Color of Change

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</div><div>following the news that former President Donald Trump was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/30/trump-ny-indictment/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">indicted</a> Thursday by the Manhattan grand jury overseeing the Stormy Daniels hush money case, Fox News quickly blamed a familiar foe: George Soros. </div>Soros has been mentioned at least 21 on the network in the aftermath of the indictment, over just 6 and 1/2 hours since the story broke. Soros was mentioned at least: <ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; clear: both; list-style: none; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative; line-height: 1.38;">3 times on Special Report</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative; line-height: 1.38;">10 times on Jesse Watters Primetime</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative; line-height: 1.38;">2 times on Tucker Carlson Tonight</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative; line-height: 1.38;">3 times on Hannity</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; list-style: none; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative; line-height: 1.38;">3 times on The Ingraham Angle.</li></ul>Some mentions were from anchors, hosts, and correspondents reading statements from figures such as Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Fox’s fixation with Soros comes from <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-has-ignored-trumps-incitement-violence-and-racist-attack-da-alvin-bragg" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">misleading</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/us/politics/alvin-bragg-george-soros-trump.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">exaggerated</a> claims about Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is overseeing the case, and his supposed relationship with Soros. ....
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ox News has completely ignored recent Truth Social posts by former President Donald Trump that included a racist attack and suggestions of violence. In a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/us/politics/trump-bragg-indictment-protests.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">series</a> of posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump referred to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg — Manhattan’s first Black DA — as a “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-george-soros-anti-semitic-manhattan-da-alvin-bragg-2023-3" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Soros backed animal</a>,” a “degenerate psychopath,” and warned of “death and destruction” should he be indicted. Bragg is investigating the former president’s alleged involvement in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/03/14/trump-stormy-daniels-case/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">hush money scheme</a> to silence porn actor Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 election. Fox News has not covered Trump’s posts. The network has, however, spent time attacking Bragg this week over the potential indictment, including by attempting to tie him to philanthropist George Soros:<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; clear: both; list-style: none; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;">Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4002527" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">called</a> Bragg a “George Soros-funded DA” who “has to pay his master back.” </li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;">Fox host Mark Levin <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4002500" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">called</a> Bragg a “radical left-wing legal bomb thrower who’s inserted into this position by George Soros.” </li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;">Former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4002746" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">called</a> the probe evidence that “we are living in a post-Constitution, post-truth era where progressive, Soros-backed prosecutors will decide for themselves who is free and who is not.”</li><li aria-level="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.75em; list-style: none; padding-left: 2.4rem; position: relative;">Fox host Greg Gutfeld <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4002751" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">claimed</a> Alvin Bragg “has more blood on his hands than the Wuhan market” and warned that “no one is safe if he can do this.” </li></ul>In reality, both Trump and Fox have greatly <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/us/politics/alvin-bragg-george-soros-trump.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">exaggerated</a> the supposed connection between Soros and Bragg, who was one beneficiary among several campaigns supported by the Color of Change PAC, which also endorsed him. Soros had donated to Color of Change since before Bragg’s candidacy, and a spokesperson for Soros said the two men have never communicated. A Color of Change spokesperson clarified that the endorsement process is “independent of funders.” Soros has made no direct contributions to Bragg, though his wife and son <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/22/trump-indictment-alvin-bragg-ties-to-george-soros-examined.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">donated</a> a combined $20,000 to his 2021 campaign.This isn’t the first time that Fox has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-news-ignores-stories-related-trumps-corruption" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">ignored</a> or downplayed <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/fox-friends-downplays-bombshell-report-donald-trump-instructed-his-lawyer-lie-congress" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">damaging</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-has-given-trumps-call-termination-constitution-one-minute-coverage" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">statements</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-friends/how-fox-friends-barely-covered-reports-trump-tried-fire-mueller" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">and</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-buries-donald-trumps-meeting-ye-and-white-supremacist-troll-nick-fuentes" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">actions</a> by Trump, and it comes as the network is seemingly <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/trump-return-fox-they-rekindle-their-mutually-beneficial-relationship" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin-bottom: 0px; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">lifting</a> its “soft ban” on the 2024 GOP front-runner. ....
