Reply #95: I don't see how that's squelching free speech.

[mattclearing]

Those corporations have every right to specify the programming during which their advertisements are run. If they don't want to be associated with AAR programming, that is their prerogative.

I do think that Americans should know about this so they have a similar opportunity to withhold their own purchasing power from those corporations.

Damn...Morningstar Farms...what's a vegetarian to do?

It kinda makes one wonder how this was coordinated. Does anyone honestly believe that every single one of these corporations decided on their own that their advertising should be isolated from AAR programming?

Or is it more likely that either A) ABC offered to keep their advertising off of AAR because they felt it might be controversial for certain major advertisers, or B) that those corporations' boards are somehow in league to preserve the media oligopoly that makes things like AAR nearly impossible to sustain?

While that's really sad, I don't see how it's illegal or unconstitutional...as fucked up as it is, that's capitalism. People can advertise where they want, even coordinate where they advertise.

It should make us all think about the free market and what happens when media is directly linked to a profit motive.