Free speech is a right for individuals, but when it comes to commerce and organizations wanting to determine where their ads are seen, there is no free speech issue. Glicklich, a spokesman for Breitbart, is off course lying about the site's content. Liars are by definition dishonest. Breitbart has the right to publish whatever fictitious crap it wants, but it's not actually entitled to its own facts. Sleeping Giants only helps companies avoid being seen with liars.
Eclectic Pragmatism — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
8
Kudos to Sleeping Giants. Advertisers should know what messages they are supporting, and if they don't care to know, they should be made to know. Breitbart has no case against people who are simply informing advertisers who they are supporting. But it does seem that they are a bit ashamed of the exposure.
8
Huge applause to anyone like Sleeping Giants who bring some awareness to a process that may have little oversight. Congrats!
12
Hope you don't mind Professor Sandberg, I am posting your advice here as well as congratulating these two people for finding an "out" and a voice for people who care and are feeling the need to do something.
Keeping Your Sanity With Reality Under Attack
A psychoanalyst cites the advice he gives patients who are “living in a waking nightmare” during the Trump presidency.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/opinion/trump-psychotherapy-patients....
2
Since Mr. Rivitz and Ms. Jammi are both in the advertising business themselves, there is some potential for a conflict of interest here. Too bad the Times seems uninterested in that angle.
1
This story points out a glaring question demanding to be clarified. Do corporate advertisers not know where their ads are placed? I’d think any responsible company should demand knowing where their ad dollars store go.
7
Breitbart proves their venomous hatred by attacking a small group of people who in the words of their one founder characterizes their focus by stating: “People can use their free speech to say whatever they want and print whatever they want, and that’s what makes this country great,” Mr. Rivitz said, “but it doesn’t mean they need to get paid for it, especially by an advertiser who didn’t know they were paying for it.”
3
This strategy worked very well on Rush Limbaugh and the radio stations that carried him. It works here as well.
In spite of right wing caterwauling this has nothing to do with first amendment and censorship. Every advertiser has a right to decide if they want their ads next to Breibart hate speech. They can speak trash all they want but they cannot count on others to pay for it.
9
Doxxing Mr Rivitz & Ms Jammi in order to suppress The Sleeping Giants may actually the opposite
8
As a Jewish person I am painfully aware that there is an unwritten rule of the left that racism by blacks and Muslims gets a
free pass. I have seen many times leftist media and organizations openly promoting anti-Semetic attitudes or
violence that they would be the first to condemn if it was coming from white rightwingers. Likewise, anti-Asian
attitudes and violence are also very prevelent amoung African Americans and are also flaunted without
consequences. If the left really cared about racism why wouldn't the fact Asians are held to much higher
standards than whites, Hispanics and blacks not cause outrage? The fact is I've seen Asians harassed and
intimidated by the left when they object. Until the left stops using racism as a way to kill off enemies, win political battles but starts going after people for bigotry equally regardless of
political affiliation, religion and race- until that happens, I will not take them seriously.
9
“There are plenty of conservative- and liberal-leaning news organizations that are doing everything in good faith and are talking about policy without bringing divisiveness and racism into it, and that’s where the break is with some of these websites,” [Rivitz] said.
This is a chilling statement. Who’s to determine if an organization is doing something ‘in good faith?’ What are Mr. Rivitz’s standards? This sounds like the workings of a star chamber, frankly. What if Mr. Rivitz’s notion of ‘bad faith’ means expounding an ideology he happens to disagree with? And, if Mr. Rivitz's process is so fair and transparent, then why did he choose to remain anonymous? I suspect he chose to remain anonymous because he knew his enterprise was highly partisan, thereby putting the lie to his notion, soft peddled rather credulously in this piece, that he is some kind of an honest broker.
4
@SP
A screenshot of the page with their ad is sent to the advertiser.
AND THEY DECIDE.
You are objecting to the notion that advertisers armed with nothing more than factual information are allowed to make their own decisions about where their ads appear.
21
Why do the supporters of Sleeping Giants continue to insist that this is some kind of neutral operation?
Rivitz et al have every right to their point of view and their opinions. But to claim that an enterprise devoted to damaging entities who retail ideologies they are opposed to is somehow not ideological is risible.