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<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/us/politics/alvin-bragg-george-soros-trump.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/us/politics/alvin-bragg-george-soros-trump.html</a>
FACT CHECK
Explaining the Ties Between Alvin Bragg and George SorosDonald Trump’s allies have accused the district attorney bringing a case against him as having been “bought” by Mr. Soros, the philanthropist. That is misleading, though the men do have a financial connection.
By Linda QiuMarch 23, 2023WASHINGTON — As a potential indictment looms over former President Donald J. Trump, he and his allies have sought to tie the Manhattan district attorney bringing the case to a familiar Republican specter: George Soros, the financier and Democratic megadonor.
Mr. Soros, who has backed Democratic candidates and causes as well as democracy and human rights around the world, has for years been a boogeyman on the right, confronting attacks that portray him as a “globalist” mastermind and that often veer into antisemitic tropes.<div>....</div><div>=</div><div></div><div>pounder definer PR, soros had to hire security, press inq on soros, threats</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/16/bombshell_investigation_how_facebook_fought_critics">https://www.democracynow.org/2018/11/16/bombshell_investigation_how_facebook_fought_critics</a></div><div>
</div><div>“Delay, Deny and Deflect.” That’s the name of a new bombshell investigation by The New York Times revealing that Facebook executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, were aware of a Russian misinformation campaign on the social media network and took a series of extraordinary private actions to preserve the company’s reputation, launching an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat critics and spread misinformation. The New York Times investigation reveals that Facebook hired the Republican opposition-research firm Definers Public Affairs to discredit critics of Facebook, linking them to the billionaire liberal donor George Soros. Facebook also allegedly lobbied the Anti-Defamation League to condemn criticism of the company as anti-Semitic. Since the publication of the investigation, Facebook has announced it will cut ties with Definers. We speak with Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, one of the organizations targeted by Definers Public Affairs. We also speak with Siva Vaidhyanathan, the author of “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” He is a professor of media studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. Vaidhyanathan’s new article for Slate is titled “Facebook Is a Normal Sleazy Company Now.”</div><div>
</div><div>=</div><a href="https://www.colorofchange.org/team/">https://www.colorofchange.org/team/</a>wins: alec, Beck, oreilly<a href="https://www.colorofchange.org/campaigns/victories/">https://www.colorofchange.org/campaigns/victories/</a>sinclair, FB, net neutral<a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/10/rashad-robinson-color-of-change-civil-rights/">https://www.wired.com/2016/10/rashad-robinson-color-of-change-civil-rights/</a>... Robinson and Color of Change, with offices in New York, Oakland, Hollywood, and DC, are uniquely positioned to address the problem of the systemic in the age of the personal. Unlike many of the newer civil rights organizations—Million Hoodies, Dream Defenders, the Black Youth Project, and many other groups broadly associated with Black Lives Matter—Color of Change does not focus on direct action; and unlike large, legacy civil rights organizations such as the NAACP, it keeps its distance from the cordial centers of established power. Its role is to operate at one level of generational remove in either direction: All of its institutional resources are devoted to the question of how to bring together the even keel of strong leadership and the vitality of the grassroots. Robinson, at 38, is young enough to get Snapchat (sort of) and old enough to remember (if only barely) the evening news as the final arbiter of credibility. “The march was the right technology when you could control the news cycle for a week,” Robinson says. With a valiant plenipotentiary at the head of an epic assembly, you could create days of drama and suspense. “Now three hours later the march is all cleaned up like a parade.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-family: " exchange="Exchange" ssm="SSm" r="r" exchangeweb-roman="ExchangeWeb-Roman" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“What we need to get away from,” Robinson told the Party Girls, “is any campaign where you can say ‘If we win this, we would only win this.’” Could online activism, for example, change the fact, reported in a recent study by the Women Donors Network, that 85 percent of prosecutors in America—those with the most discretionary power in our judicial system—run unopposed, and 95 percent of them are white? If so, how? For this to happen, the community needs new models of institutional endurance.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-family: " exchange="Exchange" ssm="SSm" r="r" exchangeweb-roman="ExchangeWeb-Roman" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">...