It does seem that a lot of people have by now caught wind of the Lowe’s Muslimgate story about them pulling ads from the All-American Muslim TLC show after feeling heat from the radical right wing Christian group Florida Family Association (which would’ve explained a lot about why Lowe’s caved in if the FFA was in any way connected to the infamous American version). The FFA has been known for campaigning against anything that defends any kind of minorities such as nationalities, sexual orientations, and religions. There are several sites that are bringing to light the actions of this FFA.
But as troubling as the actions of the FFA are, and as troubling as it is to see Lowe’s weird way to explain their actions and change their reasons after they got linked (seems to me that they were sorry they got caught in bed with this group and is trying to get out of the punishment while still justifying their decision), it’s sad to realize that this is not the first time that we’ve seen such a thing happen. This is the first time, though, that this has gotten pushed into the limelight, and it’s about time, too.
Everyone remembers who the Parents Television Council is. They were the ones that decided that they were going to rage to the FCC if they deemed something they saw even the slightest bit obscene. How many times were the FCC’s inboxes flooded with form e-mails from this group? Well, do you remember their campaign against the WWE show Smack Down when the show first debuted on then network UPN? They launched a campaign to get sponsors to pull advertising from the show (the show debuted in September 1999, when the WWE’s “Attitude era” was still in full swing). They even had a page that listed all of the companies that apparently sent responses that said that they didn’t intend to advertise on the show, or had pulled advertising from the show. They even cited the Linoel Tate case as a basis for their campaign (I don’t remember all the specifics of the case, so please Google this if you do not know about the case).
It backfired on them. Wrestling fans began to write to current sponsors to make sure that they were still on board. Then they went after the group themselves and found out a few things (besides the fact that PTC spearhead L. Brent Bozell was a member of the Unification Church). Not only did the PTC incorrectly list companies as pulled ads, but they even made up some of those letters (in other words, some of the companies they listed never even SENT them anything). Of course, this was not known to the general public when the FCC BS began because it was more of an underground revolt than a mass appeal. However, it got so bad that at one point, the WWE was threatening to file suit against the PTC for slander. It ended with a settlement: the PTC could no longer campaign against that show.
But I mentioned the AFA. Of course we all know who runs that: Donald Wildmon. His claim to fame: the Disney boycott that lasted LONG past its expiration date. The basis was that Disney employed homosexuals and gave them benefits (as if to say that they aren’t Americans). This did get some publicity when it began, but before long, it faded from the front pages and eventually the news altogether. Sad thing is, Donald didn’t know when enough was enough. He still does not, though he finally ended the boycott a few years ago. It seems as though Wildmon knew that when he heard Donald Duck somehow say “F**k you” in a cartoon (which the Duck didn’t, by the way), Donald was directing that at Wildmon (see what I did there?).
However, if only they caught on to Wildmon’s other deeds. The AFA has had several sites dedicated to many things in their agenda. The ones that come to mind for me immediately are two sites called OneMillionMoms and One Milion Dads. Each had their own site, but they both did the same thing, and it was the same thing the PTC was doing: urging people to send form letters and spam the inboxes of several companies that ran ads on shows that Wildmon didn’t like.
Something interesting happened here. During the time that the WWE campaign was in swing, the PTC also launched a campaign against Boston Public (wish FOX didn’t kill that show with the awful time slot in its third season, by the way). For a season and a half, the PTC targeted sponsors of the show, which was about an inner city Boston high school and conceived by David E. Kelly. However, the PTC dropped the campaign, citing that they liked some of the subject matter the show brought up. Most notably was the episode which brought up the modern usage of the “N” word, which the PTC praised the show for.
Just a few weeks later, however (if that), an action alert from OMM and OMD began against the show, citing scenes from the show that occurred a season and a half before the campaign began (and, strangely enough, it was as if the AFA lifted the words the PTC used when they began their campaign). It was weird enough to see the AFA start a campaign against the show when the PTC stopped their campaign against it. However, to see the AFA launch the campaign strangely a few weeks after the “N word” episode first aired on FOX was suspicious indeed. Of course, no one caught on to this phenomenon.
