Bloggers Target LA Times Advertisers
Bookworm at Bookworm Room on Oct 27 2008 at 10:00 am | Filed under: Election 2008, Feature Article, Media Watch
LA Times Sits on Video of Obama Paling Around With PLO Operative at Jew Bashing Dinner
Ymarsakar is right — contacting the editors at the LA Times to get them to release the video showing Obama cheerfully consorting with radical Islamists is pointless. They don’t care what you and I think. However, as he said, the advertisers and owners do (or, at least, should) care.
With that in mind, here is a list of contact information for some of the advertisers in today’s Sunday LA Times. Please be civil. We don’t want to look bad. Our goal is to make the LA Times look like a failed journalistic institution that will inevitably be abandoned by thoughtful, informed (and polite) readers.
Cars.com, and here is some executive contact info
Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (sadly, I could only find multiple phone numbers, not an email form)
Estrella (again, only a phone number — 1.877.386.6100)
ING Direct or, better yet: ombudsman@ingdirect.com
CapitalOne (pick a department, any department, because it’s impossible to find a contact for corporate headquarters — although I’m still looking)
Windemere (again, another phone number site: 925.556.6000).
CIT (lots of phone numbers). This is the corporate fact sheet for CIT Group, which may be the umbrella organization, but I don’t guarantee that.
Air France. Here’s the corporate fact sheet, with executive email addresses, so I hope your French is up to snuff.
Kaiser Permanente (good luck figuring this one out and, since it’s a medical care provider as well as a business, you may want to approach this with caution, so that you don’t tie up resources dedicated to patient care). Here’s the umbrella Kaiser organization corporate fact sheet, with executive email addresses.
Verizon. This is probably the umbrella corporation, and there are executive contact emails here.
British Petroleum (which had a very nice website when it came to figuring out how to contact the company). Here are some executive emails too.
Levi.com (not a great contact form, since it’s geared to purchasers, not members of the public). Got it! Here’s the corporate headquarters fact sheet, with executive email addresses.
Weight Watchers (no email, but telephone contact info). Here’s the corporate fact sheet, with executive email addresses.
Netflix (again, phone numbers, since the website is geared towards advertisers, customers and the media). Here’s the corporate fact sheet, with executive email addresses.
GMC. Here’s general GM contact information (including executive emails)
Lexus (a nice contact page)
Bank of America. Here’s the corporate fact sheet, with executive email addresses.
Treasure Island Hotel in Vegas
Go Hawaii (the State’s official tourism site)
Citibank (a miserable website for finding useful contact information for our purposes, but they promise at this link that “No matter what you need help with, no matter where you are, you can always reach us.” I took them at their word when I provided this link.) This is probably the correct corporate fact sheet, but there are so many “Citi” entities, I really don’t guarantee it.
Loma Linda University Medical Center — you can find a link for this one, if you want. All I could find were hospital, not corporate, contacts, and I’m loath to flood a functioning medical care provider with general advertising complaints. It will interfere with its ability to do its job.
UC Berkeley Haas Business School/Columbia Business School — although I suspect that, given their known campus politics, both schools may be on board with the Times’ approach to “reporting”.
American Express customer service (and corporate info)
Southern California Chevy Dealers — who don’t have a direct contact, so here’s general GM contact information (including executive emails)
Cabo San Lucas Luxury Real Estate (snail mail and phone contact only)
Also, you may want to contact the LA Times’ parent organization:
UPDATE: Here’s the letter I’m currently sending out. Any suggestions for or improvements to this letter are welcome:
I noticed that your company advertises in the LA Times. The LA Times has admitted that it is withholding from the public a newsworthy video of Barack Obama consorting with known terrorists as well as representatives of the American Muslim community who have expressed violent hostility to Jews and to Israel. This is media malfeasance of the highest order.
Until the LA Times begins to practice journalism and not partisan politics, I will refrain from reading it, and I will refrain from doing business with companies that advertise in it.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
UPDATE II: One of my readers noted that advertisers hate controversy. A suggestion that they advertise in a less controversial publication — i.e., one that actually prints the news — might be useful. Also, please remember to be civil. Insults and threats only make us look bad. We want to make the LA Times look bad.
UPDATE III: Welcome, Little Green Football readers. In deference to your numbers, I’ll try to keep this list continuously updated to make sure it’s current.
UPDATE IV: For those who may fear that the tape’s existence is a myth, it’s not. In April 2008, the LA Times was already writing glowing words about the get-together, and boasting about the tape’s existence: “The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times.”
UPDATE V (or, rather, caveats): Mary commented that it’s usually helpful to contact the corporate offices directly. True — but those are usually telephone or snail mail contacts (if one can find them), and I prefer email. I also feel that, if an entity makes a contact form available, that’s an easy avenue for getting the entity’s attention. Hoovers.com is a good venue, though, for finding core corporate information.
Lastly, it’s not always easy to figure out by following an advertising link which umbrella corporation on Hoovers actually matches up with the website I’m viewing (as, for example, with Capitol One or ING Direct). Again, therefore, it’s easier and safer to use the website’s own contact form.
UPDATE VI: I’ll note that people in America are entitled to support radical Palestinians and fellow-travelers, so long as they’re not active terrorists. However, it would seem to me, naïve though I am, that Americans also have a right to know that their Presidential candidate is consorting with these people.
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