<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-family: " exchange="Exchange" ssm="SSm" r="r" exchangeweb-roman="ExchangeWeb-Roman" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Robinson, though this is something he generally prefers not to publicize, owes his career—or, at the very least, his rapid ascent—to the visibility that comes from reality television. Robinson grew up with NPR-listening parents in Riverhead, New York, the wine country of Long Island. He went to high school there (where his senior class voted him, alongside Bill Clinton, as their favorite politician) and then moved to Washington, DC, for college (where, at Marymount University in Arlington, he served as student-body president). After graduating, in the early years of the Bush administration, he lived in an activist flophouse with young labor organizers and worked on voting-rights issues. <p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-family: " exchange="Exchange" ssm="SSm" r="r" exchangeweb-roman="ExchangeWeb-Roman" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Almost everyone who approached Robinson at the convention claimed to have known him from way back, the most status accrued to those who knew him when he had dreadlocks down his back. (He now keeps his hair buzzed close, for reasons related, presumably, to both aging and hats.) In 2004, Robinson and an old friend were selected as contestants for a short-lived Showtime program, hosted by Montel Williams, called <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-family: " exchange="Exchange" ssm="SSm" i="i" exchangeweb-italic="ExchangeWeb-Italic" r="r" exchangeweb-roman="ExchangeWeb-Roman" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline">American Candidate. It introduced young activists to the mechanics of electoral campaigns. Robinson was the youngest candidate on the show. He and his partner vanquished all of the other progressive teams only to lose, in the finals, to a Christian conservative.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 14px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-family: " exchange="Exchange" ssm="SSm" r="r" exchangeweb-roman="ExchangeWeb-Roman" georgia="Georgia" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">...ROBINSON LEARNED HIS first great lesson in the importance of technology to civil rights while doing some research for activist legend Julian Bond, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Bond told him about how all long-distance phone calls in the 1960s South were operator-to-operator, which meant that the local power structure—including, often, the Klan—controlled and surveilled their communications; to circumvent that, SNCC paid to install a WATS line, a precursor to 800 numbers. Of course, it wasn’t long before law enforcement tapped those too. As Brandi Collins, Robinson’s campaign director, puts it, there’s a reason that “black people overindex new technologies. It allows people of limited resources to challenge powerful structures.” The geek in Robinson thus understood that the necessary foundation for the success of all future efforts was net neutrality.<p data-js="fader" class="pullquote carve fader fade-in-up" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 50px 50px 50px -50px; padding: 16px 0px; border-width: 10px 0px 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 0.35s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1); position: relative; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 27px; width: 300px; float: left; opacity: 1; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px);">I
This wasn’t the sort of cause ordinarily associated with civil rights, and in fact it put Color of Change in conflict with the big legacy civil rights institutions. The telecoms convinced organizations like the NAACP that the provision of Internet access to underserved communities was more important than neutrality and that it would only be financially feasible for them to build out the access if they were allowed to manipulate speeds and fees for differential usage. (The telecom providers are also large donors to the legacy institutions; Color of Change does not accept corporate philanthropy.) The telecoms claimed that the right to prioritize certain packets—bits of Internet traffic—was like the right to edit a newspaper; they simply placed things in the order of editorial priority. Robinson’s response was that it was exactly the newspapers that had covered the experiences of black people during Katrina and in Ferguson poorly, late, or not at all. In a country where almost no large media organizations are run by women or black people, Robinson argued, net neutrality is at present the only way to maintain at least some communicative balance. Without Title II protections in the Telecommunications Act, activist emails might not travel as fast as others or might somehow disappear along the way. “Don’t forget,” Robinson says, “that our entire organization was founded by a single email.”Even Robinson’s point about editing was itself similarly edited in the media. He had long been a fixture on MSNBC, but once he took a public stand on net neutrality, the network, which is majority-owned by Comcast, canceled all of his bookings on the subject. While an industry representative, on air on MSNBC, debunked an op-ed Robinson had written in The New York Times, Robinson sat and watched from his apartment, 40 blocks from 30 Rock. “Imagine,” Robinson says, “changing policy in that environment!”=http://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/05/13240/bradley-foundation-bankrolls-front-groups-richard-bermanIn addition, Bradley is recommending a $200,000 grant in renewed support for ALEC in 2016 as it continues to build a "comprehensive communications infrastructure" in response to citizen campaigns targeting its funders. The grant summary reads: "ALEC has been under sustained, organized attack from the Left for several years, as well-documented in Bradley Prize recipient Kimberly Strassel's new book The Intimidation Game: How the Left Silences Free Speech. Under Executive Director Lisa Nelson and at Bradley's urging, ALEC is aggressively, but thoughtfully responding." "The plan consciously mimics the Left's Citizen Engagement Laboratory (CEL)...the parent organization of Forecast the Facts and Color of Change."ALEC also redesigned and beefed up its website, deployed more social media, and partnered with CrowdSkout a data analytics company to track, view and engage supporters (ALEC, Grant Proposal Record, 8/16/2016).Bradley outlines the bigger game plan for ALEC: "The larger plan also has an important component for aggressive 'opposition research,' which has yielded many beneficial outcomes, including to Strassel for her helpful book, among others." This last comment in the Bradley documents suggests that ALEC provided Wall Street Journal editorial writer Kim Strassel with information for her book Intimidation Game. In it, Strassel portrayed the sustained citizen campaigning against ALEC as a well-funded, nefarious effort to crush the "free speech" rights of ALEC and its enormous funders, including Koch Industries, ExxonMobil, Pfizer, and ALTRIA/Phillip Morris (Strassel received a $250,000 Bradley Prize in 2014).Google -- one of California’s most influential companies that people like me and you use everyday -- still plans to sponsor a Trump-led Republican National Convention and help provide a platform for his brand of hate and violence.

