UPDATE: Correction...as of this evening, 87 advertisers have ditched their sponsorship of Glenn Beck's show. Here's the list of advertisers who have NOT boycotted Beck's histrionics and hate-mongering--and sponsored his show tonight. In the order they appeared (hat tip to Media Matters):

Since he called President Obama "a racist" who harbors a "deep-seated hatred for white people" in July 2009, Glenn Beck has yet to accept responsibility for his actions or apologize. In the wake of Beck's refusal to do the right thing, hundreds of thousands of Americans angered and offended by his indefensible comments have stepped in to do just that: hold Glenn Beck accountable.

More than 285,000 people have called on the Fox News program's sponsors to pull their support from Beck's show. And 81 advertisers have discontinued their commercials from airing during Beck's show.

Beck's racially divisive rhetoric, and falsehoods peddled as truth, have no place on a network that positions itself as a source of news. Journalistic integrity may not be at a high point in America right now, but Fox News really lowers the bar across the board. Scaring the American public with baseless conspiracy theories and outlandish accusations towards our President and other public figures and organizations that stand up for working people is unacceptable.

Companies that have NOT stepped away from Beck and Fox News, via Media Matters:

Help keep these major advertisers from returning to the Fox News show. Hold Fox News and Glenn Beck accountable for Beck's race baiting and fear-mongering rhetoric.

Click here for the full list of the companies that have disassociated from Beck.

The massive outcry from immigration and human rights activists, media insiders, advertisers and online activists about Lou Dobb's sensational and prejudiced immigration reporting has broken through! This week, the New York Times reported that CNN anchor Lou Dobbs is considering moving his 7:00 p.m. "Lou Dobbs Tonight" nightly show to the FOX news network.

While a Lou Dobbs move is not confirmed, there is no question that CNN is hearing the growing uproar for Dobb's hateful and biased reporting. And CNN is getting anxious. Most recently, CNN wobbled on its commitment to air a Drop Dobbs ad--which they finally deciding against airing late this week.

Despite gaining traction, our struggle to wipe CNN clean of the hate and misinformation espoused nightly by Dobbs is not over! If you haven't yet, sign the petition to drop Dobbs. And then take one more step and sign the letter urging companies to stop advertising during Lou Dobbs' programming.

Since launching, the Drop Dobbs and Basta Dobbs campaigns have gotten hundreds of thousands of supporters to sign online petitions urging CNN to take Lou Dobbs off the air.

Check out the Drop Dobbs TV ad CNN refuses to air:

Learn more at DropDobbs.com.

UPDATE, September 13, 1:30 p.m.: Watch Andy Stern on Fox below, where he was named "Power Player of the Week."

SEIU President Andy Stern will be featured on Fox News Sunday, where host Chris Wallace will sit down and talk with Andy Stern. Chris Wallace interviewed Stern at SEIU International Headquarters. Check out these pictures we took before and after the interview:

FOX News Sunday airs Sunday mornings on your local FOX station. Check your local listings. It repeats Sundays on the FOX News Channel at 6 p.m. ET.

Glenn Beck may be feeling slightly less than relaxed and rejuvenated after returning from vacation on Monday. Since he's been gone, the number of advertisers who've signed on to dissociate themselves from The Glenn Beck Show's rhetoric of fear-mongering paranoia has reached a total of 36--up from 20 just one week ago.

Advertisers including Wal-Mart, Geico, CVS, Clorox and Sprint have discontinued their commercials from airing on Beck's self-titled Fox News show--and it's not hard to see why. The fallout has stemmed largely from Glenn Beck's declaration that he believes President Barack Obama to be a racist--a comment which, sadly enough, makes up only a percentage of Beck's total on-air proliferation of inflammatory hateful rhetoric and fear-mongering.

On Tuesday during his 5 p.m. EDT show, instead of addressing the boycott spearheaded by Color of Change to protest the talk show host's remark about President Obama last month, Beck essentially acted like a child who's been caught behaving badly...but won't admit he did it. The difference is that Glenn Beck is old enough to know better. Instead of accepting responsibility for his actions and apologizing, Beck spent much of his show attacking Color of Change co-founder Van Jones. (Sidenote: Jones is the current special advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He's widely respected for his efforts to retrofit and re-power America using clean, green energy -- while also creating millions of new green jobs).

"Glenn Beck is trying to change the subject," said Color of Change executive director James Rucker to the LA Times. "The issue is his baseless fear mongering." Glenn Beck is doing his best to usher in a new era of fear mongering and histrionics every weeknight on his show--and it's up to us to push back. So far, the campaign to call on advertisers to drop sponsorship of Glenn Beck has amassed more than 160,000 signatures. Join the call to hold Glenn Beck and Fox News accountable for Beck's race baiting.

