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Residents protest Home Depot's advertising on Fox
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James Glover II / Star staff Members of MoveOn.org and the Sierra Club joined forces Tuesday to call for The Home Depot to pull its advertising from the Fox News channel. Protesters say Fox News denies global warming.
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More from CamarilloA group of local residents gathered outside a Camarillo home improvement store Tuesday, armed with a petition protesting The Home Depot's advertising on TV's Fox News Channel.
The group rallied at noon on the public sidewalk in front of the store. Several people carried signs with messages such as "Home Depot cares about the environment. Fox News lies about it."
"Home Depot has a very strong corporate statement about the environment and trying to improve the environment. Yet, they send millions of advertising dollars to a news station that says pretty much the opposite thing," said Bruce Little, 58, a Camarillo resident who helped organize the event.
It was one of five protests held across the nation Tuesday and arranged by the Sierra Club and MoveOn.org.
Similar events also took place in Sacramento, Atlanta, Spokane, Wash., and Ann Arbor, Mich., organizers said.
They said their petition has 40,000 names, most of them gathered electronically over the Internet. About 6,400 names are from California, they said.
The petition was launched in July along with a YouTube video that says Fox News denies global warming.
Little said the Sierra Club and MoveOn.org noticed that The Home Depot was a top advertiser on Fox News.
Fox News did not respond to phone calls to its New York office Tuesday.
Sarah J. Molinari, communications manager for The Home Depot, said the company is dedicated to making a positive environmental impact, but where or what it advertises is all about the customer.
Advertisements, she added, have nothing to do with what is said on Fox News.
"It's not our position to judge Fox's position," Molinari said.
"We don't try to influence or control the content on those shows."
But protesters in Camarillo sent a warning to the company.
"We're not asking for censorship," Little said. "Fox can say what they want ... but if they don't pull the ad, we'll be going to Lowe's."
John Phillips, 66, of Camarillo had fists pumping and people cheering as he gave a speech asking the company to be consistent and end support for "the Fox misinformation campaign."
"Home Depot, dump the Fox. You can do it, we can help," he repeated after his speech, mimicking the company's advertising slogan.
Two protesters brought their dog with "Fox Lies" written on its fur in red Crayola washable ink.
Posted by Nosmo_King on August 1, 2007 at 7:37 a.m.
(This thread was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by WH on August 1, 2007 at 8:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Yet another example of the whacko left trying to stifle debate as they try to attach a political agenda to unproven science.
To argue that there is no argument is an oxymoron.
Fox does not "deny" global warming, it has an open mind and encourages debate, unlike Moveon.org
Posted by socalcandyman on August 1, 2007 at 9:32 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Leftists always argue about their constitutional rights, i.e. free speech. But when it comes to a different opinion or point of view all of those rights are thrown out the window for the "other point of view." If they don't agree with the way Home Depot advertises, then they shouldn't shop there. Home depot is not an elected entity, it is a business. Home Depot does not answer to these protesters, it answers to its share holders. If advertising on Fox News brings in more money to its shareholders, than they are doing nothing wrong.
I hope Fox News and Home Depot don't waste any more of there time on this ridiculuos petition.
Posted by syzito on August 1, 2007 at 11:09 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What you are seeing is exactly the way the liberal left[democrats]try to influence public opinion.Usually they are successful because the American public uses emotions and fantasy to formulate opinion not reasoned logic and facts backed by scientific research.
Posted by Ventura22 on August 1, 2007 at 11:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I don't see how a lame news station has any impact on the environment. I would be more concerned about the business practices of the store, which has much more potential to affect the environment. Home Depot is doing things to lessen it's footprint on the environment, as do many other big players in the business. if you don't like the news station, watch another news source, and patronize whatever they avdertize on their commercial breaks...or better yet, get a life and quit spending so much time around the TV! Whenever the moron.org people are confronted, they always like to attempt to scream-out the competition, rather than to apply common sense.
Posted by Libra40 on August 1, 2007 at 1:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Gee, I wish I had nothing better to do with my time - how ridiculous!!!