Under pressure from activists, Coca-Cola recently took the bold step to cease its support of a Trump Convention.(1) And Courage Campaign has joined our allies at ColorOfChange, Ultraviolet, CREDO, Bend the Arc, and more to turn up the heat on Google and other corporate sponsors, urging them to follow Coke’s lead

quoted in dun tarr, <p class="article-txt l-article-primary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 18px 105px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 27.2000007629395px; max-width: 520px; width: 520px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Tarr now owes more than $39,000. That's twice as much in restitution as he owes in student loans.<p class="article-txt l-article-primary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 18px 105px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 27.2000007629395px; max-width: 520px; width: 520px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bankruptcy won't get rid of a restitution order in Michigan. Precision Pipeline repeatedly declined to comment for this story.<p class="article-txt l-article-primary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 18px 105px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 27.2000007629395px; max-width: 520px; width: 520px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Rashad Robinson heads up Color of Change, a civil rights group that successfully pressured the Mall of America to <a href="http://www.startribune.com/mall-of-america-won-t-seek-40-000-restitution-in-black-lives-matter-protest-case/299982321/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 3px 0px 2px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(29, 120, 175); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(211, 211, 211); background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">drop a restitution claim</a> against a group of protesters that disrupted business with an action tied to the Black Lives Matter movement.<p class="article-txt l-article-primary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 18px 105px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 27.2000007629395px; max-width: 520px; width: 520px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">He says he's seen restitution used this way in California, Minnesota and Michigan.<p class="article-txt l-article-primary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 18px 105px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 27.2000007629395px; max-width: 520px; width: 520px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"It's a tactic that we're seeing especially as corporations continue to gain more and more power in our democracy," Robinson says.<p class="article-txt l-article-primary" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 18px 105px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 27.2000007629395px; max-width: 520px; width: 520px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In some ways, what's going on between activists and their targets is a steady escalation on both sides.=<a href="http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/alec/">
</a><a href="http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/alec/">http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/alec/</a>

We were heart-broken and outraged by the catastrophe that followed Hurricane Katrina. And we were devastated to realize that no African-American organization or coalition had the capacity to respond on the necessary scale.

Hurricane Katrina made it clear that our lack of a political voice has life-and-death consequences. With no one to speak for them, hundreds of thousands of people - largely Black, poor, and elderly - were left behind to die. But it wasn't just Black folks. Poor, sick, and elderly people of every color were abandoned too. We are not alone, and when we work to protect Black lives and interests, we do the same for all who have been left behind in political silence.

ColorOfChange.org is comprised of Black folks from every economic class, as well as those of every color who seek to help our voices be heard. Our members are united behind a simple, powerful pledge: we will do all we can to make sure all Americans are represented, served, and protected - regardless of race or class.

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change</a>

Color of Change is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the voice of African Americans in American politics, making government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change "for everyone." The group is made up of Black Americans from every economic class. The group uses the internet, holds coordinated events in different parts of the country, runs television and print advertisements, and demands that the news media cover Black-related issues. Color of Change also works with other groups engaged in related work to magnify their impact.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change#cite_note-0">[1]</a>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change#Campaigns">1 Campaigns</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change#Sourcewatch_resources">2 Sourcewatch resources</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change#External_resources">3 External resources</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change#Contact">4 Contact</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change#References">5 References</a></li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2>Campaigns</h2>

After <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Glenn_Beck" title="Glenn Beck">Glenn Beck</a> called President Obama "a racist" who has a "deep-seated hatred for white people"during an appearance on Fox News channel in 2009, Color of Change realized Beck was on a campaign to spread the idea that President Obama's intent was to serve the needs of Black communities at White people's expense. Color of Change began a campaign calling on Beck's advertisers to stop sponsoring his show. The campaign resulted in more than 285,000 people asking Fox News advertisers to distance themselves from Beck's program. Ultimately, after nearly 300 advertisers abandoned Beck's Fox News talk show, the show was ended.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change#cite_note-1">[2]</a>

<ul>

<li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://colorofchange.org/press/releases/2011/12/8/civil-rights-group-launches-campaign-urging-corpor/">Campaign to Urge Corporations to Stop Bankrolling the American Legislative Exchange Council and its Role in Voter Suppression</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>Sourcewatch resources</h2>

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Glenn_Beck" title="Glenn Beck">Glenn Beck</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>External resources</h2>

<ul>

<li>Organizational Website: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://colorofchange.org">http://colorofchange.org</a></li>

</ul>

<h2>Contact</h2>

ColorOfChange.org

5111 Telegraph Ave.

P.O. Box 311

Oakland, CA 94609 <h2>References</h2>

<li id="cite_note-0"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change#cite_ref-0">↑</a> Color of Change <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://colorofchange.org/about/">About</a> Organizational web page, accessed December 15, 2011</li>

<li id="cite_note-1"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Color_of_Change#cite_ref-1">↑</a> Color of Change <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://colorofchange.org/campaign/stop-glenn-beck/">Stop Glenn Beck's Race Baiting</a> Campaigns, accessed December 15, 2011</li>

</ol>

</div>

<div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Special:Categories" title="Special:Categories">Categories</a>:

<ul>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Stubs" title="Category:Stubs">Stubs</a></li>