In other Glenn Beck "news"... On the August 24 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program, Beck claimed there is "evil at play" in the Obama administration...and talked for several minutes about how he thinks "they" are out to destroy him.

Glenn Beck's always been a "colorful" character, but this is a little over the top, even for him. Guess Beck just can't fathom the reality that much of the American public (including us) might not find his narrow viewpoint and hateful, inflammatory rhetoric objectionable and counter-productive--so instead, he chooses to spurts crazy right-wing fodder that there is some conspiracy theory at play and people are out to get him.

Beck said on Aug. 24 that is going to detail it on his show tonight--and Sarah Palin is rallying her Facebook community to watch him tonight as well. As one of my coworkers joked this morning...."Someone should bring popcorn for this!"

Finally, Wal-Mart is doing the right thing by distancing itself from Glenn Beck and his hateful rhetoric. Yesterday, Wal-Mart and 7 other advertisers confirmed they were pulling their support from Glenn Beck's show.

That brings the number of advertisers who've decided to stop financing Beck's rhetoric of fear-mongering paranoia in the last two weeks to a grand total of 20. The straw that broke the camel's back? When Beck declared that President Obama is "a racist" who harbors a "deep-seated hatred for white people" on July 28.

Watch Media Matters' collection of "Glenn Beck Moments" for a quick recap of Glenn Beck's inflammatory, televised hate.

ColorofChange.org has been at the forefront of those leading the call to boycott Beck and Fox News. From their press release:

Twenty companies have pulled their ads from Beck's show in just the last two weeks. The moves come after the Fox News host called President Obama a "racist" who "has a deep-seated hatred for white people" during an appearance on Fox & Friends. Previous companies who pulled their ads include ConAgra, GEICO, Lawyers.com, Men's Wearhouse, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Roche, SC Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis, Sargento, and State Farm Insurance.

"We are heartened to see so many corporate citizens step up in support of our campaign against Glenn Beck," said James Rucker, executive director of ColorOfChange.org. "Their action sends a clear a message to Glenn Beck: Broadcasters shouldn't abuse the privilege they enjoy by spewing dangerous and racially charged hate language over the air. No matter their political affiliation, hate language doesn't belong in our national dialogue."

More than 14,000 people (and counting) have written Wal-Mart demanding an end to their support of Glenn Beck. However....it appears like the move by Wal-Mart could accurately be categorized as "baby steps." While Wal-Mart may have pulled its ad dollars from the Glenn Beck Program, the retail giant still advertises on his parent station. We need to keep the pressure on Wal-Mart to commit to keeping the airwaves free from offensive hate-mongering.

What you can do to help right now, via WakeUpWalmart.com:

« Write Wal-Mart and demand they pull all ads from Fox until Glenn Beck apologizes for his absurd remarks about President Obama.
« Make sure your friends and family know where Walmart's ad dollars are really going.

The video above is an example of good work by the White House to rebut smears that the right-wing has used to create a sense of fear in their base supporters. Linda Douglass, who leads White House communications on healthcare, responds to the false accusations that President Obama is seeking to abolish private health insurance and is pushing for legislation that would prevent individuals from choosing their own doctors. Obviously both are false--and Douglass does a great job of going point-by-point to defend Obama.

What's even more effective is that the video features cuts of President Obama himself stating clearly what he thinks reform should and should not do. For example, the President has consistently said that if you like your insurance plan, your doctor (or both), you will be able to keep them--and he's even proposed eight consumer protections relating specifically to the health insurance industry.

Not surprisingly, the right-wing doesn't have a leg to stand on when they are left dealing with facts and not fear tactics.

Video crops out truth of Obama's comments on healthcare

As chronicled by Media Matters, some of the fabrications on Obama's health care reform plan are so blatant they make you want to jump up and yell "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" at the talking heads, politicians and corporate lobbyists. For example: On August 2rd, a YouTube video surfaced of from an SEIU/CAP event in 2007 featuring Obama discussing health care--specifically, the then-Senator was discussing how health insurance could transition away from a system of primarily "employer coverage."

Cut to Drudge Report and Fox News declaring, "Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will 'Eliminate' Private Insurance" and "2007 Video! Did Obama Say He Wants to Kill Private Insurance?," respectively. Funny, we were at that event in 2007, and that's not quite how we remember it.

Here's Media Matters for the fact check:

Contrary to cropped video, Obama did not suggest "employer coverage" would be "eliminate[d]" in 10 to 20 years. Nor did he suggest it would be eliminated by his plan. What Obama actually said [YouTube video cropped the comments in italics]: "But I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process. I can envision a decade out or 15 years out or 20 years out where we've got a much more portable system.

