BRETT-COTT

Brett Marston is boycotting MSNBC and related companies until Michael Savage is off the air. He provides a link demonstrating what a despicable louse Savage is. While I’m more likely to agree with Savage’s political conclusions than is Brett, I must say I also find Savage rather vile.

I’m not a fan of boycotts and am pretty sure they don’t work at the personal level. Plus, the fact that MSNBC is owned by Microsoft and General Electric means that Brett should really boycott everything from Windows to lightbulbs. Personally, I just skip the specific shows I don’t like. I’m not a big fan of Phil Donahue, so I didn’t watch the show. (Which, come to think of it, may call into question my boycott thesis, since that show has been canceled.) On the other hand, I like ER, so I’ll keep watching that.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. bryan says:

    So is he going to boycott Glenn Reynolds and Eric Alterman too, since they both have columns at msnbc.com?

  2. John Lemon says:

    If you boycott windows and lightbulbs, I assume you will be sitting in the dark alot.

  3. Brett says:

    Hey, Jim:

    Well, it is tough to boycott Microsoft and GE, I’ll admit. . .

    Just because it’s hard to be completely consistent doesn’t mean that a boycott doesn’t make sense. I e-mailed Puritain’s Pride vitamins about their decision to pull their ads from his show and then immediately bought some vitamins from them. I’m not sure I really needed, you know, 1000 count of B-12, but it sure felt good. The main point is that Savage represents an unbelievable coarsening of the discourse and a transparent attempt by MSNBC to out-ditto the other networks in capturing the cranky and kooky right. They should know that there are people who think this is a bad idea.

  4. James Joyner says:

    Brett,

    Heh. The joys of fighting city hall, I guess. I’m not sure Savage is much worse than, say, Paul Begala but I havne’t seen the show. I’ve heard snippets of his radio broadcast and did find him to be a rather scummy person.