<li><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Category:Politics_%28U.S.%29" title="Category:Politics (U.S.)">Politics (U.S.)</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

<h3>ColorOfChange Staff</h3>

<li>Rashad Robinson <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Arisha Michelle Hatch <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Matt Nelson <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Lyla Bugara <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Aimee Castenell <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Fanna Gamal <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Rikimah Glymph <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Jamar S. Hooks <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Aimee Elizabeth Lang <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Kim Lehmkuhl <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Johnny Mathias <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

<li>Blair White <a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="more_link">» </a></li>

</ul>

</div>

===

Rashad Robinson serves as Executive Director of ColorOfChange, having joined the organization in May 2011. For well over a decade, Robinson has helped to mobilize communities across the country to create more inclusive cultural and political institutions. A recognized expert on how popular culture impacts American attitudes and values, he has served as a thought leader, widely sought-out speaker and strategist on utilizing media to shift public opinion concerning progressive and civil rights issues. He has appeared in hundreds of news stories, interviews, and political discussions through outlets such as ABC, BET, CNN, MSNBC, OWN, The New York Times, Fast Company, and NPR. In 2010 and 2011, Robinson was selected as one of "The Root 100," a list of emerging and influential African Americans under 45. He has previously held leadership roles at GLAAD, the Right to Vote Campaign, and FairVote.===Robinson serves as Executive Director of ColorOfChange, the nation’s largest online civil rights organization. Under Rashad’s leadership, ColorOfChange has grown its membership to over one million people nationwide. In 2015, Fast Company named ColorOfChange the 6th Most Innovative Company in the world, "for creating a civil rights group for the 21st century." Since 2005, ColorOfChange has been a leading force in holding government and corporations accountable to Black people and advancing visionary solutions for building a just society. For the past four years, Rashad has greatly expanded the scope and impact of the organization, and continued to build a member-driven movement around the issues that matter most to Black folks. From fighting for justice for Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride and Trayvon Martin, to battling attempts to suppress the Black vote, to helping shape the successful strategy in the fight to protect a free and open Internet, ColorOfChange has been at the forefront of the most critical civil rights issues of this century. 
Under Rashad's leadership, ColorOfChange developed and led the national campaign against the right-wing policy shop, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). After exposing ALEC's involvement in passing discriminatory voter ID and harmful Stand Your Ground laws, ColorOfChange pushed over 90 corporations to end their financial support of ALEC. As a result, ALEC disbanded the the Public Safety and Elections task force — the committee responsible for drafting those harmful laws. Leveraging his strategic expertise in culture change and large-scale messaging projects in Hollywood, Rashad has led ColorOfChange’s work to change the systemic practices in news, entertainment and reality television production that result in widespread inaccurate and dehumanizing portrayals of Black people. 
A thought leader in civil rights, social change, and technology-driven activism, Rashad has appeared in hundreds of news stories, interviews, and political discussions in media outlets such as ABC, BET, CNN, MSNBC, OWN, the New York Times, Fast Company and NPR. His op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, the LA Times, Newsday and Huffington Post, among others. For the past five years, the Washington Post’s “The Root” has named Rashad to “The Root 100,” a list of influential African Americans under 45. In 2015, Ebony magazine named Rashad a breakthrough leader in the fight for justice. Rashad is also the proud recipient of the ADCOLOR Advocate Award and the Transforming America Award from Demos. 
Prior to his work at ColorOfChange, Rashad served as Senior Director of Media Programs at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), where he led the organization’s programmatic and advocacy work to transform the representation of LGBT people in the media. At GLAAD, Rashad developed and executed the organization's strategic direction in developing research-based messaging to shift public opinion, helping to fuel the major political shift around LGBT rights in America. Previously, Rashad held leadership roles at the Right to Vote Campaign and FairVote.--<div class="GGD0W3FBET">Center for Am Freedom</div><div class="GGD0W3FBET">
</div> n May 2012, PRWeek <a href="http://www.prweekus.com/pages/under-fire-advocacy-group-alec-works-with-edelman/article/240419/" title="reference on reported" target="blank">reported</a> that ALEC had hired the notorious global PR firm <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Edelman" title="reference on Edelman" target="self">Edelman</a>. Edelman is the firm of choice for big tobacco, big oil, and big pharma, all key sponsors of ALEC. ALEC also held a <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/04/11458/alec-sends-out-sos-breibart-bloggers" title="reference on special meeting" target="_blank">special meeting</a>

asking right-wing bloggers, such as the Breitbart operation,for help in

"a very aggressive campaign to really spread the word about what we

actually do," as CMD has reported.

An "aggressive campaign" is clearly underway.

ALEC's note to legislators claims that CMD's "top investigative

reporter" has a "lengthy criminal background." It links to a

attack-piece published by a newly created entity called <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=The_Washington_Free_Beacon" title="reference on The Washington Free Beacon" target="self">The Washington Free Beacon</a> (WFB), the online publication of the self-proclaimed "conservative advocacy group" the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_American_Freedom" title="reference on Center for American Freedom" target="self">Center for American Freedom</a>.

