tweet with almost no pushback. But Netflix appoints a nationally known liar to its board of directors without fear of a conservative backlash.
Unless the political Right mounts an organized effort to punish Netflix, to send a broader message that companies’ hard-left values will no longer be ignored, big business will continue to punish conservatives and reward Democrats.
Dr. Tom Borelli is a contributor to Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @tomborelli.