Obama stated during forum that under his plan, employers "still have the option of providing coverage." Following the remarks included in the YouTube video, Obama stated that under that "much more portable system": Employers still have the option of providing coverage, but many people may find that they get better coverage, or at least coverage that gives them more for health care dollars than they spend outside of their employer. And I think we've got to facilitate that and let individuals make that choice to transition out of employer coverage."

Later in forum, Obama stated that under his plan, pooling options would exist "in addition to the employer based system." Obama stated: "[O]ne thing that I think is important is to recognize that there are a lot of small employers who would like to get health care for their workers but they themselves can't afford it because they don't have access to large enough pools to allow them to save money. That's why I think it's going to be important for us in whatever system that we set up to make sure that in addition to the employer based system that we've got an alternative system that individuals who aren't getting it through the job can access."

Yesterday U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue appeared on Fox News Sunday, and in the course of a 15-minute interview, defended taxpayer-funded bonuses, championed a broken healthcare system, and brushed off concerns about bailed out companies.

Let's take a look at just some select segments:

Bonuses: Donohue went to bat for the bonuses at bailed out company AIG, which was the target of public outrage earlier this year.

WALLACE: So are you saying if AIG wants to give million-dollar bonuses, so be it?

DONOHUE: I'm saying if -- AIG is in a lot of trouble, but I'm saying if it took the right people to fix AIG, you're going to have to pay them. Same thing right here in this network. You know, if you lost your -- you couldn't pay your very best people, I'm not sure they'd stay. They'd probably go to another network.

Bailouts: Immediately after defending AIG's outrageous bonuses, Donohue brushes off any and all concerns about bailout companies.

WALLACE: We're also not taking a huge bailout from the federal government.

DONOHUE: But I'm not particularly worried about those few companies that took the bailout. That will work out. . .

Yes. Just close your eyes, cross your fingers, and it "will work out." That's responsible governance for you.

Healthcare reform: Donohue defends the status quo of healthcare in America, asserting both that a.) businesses are doing enough for healthcare already, and b.) a public option shouldn't be used to cover those who don't already have health insurance. Does Donohue prefer the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" option for healthcare reform?

DONOHUE: But what we're saying -- there should be a bill that does wellness. There should be a bill that helps us perhaps have a mandate on individuals. There should not be a mandate on companies. We now cover 170 million Americans.

We -- and by the way, if you're going to do a federal plan, I think you've got a real problem, because you're going to have more opposition to what we're trying to do here than you can imagine, because you're going to put everybody else in a very difficult position and a non-competitive position.

Bonuses, bailouts, and a broken system: Is that the America in which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce believes? Here's hoping they don't get their way for much longer.

In recent weeks, GOP pundits and media outlets have attempted to obstruct, conflate and confuse the debate on health care by regurgitating Frank Luntz's health care talking points verbatim. Their favorite red herring? That ole standby, CANADA.

The recent media blitz on our neighbors to the north reminded us of the, ahem, sophisticated story line in South Park's 1999 feature film.

Blind obstructionism and fear-mongering has no place in fixing health care. Join us in defending against the dumbing-down of the health care debate.

Thanks to you, the media is finally airing Rick Scott's dirty laundry. Yesterday morning, both CNN and FOX News confronted Scott about his miserable record in the health care industry.

It seems the nearly 20,000 emails you sent to CNN and FOX News were enough to get the message across, and now they're passing that message on to viewers: Rick Scott can't be trusted when it comes to health care.

Watch video of CNN and Fox News going after Rick Scott on live television: action.seiu.org/RickScott

Here's the thing, though--Rick Scott is still running ads across the country; he's still using the money he made gaming the health care system to try to kill President Obama's plans for reform.

He may have deep pockets, but they're not deep enough to drown our movement to fix health care. Will you help shine light on the REAL Rick Scott? Share this video with your friends: action.seiu.org/RickScott

This is the man who was ousted by the board of his own company amid a "rash of civil and criminal fraud inquiries." His own company didn't trust him, and now he's asking America to. All I'm asking is that they know the truth about his past before they make their decision.

Watch and share the news segments on Rick Scott: action.seiu.org/RickScott

Rick Scott knows what he can get away with.

Recently, Mr. Scott bought ads for his group "Conservatives for Patients' Rights" on CNN and FOX News networks. The ads were created by the same firm behind the now discredited "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ads from the 2004 presidential campaign.

Rick Scott's anti-health care reform ad is chock-full of misinformation. SEIU has requested that the ads be pulled based on the following:

• Rick Scott misleads viewers about the Federal Coordinating Council , claiming: "not only could a government board deny your choice in doctors, but it can control life and death for some patients." This statement is demonstrably false.
• The advertisement further deceives viewers by blatantly misrepresenting the positions of two physicians. (Our full request is available here.)