In that piece, recent college grad CJ Ciaramella focuses on Beau Hodai, a freelance reporter who has written for the Center for Media and Democracy, In These Times, Prison Legal News, Extra! (a publication of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting), and the investigative news publication he founded, DBA Press.

Beau has been researching and reporting on ALEC since late 2009. His

reporting has detailed the relationship between ALEC and private prison

contractors in the dissemination of bills based on Arizona's SB 1070,

and has identified ALEC as one of the key forces behind attempts to

destroy public employee unions and privatize public services.

Notably, the WFB attack job does not find any material

errors in any of Beau's extensively documented reports on ALEC, but

focuses on misdemeanor court records. It dwells on the fact that his

legal first name is Mohamad. Beau has been nicknamed "Beau" since birth.

(It is worth noting that "CJ" is not Ciaramella's legal first name but

the nickname he uses instead of "Carl.")

Beau recently stirred the pot with a <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11498/quid-pro-status-quo-alec-state-sanctioned-corruption-ohio" title="reference on special report" target="_blank">special report</a>

detailing corruption in the Ohio General Assembly based on public

records that raise questions as to whether the state's elected officials

in ALEC are complying with Ohio's ethics laws regarding gifts.

Interestingly enough, Beau learned that exactly one week following

the publication of the Ohio ALEC corruption story, a private

investigation firm requested court records concerning a past arrest.

Allegations from those same court records emerged as the centerpiece of

the WFB attack article.<h2>The Washington Free Beacon's "Aerial Hunting Operation"</h2>

WFB's Matthew Continetti (who previously was an opinion editor at the right-wing Weekly Standard, where he remains a contributing editor) <a href="http://freebeacon.com/combat-journalism" title="reference on outlined" target="_blank">outlined</a> the WFB's strategy as part of its recent launch:

"What would happen if the media wolf pack suddenly had to worry about

an aerial hunting operation? You are about to find out. The Washington

Free Beacon is here to enter the arena of combat journalism. [...] At

the Beacon, we follow only one commandment: Do unto them."

And this is the team ALEC is using to attempt to discredit CMD as an "attack-dog"?

This is not the first such piece to come out of WFB. In the past few

months, Ciaramella has written three pieces personally attacking

reporters and activists working to expose ALEC. In addition to the piece

on Beau, he published a similar attack on Color of Change staffer

Gabriel Rey-Goodlatte, as well as The Nation reporter Lee Fang. Fang has also written for Think Progress (blog of the Center for American Progress) and Republic Report,

and who has reported critically on ALEC over the past year. Color of

Change has been instrumental in the call for ALEC corporate members to

sever ties with the organization.

The latest piece also takes a shot at George Soros by attempting to link Beau to the philanthropist through PRWatch.

But CMD openly discloses on its website that the past grant it received

from the Open Society Institute was focused on homeland security, not

ALEC. Notably, neither the WFB nor CAF disclose to the public which

corporations, organizations, or individuals bankroll their operations or

smear campaigns.

<h2>The People Behind the "Center for American Freedom" </h2>

WFB is a creature of the Center for American Freedom (CAF), which was

incorporated in Washington, D.C., on August 18, 2011, as a

not-for-profit corporation. <a href="http://dbapress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/DCRA-CAF.pdf" title="reference on According to" target="_blank">According to</a>

District of Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs

(DCRA) records, CAF has two active trade names: "Free Bacon" [sic] and "Washington Free Beacon," both of which were formally effected in March 2012.

DCRA records list the names of two founding CAF "governors," <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michael_Goldfarb" title="reference on Michael Goldfarb" target="_self">Michael Goldfarb</a> and Aaron Harison.

Harison, currently CAF's president, <a href="http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/harison_aaron" title="reference on previously served" target="blank">previously served</a> as director of communications for the Republican National Committee (RNC). Harison is joined at CAF by <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71099_Page3.html" title="reference on former RNC acting director of communications" target="blank">former RNC acting director of communications</a>, and current CAF research director, Tim Killeen.

Harison is also the <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28212.html#ixzz0Tqj4UEV7" title="reference on former executive director" target="blank">former executive director</a> of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Keep_America_Safe" title="reference on Keep America Safe" target="self">Keep America Safe</a>, an operation co-founded in 2009 by Dick Cheney's daughter, Liz Cheney. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=William_Kristol" title="reference on William Kristol" target="self">William Kristol</a>, the founder and editor of the neoconservative Weekly Standard, is a <a href="http://www.keepamericasafe.com/?page_id=215" title="reference on founding board member" target="blank">founding board member</a> of Keep America Safe. Kristol is currently listed as a <a href="http://americanfreedom.com/staff/" title="reference on board member" target="blank">board member</a> of CAF, and is the former executive director of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Project_for_the_New_American_Century" title="reference on Project for the New American Century" target="self">Project for the New American Century</a> (PNAC), a neocon "think tank" that had strong ties to the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Enterprise_Institute" title="reference on American Enterprise Institute" target="_self">American Enterprise Institute</a>.