Neither did they catch on to OMM and OMD apparently recruiting for the AFA in an awkward way. The two sites (not sure why they made two sites when they just copy and pasted between the two) were targeting television (hell, there was even a background image of a television under crosshairs on both sites). So why was I reading action alerts, on a site that is supposed to be only about television, telling me to take action against someone taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance? There were quite a few like that that had nothing to do with TV. It always bugged me. For the record, too, I monitored these sites to see what they were targeting next, and try to get counterattacks going. This is why I knew not enough people cared: not many joined in on the counterattacks.
However, I think the FFA did something they might be regretting: they launched a campaign against the wrong show, and they angered the wrong people at the wrong time. People are not as ready to just write off Muslims as automatic terrorists, or homosexuals as immoral or sinful anymore. That and they have much more important things to worry about like jobs.
When something like this happened in the past, it would only get minor attention. However, it seems this Lowe’s thing is blowing right up in their face. It’s the wrong show because it’s talking about equality and showing Muslims as normal people, and the FFA’s campaign, in of itself, exposes them as being nothing more that hateful, spiteful, and racist.
It’s the wrong people to anger because people like Russell Simmons have power behind them. Senators have power behind them. Mainstream media, like USA Today, Talking Points Memo, MSNBC, Current TV, and the Huffington Post, have power behind them. They not only can talk, but they can take action, as well, as we have seen Simmons do when he bought out the space that Lowe’s decided not to buy.
It’s the wrong time because the landscape of how news travels, and the weapons people have now to combat such things. When the AFA and PTC did their thing back in the day, we didn’t have things like Twitter and Facebook. We do now, and people can communicate the truth with their followers, family, and friends much easier now. What might’ve taken a few days for someone to know about things before now only takes them seconds (and, in the case of Twitter, in under 120 characters with hashtags that people can click to see exactly what is being talked about). Not only that, but bigotry isn’t as accepted now, as the same sex marriage battles are showing us. And, of course, the entire battle about that Muslim community center (wait…it wasn’t a Mosque?) that was built (was it?) within close proximity to Ground Zero is still fresh in many minds. The manufactured controversy by Republicans to distract Americans from seeing them be the REAL reason why we can’t get jobs back in this country (how this country keeps falling for that tactic, I’ll never know) wore many people out, and made people see just how racist and bigoted some people can be.
Oh, and lest we forget that we got the Occupy movements across the country, that are grouping people in a box called the 99%. It makes people forget about race, religion, creed, or sexual orientation, and realize that we want the same thing: to be treated equally.
It seems the FFA stepped on a land mine with this one, and they exposed more about themselves than they wanted people to know about them. And it (hopefully) woke people up to organizations like this, that spout hate speech in the “name of God” (then moan when you call it what it is). Oh, and by the way, the FFA is trying the same thing that the PTC tried with its WWE campaign ten years ago with claiming that sixty sponsors pulled ads when only one actually did as a direct result of these guys.
And Lowe’s needs to just say how wrong they are. Seriously, when you have nearly every single company doing all they can to say that they were incorrectly linked to these people and telling the press “wait a second: we didn’t exactly pull these ads”, and when you’re the only one trying to defend your position like a druggie trying to explain to police why he had a thousand kilos of snow in his car, there’s something wrong with how you conduct your PR. I’ve never seen a company do such a thing. They said that the show became a lightning rod, but it only became a lightning rod because the FFA created the foundation for the rod to be built on the show, and Lowe’s provided the pole.
Who’s to say that Lowe’s doesn’t do more than just not advertise on such shows? What if they have this type of attitude towards hiring and keeping employees? Would Lowe’s HIRE a Muslim to work in their store? I would think twice about that answer now?
At least now we know that Lowe’s have crackheads for their PR team that can’t get their story, or reasoning, or facts, straight about this!
And now we ALL know how these groups operate. It could be the beginning of the end for them. Should’ve happened a long time ago!