These lies break CNN and Fox News' own policies protecting viewers from false advertising. But the television networks are doing nothing.

Watch the video, then tell FOX News and CNN to stop airing this ad: http://action.seiu.org/tellFoxNews

CNN's lawyers are giving CPR five business days to respond. During this time, they will continue running CPR's ad. The 60-second ad runs until May 7th, which means that if CPR fails to defend the gross misstatements and distortions in their ad, they only stand to lose one day of airtime.

CNN claims this is "standard" policy for advertising disputes. If that's the case, no wonder CPR chose to run their misleading advertisement on their network. (Meanwhile, FOX News has not responded to our request.)

We welcome thoughtful discussion and disagreement on health care reform - what we will not tolerate are lies and distortions meant to scare the American public.

Join SEIU in calling on FOX News and CNN to adhere to their own policies and immediately cease running CPR's distortions: http://action.seiu.org/tellFoxNews

Thanks for speaking out.

Rick Scott's group, Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR), responded today to SEIU's written request to CNN and FOX News for removal of the group's ads. The ads, which were created by the same PR firm behind the now widely-discredited "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ads in 2004, contain false statements and distortions that are intended to mislead the viewing public.

Below are two of the inaccurate claims made in their ad:

• Rick Scott misleads viewers about the Federal Coordinating Council , claiming: "not only could a government board deny your choice in doctors, but it can control life and death for some patients." This statement is demonstrably false.
• The advertisement further deceives viewers by blatantly misrepresenting the positions of two physicians.

Here's the kicker: CPR failed to address a single point made in our case for removal.

Instead, CPR posted a blog entry that is nothing more than an ideological red-herring. (Read it for yourself, here.) We can only assume that their response is an attempt to distract us from the fact that they cannot defend their own ad.

SEIU welcomes a robust debate on the merits of health care policy-what we do not welcome is false, misleading advertising that scares people.

Once again, CPR has demonstrated how little regard they hold for the facts. We hope that CNN, which has given CPR five business days to respond, considers CPR's public comment on our case to be their official response.

Sign our petition calling on FOX News and CNN to to quit airing CPR's irresponsible, false ad.

Yesterday, SEIU sent letters to FOX News and CNN requesting they pull a grossly misleading ad by Rick Scott's "Conservatives for Patients Rights." The ads, which contain false statements and misleading quotes from doctors, were produced by the same PR firm that created the now-widely discredited "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" ads against Sen. John Kerry in 2004.

Below are the reasons we are asking for this ad to be taken down:

• Rick Scott, the narrator featured in the advertisement, misleads viewers about the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, a newly-created entity by the economic recovery package signed into law by President Obama in February. Mr. Scott makes a specific claim: "not only could a government board deny your choice in doctors, but it can control life and death for some patients." This statement is demonstrably false. In reality, the powers of this so-called "government board" are clearly defined and cannot do what Mr. Scott claims. The statutory authority of the Council specifically excludes the power "to mandate coverage, reimbursement, or other policies for any public or private payer." It is worth noting that even under President Bush, the National Institute of Health already had an annual budget of $355 million to conduct precisely this type of research. Plainly, this has not led to the sort of catastrophic consequences in America that Mr. Scott warns against.


• The advertisement further deceives viewers by blatantly misrepresenting the positions of two physicians. While the advertisement paints both as opponents of any role for government in health care reform, in reality, just the opposite is true. Both physicians are in fact supporters of universal health care. What they are opposed to is the U.S. 'two-tiered' system that already rations health care based on the ability to pay. In fact, Mr. Scott misrepresented Dr. Day's comments, and Dr. Day openly mocked the ineffectiveness of the U.S. health care system. What Dr. Day is opposed to is Canada's outdated funding model, not Canada's healthcare system. Dr. Day actually advocates reform of the funding structure to preserve Canada's healthcare system, not dismantle it.

Update:

CNN has provided a disappointing response to our request. According to their lawyer, they are giving CPR five business days to respond. During this time, they will continue running CPR's ad. The 60-second ad runs until May 7th, which means that if CPR fails to defend the gross misstatements and distortions in their ad, they only stand to lose one day of airtime.

CNN claims this is "standard" policy for advertising disputes. If that's the case, no wonder CPR chose to run their misleading advertisement on their network.

Download our entire letter to CNN and FOX News.

Join the chorus of viewers calling for CNN and FOX News to adhere to their own truth-in-advertising policies and remove this ad: http://action.seiu.org/page/s/TellFoxNews