Michael Goldfarb, CAF's chairman, has <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/author/michael-goldfarb" title="reference on reportedly worked" target="blank">reportedly worked</a> as an advisor to Keep America Safe and the militaristic <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Emergency_Committee_for_Israel" title="reference on Emergency Committee for Israel" target="self">Emergency Committee for Israel</a>. (Kristol is also a board member for the Emergency Committee for Israel). Goldfarb is also listed as a <a href="http://www.weeklystandard.com/tws/aboutus/default.asp#Masthead" title="reference on contributing editor" target="_blank">contributing editor</a> to Weekly Standard.

In addition, Goldfarb is a <a href="http://orionstrat.com/" title="reference on partner" target="blank">partner</a> in the lobby/PR firm, <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Orion_Strategies_LLC" title="reference on Orion Strategies LLC" target="self">Orion Strategies LLC</a>.

Not surprisingly, given Goldfarb and Kristol's warmongering

predilections, Orion has lobbied on issues of arms sales and foreign

relations for very special interests like defense contractors and

foreign governments.

While these ties may explain some of the content on the WFB, what

does any of this have to do with its efforts to defend ALEC by attacking

its critics?

According to Politico, right-wing financiers Charles and David Koch also <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71099.html" title="reference on employ the services of Orion Strategies" target="_blank">employ the services of Orion Strategies</a> and, as CMD <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/07/10904/alec-exposed-koch-connection">has documented</a>,

Koch Industries and/or the Koch family fortune have helped fund ALEC

and numerous ALEC private sector members that help operationalize the

brothers' ideological and financial agenda. There is no indication that

the Kochs asked WFB to jump to the defense of ALEC. However, the right

wing has been howling that the press and progressive groups have been

too persuasive in exposing ALEC and in making the case about how ALEC

helps make the corporate wish list into law through its members and

operations.<a href="http://colorofchange.org/about/#" class="less_link" style=" display: inline;">

</a>===wa times hit:CHICAGO, April 14, 2012— Van Jones, and his

organization, Color of Change, is using his public bully pulpit to

intimidate major companies to end their sponsorship of the American

Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC, a non-partisan group, offers

free enterprise and free market solutions for business. ALEC is an

economic advocacy group and think tank working on behalf of business.

Kraft, Pepsico, McDonalds, Intuit, Coca-Cola, and Kraft Foods have

backed out of supporting ALEC, supposedly due to “business decisions”.

Make no mistake; companies backed out because Color of Change and their

progressive travelers turned corporate public relations people into

quivering gelatinous masses of jiggling glop.

Some corporations have been long time supporters of ALEC, as the

group lobbies on behalf of business for economic solutions and assists

in writing model legislation on their behalf. Yes, they have also

crafted legislation for voter I.D. laws and stand your ground laws. So

what?

Color of Change is an organization dedicated to shutting down free

speech, free expression, free markets, and free enterprise. They are

against capitalism and civil liberties. They want to repeal the Second

Amendment, force people to be victims, and are against stopping voter

fraud.

Groups like Color of Change are little more than a bully pulpit.

They use publicity as a tactical weapon. Thank the liberal media that

gives them all the free publicity they want for that.

Do CEO’s really believe a carnival barker like Van Jones has a

powerful grip on the American consumer? That a harlequin in a designer

suit can really damage their companies and brands?

Jones only accomplishments are getting his mug on television. The

establishment media will fall for any self-promoting con artist, race

hustler, or political panderer who comes along. How else do you explain

Al Shaprton?

There is a false notion that Van Jones commands the loyalty of

millions of consumers who are ready, willing, and able to stop buying

products if companies do not march to his tune. Van Jones promotes

himself as some popular powerhouse. The perception becomes the reality.

Companies falsely believe they will lose profits if they do not

make a “business decision” to cave in to intimidation and extortion.

Van Jones and his web comedy troupes use extortion and

intimidation as a methodology. If Jones was Italian he would be sitting

in prison, playing pinochle, with all the aged wheel chair bound oxygen

sucking organized crime bosses.

Instead, he and the rest of the progressive political and race

hustlers make a nice living intimidating executives who should know

better. [see INNIS]

Unfortunately, companies hire cowards to run their public

relations shops. CEO’s believe in their PR people the way born again

Christians believe in Christ.

No American company should cave into frivolous marginal groups

over scatter-brained ideology.  Jones and his cast of clowns,

mountebanks, and con artists are populist fear mongers. American

companies should not fear. Fear is un-American.