Posted by sk8o23 on August 1, 2007 at 4:30 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Why is this a story? Conspicuously absent from the reporting is how many people protested. The best we get is a “group of local residents.”
That vagueness could mean one of two things. The first possibility is that Star’s reporter flunked Reporting 101 and failed to count how many people showed up at the protest. But I sincerely doubt that’s the case. The Star is a solid paper and hires talented journalists.
More likely is that the vagueness of “[a] group of local residents” translates to “an embarrassingly small number of people showed up at this protest, but we already spent the time and money to send a reporter and a photographer, so the story is going to run anyway.”
Also eyebrow-raising is the fact that the protest’s ultimate organizers, the Sierra Club and Moveon.org, only gathered 6,400 signatures in California.
You would think a petition haranguing Fox News in any way, shape or form would generate a lot more traction in this state. When you think about it, 6,400 signatures seems an astonishingly low number of names for a cause that purports to be for the environment and against Rupert Murdoch. Perhaps that’s the real story.
In any case, the decision to run such a thin piece must surely make some of the Star’s readers wonder what passions turn the gears of the paper’s editorial process. By deeming these protesters some of the day’s most newsworthy folks among Ventura County’s 799,720 residents, what exactly are the gatekeepers at the Star trying to say?
Posted by cowboyrob on August 1, 2007 at 9:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Isn't is funny that the organizer of this little protest, Bruce Little who lives in Camarillo and claims to be an environmentalist is willing to drive about 30 miles roundtrip to the Ventura Lowes store to prove a point about global warming? I doubt Home Depot will care if you and your 8 or so buddies protesting with you go to Lowes. The target demograph on Fox News probably spends more at Home Depot than you and your buddies combined anyways. I may be wrong, it has happened before.
Posted by theonlycapsfan on August 1, 2007 at 10:04 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Who cares about the protest. Did you see Tony Stewart win at Indy in his Home Depot car?
Posted by ebrockway on August 1, 2007 at 10:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Way to go Tony!
Missed the whole race this year.
Bruce Little, get a life. You want to protest where others get their news? More like stifle any debate when one side says something you don't happen to agree with. I think people like you are despicable, who claim "First Amendment Rights" only for youselves. So you want to blackmail Home Depot into dropping advertising on Fox?
I occasionally watch Fox News, and usually shop at B&B Hardware because it's closer. Now I'll go out of my way to get to Home Depot, I'll watch O'Reilly or Hannity nightly, and maybe shop more at WalMart too, just because I imagine you crying yourself to sleep at night about them too.
Stifle yourself.
Posted by SoCalArmyBrat on August 2, 2007 at 2:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I'm amazed at the rabid effort to remove FoxNews from the air. FoxNews employs liberal and conservative commentators to debate all sides of an issue, and presents numerous issues.
The extreme left's goal is to manipulate every media realm and outlet before the 2008 Presidential election, so as to influence that election. NBC News is a joke, and the other networks aren't much better. Why else are millions of viewers flocking to FoxNews? They're watching FoxNews for the facts, and FoxNews allows individuals to form their own opinion.
I will most definitely be supporting Home Depot, and every other company who advertises on FoxNews. I will not be naming that site, so as not to provide another link to it. I will not be watching Al Gore's movie, nor buying into his global warming theory. He and other global-warming supporters utilize private jets and carbon credits to make themselves feel better about leading hypocritical lives.
Oh wait. Gore created the Internet. Perhaps I should give weight to his theory. No, that will never happen.
Posted by vandopsis on August 2, 2007 at 2:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
How fitting that the group Neocon rant ends in a discussion about NASCAR! Go rednecks!
Posted by catgurl on August 7, 2007 at 9:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The star was not protesting Home Depot. The cutline on the photo should have a period after Star Staff. Then, the sentence reads "Members of MoveOn.org and the Sierra Club..."
That was a little mistake in the editing department.
Posted by ron on August 13, 2007 at 1:02 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Fox. The news organization for the angry and unsuccessful. Thus all the credit/mortgage/"learn how to fix computers" commercials. Kind of discloses their real demographic.
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