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logomachy--1. A dispute
about words. 2. A dispute carried on in words only; a battle of words.
logomachon--1. One who argues about words.
2. A word warrior.
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2005-01-05
Staples: We don't got that!
Office supply mart Staples advertises "Yeah . . . we got that!", but John Moore at Useful Fools knows something that they don't get (see "Staples to Learn about Blogs - The Hard Way".According to The Washington Post, Staples has cravenly given in to a radical left movement to silence dissenting opinion. In doing so, they have also shown a dangerous lack of understanding of the blogosphere and the internet age. What Sinclair Action.org, a cabal of MoveOn.org, Campaign for America's Future, and others, wants is to get Sinclair to balance a conservative commentary feature with a progressive program. To that end they are organizing an advertising boycott of Sinclair.
John is starting his own boycott: "Do you advertise in the New York Times?" he asks in a letter to Staples.Their editorials are almost universally liberal (and often very offensive). Furthermore, their news coverage itself is frequently slanted, always to the left. Are your advertising principles anti-controversial, anti-conservative, or are you just cowards? Given what I have seen, I must conclude both of the latter.
You have lost a customer in myself, my family, and my company. I suspect that as word gets out, many others will likewise decide to spend their money at stores less willing to cave in to campaigns orchestrated to suppress dissent. John includes the statement of purpose of the anti-Sinclair cabal and a link to sample clips of the commentary the noble progressive free-thought/free-speech types find so intolerable. Prepare to be shocked. Sinclair called liberals' attitudes before and after the election "arrogant", and one piece called for the repeal of the fascist McCain-Feingold campaign restrictions!
Logomachon has to note the use of one of liberals' favorite rhetorical ploys: invalidly applying arguments from one level of abstraction to another (a form of the fallacy of composition). While an active intellectual marketplace is certainly important to any polity, it doesn't have to be replicated in toto in every individual media outlet. People who watch a Sinclair station often do so because they like the conservative tone. If they want to hear something else, alternatives are just a click or two away. Liberals think you should be required to listen to them, and they are prepared force Sinclair to make that happen. Seems judgmental and arrogant to me.
Logomachon urges you to join John Moore in putting Staples high on the embargo list, next to France.
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