CEO’s are supposed to be intelligent, responsible, and somewhat

daring risk takers. Yet, when their public relations cowards tell them

to surrender to marginal piddling groups, they cave in like imbecilic

cowards.

Any CEO who falls for Van Jones con job is too dumb to run a lemonade stand.

Corporations lose nothing by ignoring groups like Color of Change.

The best public relations should be no response what so ever. Ignore

them. Sometimes silence is not golden, it is deadly. These groups need

attention and response. Take away one of the two, they fail. Take away both, they die.

If the uninformed media promotes Van Jones that is their problem,

however, major corporations have to do what is best for them their

business, not what is best for  Van Jones and his cadre.

What can Van Jones do for major corporations to ensure maximum

profits? Nothing. What can he do to deny them maximum profits? Nothing.

Jones cannot even damage their well-established brands. He is an empty suit.

Van Jones does not have hoards of people who will stop patronizing

companies and their products. He has professional protesters and

agitators. Again, so what? Just ignore them.

People will still eat at McDonalds, Coke and Pepsi will still sell

soft drinks, Kraft Mac and Cheese will still be eaten by hoards of

college students and kids, and people will still buy Quick Books or

Turbo Tax. Nothing will change.

Why are supposedly highly intelligent people who run major

enterprises afraid of an insignificant nobody? Why are they even wasting

the time of their public relations people over this kind of stuff?

Maybe it is time to fire the cowards in public relations. Hire

people who know what they’re doing. Hire people who have the courage to

stand up for the right thing. People who know that sometimes that “no

comment” is the best comment.

Ignoring silly groups like Color of Change and ridiculous people

like Van Jones will marginalize them further. They will eventually slink

away to develop some new propaganda scam to hustle other low

information people to support them.

These scams, extortions, and intimidation are designed for the

intellectually challenged. When you, as a CEO, act like you are

intellectually challenged, you look like an idiot.

Don’t look like an idiot.

Peter V. Bella is a retired Chicago Police Officer,

freelance writer and photographer, cook, and raconteur.  He likes to be

the irreverent sharp stick that pokes, prods, and annoys.  His opinions

are his and his alone.

<a href="mailto:pvbella@gmail.com">pvbella@gmail.com</a> daily caller: 
Color of Change claims another scalp: Pat Buchanan indefinitely ‘suspended’ by MSNBC

Posted By Steven Nelson On 7:53 PM 01/10/2012 In Politics | <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/10/color-of-change-claims-another-scalp-pat-buchanan-indefinitely-suspended-by-msnbc/?print=1#comments_controls">5 Comments</a>

     <div id="BlogContent"><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The liberal activist group Color of Change

announced Tuesday evening that it received confirmation from MSNBC that

the left-leaning cable news network has indefinitely suspended

conservative commentator Pat Buchanan.

The group’s leaders <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/25/color-of-change-launches-campaign-to-have-msnbc-fire-white-supremacist-pat-buchanan/">launched</a> a campaign in October aiming to have Buchanan, who they dubbed a “white supremacist,” removed from MSNBC programming.

“Amazing news!” a Color of Change email alert announced on Tuesday

evening. “Pat Buchanan and his white supremacist ideology will no longer

be on TV.”

“MSNBC President Phil Griffin just confirmed that Buchanan is

suspended indefinitely,” said the group, “because some of his ideas

aren’t ‘appropriate for national dialogue on MSNBC.’”

On Monday evening, Buchanan <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/10/buchanan-denies-msnbc-suspension-cites-health-problems/">denied</a>

that he had been suspended, saying on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, “I

don’t know anything about that. I hope to get back full up here in

January, but I’ve been out for a couple of months.”  Instead, he cited

health issues for his absence.

Color of Change has launched several successful campaigns to remove

conservative commentators from mainstream media platforms. The group was

successful in encouraging many advertisers to desert Glenn Beck’s Fox

News program, after Beck said that President Obama had “a deep seated

hatred for white people.”

The group similarly succeeded in a campaign to have conservative website mogul Andrew Breitbart <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/24/the-huffington-post-bans-andrew-breitbart-from-their-front-page-over-comments-about-van-jones/">banned</a> from the front page of The Huffington Post, after Breitbart <a href="http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/24/andrew-breitbart-color-of-change-huffington-post/2/">called</a> the organization’s co-founder Van Jones a “cop killer-supporting, racist, demagogic freak. And a commie. And an eco-fraudster.”

<a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/stevennelson10" class="external" rel="nofollow">Follow Steven on Twitter</a>

</div>

      <hr class="Divider" style="text-align: center;" />
      <p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Article printed from The Daily Caller: <strong dir="ltr">http://dailycaller.com</strong></font><br/>

URL to article: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/10/color-of-change-claims-another-scalp-pat-buchanan-indefinitely-suspended-by-msnbc/

Color of Change

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