Corporations are fragile to public opinion. The Sleeping Giants folks know full well that the mere act of pointing out an ad is going to put a company on alert; and being the fragile entities they are, they will always take least risky path and pull their ad down. This notion of ‘they decide’ is a canard.
4
@SP Good to know that the message is only as important as the person delivering it. Not! Ummm, that's part of the problem today, the messenger is more important than the message.
Thank you for all your great work, Sleeping Giants!!! We will always have your back.
16
Sleeping Giants are patriots- working to protect our Democracy.
17
Best example of "See something. Say something." Thank you, Sleeping Giants, for your work and courage.
29
I have been a member of Sleeping Giants for over a year. It was one small way I felt I could contribute, and I appreciated the respect and the consideration everyone involved conveyed to the businesses that showed up on Brietbart, particularly in this current environment of incivility- not every business knows where their google ads show up. We notify the businesses; it is up to them to decide how their ad dollars are spent. Some may stay, some do not.
34
Sleeping Giants are doing great work. Advertisers are free to disregard the information they provide, but if they find they don't want to be associated with open bigotry, they can act.
31
The communist agenda is alive and well,in part seeded in Berlin it's fitting.Beginning as a shadow and covert operation to attempt to deny free speech to the Patriot political front its more indicative of Soros type socialism in advert style than Antifa yet containing the same bent. Subversion of the free press is the forefront of todays political scheme for control of mindless followers of what's referred to as the resistance.This group ,in a clandestine manner seeks to undermine the vestige of freedom of the press inherent in our Democracy.
7
The press is free. What they are doing is alerting advertisers about how robots are deploying their investments in advertising.
37
Wow. Was just waiting for this Hungarian businessman name to pop up and wasn’t disappointed.
7
@Alan Einstoss The only “clandestine” aspect of this is advertisers not knowing where their ads are being displayed and with whom they’re being associated. But nice work on the red-baiting.
5
Mr Rivitz and Ms Jammu...keep up the good work! Refuse to be intimidated
41
Breitbart isn't "free speech." It's hate speech verging on hate pornography. They're getting what they deserve!
Sleeping Giants, awake and take your bow!
34
Shouldn't the Times be asking Mr. Glicklich to offer some specifics as to how the allegations are false? Or is it now acceptable to just print whatever is on a one paragraph press release as fact?
20
Hey Sleeping Giants: Where's my tshirt???!!!!
4
These people should be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.... wait... oh, nevermind...
13
Breitbart’s defense of it’s content is the classic racist response. People who say “I’m not racist” are always racist.
21
Good on them ...
10
Hey Breitbart "News:" the 1st Amendment doesn't guarantee anybody to pay you for churning out your hateful ideas.
If it's the law of the land via Citizen's United that money is speech, then let the financial "silence" be deafening.
28
Breitbart denies its content being "racist, sexist or bigoted..." Wow! That dog doesn't knwo its own fur.
15
Last time I checked, our democracy allows corporations (who have been declared to be "people") have the right to express their opinions as "people", and can determine who should be able to run ads that reference their "peoplehood". If a "person" decides that some opinion or position of another "person" is against their morals, they certainly have the right to express that opinion.
Not sure Republicans can have it both ways - if a "person" can refuse to bake a cake for someone whose lifestyle is morally repugnant to them, then a "corporation" ("person") can decide to refuse to allow another "person" to run their ads if that "person" holds beliefs that are morally repugnant to them,
20
The only reason Tucker Carlson would name the people behind Sleeping Giants is for revenge. So let’s play that revenge back at him. Whether he’s in NYC or DC or the Hamptons or wherever, let’s not let him dine at his favorite restaurants or bars or wherever. That’ll teach him
13
Perhaps Mr. Rivitz can turn his focus to Facebook?
11
The New York Times should be more careful and accurate with its headlines. The folks at Sleeping Giants aren't necessarily "anti-Briebart", a label that just feeds into the right wing conspiracy narrative. They promote full disclosure regarding ad placement, letting the chips fall where they may.
Two very, very different things.
Misleading sensationalism is for lesser outlets.
22
lousy headline, NYTimes! the article makes clear that they weren't anti-Breitbart, they are pro-transparency and empowerment. these two are heroes. I hope they aren't harrassed as a result of this reveal.
25
@StPaul Sue
Exactly! The NYT's own report on Sleeping Giants demonstrates that the organization is dedicated to alerting advertisers of their potential and typically unknowing support for bigotry and hate speech. That Breitbart just happened to be the first organization that Sleeping Giants focused on is one of the richly appropriate gems of the current age. So the NYT editors should have amended their headline so as not to mislead the readers...but that's probably because the computer was running the headline placement...
Right on Rivitz and Jammi.
Thanks to Sapna Maheshwari for the reporting as well - but i do have one criticism there. Why publish the quote from Breitbart. It is only a single sentence, but it is a provably false sentence. I understand the obligation to reach out to them, but are you really under any obligation to print a false statement?
I wish the NYT and the rest of the credible media would stop giving lies a platform, even Trumps' lies.
All the news that's fit to print, right?
16
Thank you Sleeping Giants. Such important work!
13
I just hope that they, or others who are like-minded, go after out-and-out filth like Stormfront even harder. The ultimate, though, would be for Mr. Rivitz to turn his efforts toward the Daily Caller itself. Hey Tucker Carlson, here's the market in action for ya!
24
Hurray for Rivitz and Jammi. Wear heavy boots if you ever decide to wade through the comment section of Breitbart.
20
@jim guerin True.
5
Matt Rivitz and Nandini Jammi are heroic Americans, who have felt the push back from White supremacists and Nazi groups.
All Americans need to stand up to hate groups and refuse to buy from any corporation who supports nazis.
32
Breitbart, Daily Caller, Fox News, Drudge and the rest have built profitable businesses in feeding resentment, ignorance, and hate-filled conspiracy theories. Everything they report is demeaning and negative, or some approval of a demeaning, prejudiced person or event. These are what got Donald Trump into the White House.
They're a disease infecting our country that will require antibiotics to kill. Sleeping Giant is exactly the kind of grassroots medicine we need to save our country.
30
Many thanks for your work!
24
Brian Glicklich, a spokesman for Breitbart, said, “The specific allegations they make about our content being racist, sexist or bigoted are false.” Brian Glicklich and the other benighted fools at Breitbart can't tell the difference. Seriously now Glicklich, you can't figure out that anyone can go to your site and see the truth for themsleves or peruse all the screen grabs collected. Who can blame us for perceiving Republicans for largely being stupid?
be·night·ed
bəˈnīdəd/Submit
adjective
1.
in a state of pitiful or contemptible intellectual or moral ignorance.
17
Unfortunately, Breitbart claiming that they are not racist, sexist or bigoted is not simply a result of being "benighted" - it's straight from the playbook being used by Republicans: say that racism is not racism, bigotry is not bigotry, Russians did not interfere in our elections... Need I continue?
From Mein Kampf:
"All this was inspired by the principle—which is quite true within itself—that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. "
Trump and his enabler Republicans had a master of evil as their teacher, I fear, so we should expect nothing less than lies to deceive. Such statements are not from ignorance or lack of education: they are deliberate, planned tactics aimed at destroying the notion of truth itself. And, unfortunately, they are succeeding, having completely subverted one of the two major parties of our democracy.
24
@Charlie And the NY TImes just prints Breitbart's statement without clarification or any deep dive. Not good journalistic practice. I expect better from the Times.
Thank you. Get ready for harassment but there is an army of folks who have your backs.
21
Wholeheartedly agree with Carlos: Thank you Sleeping Giants for, in your exercise of free speech, helping companies to stop supporting xenophobia, homophobia, white supremacists and anti-women activist sites.
24
Thank you for taking on this important work!
30
Hats off to these two brilliant young people. It took these young minds to expose the underbelly of internet advertising in support of the alt right. But it will take more than two, we need an army of “Sleeping Giants”, dedicated to the preservation of democracy. So much is about the funding. Why isn’t Congress in an continuous uproar over Trump’s attacks of the intelligence community, his destruction of the Western alliances and trade agreements? Who really wants to break up California? Money funneled for electing representatives has become dark and dirty. Where are there so few voices in defence of our democracy. We need more Sleeping Giants.
32
So, The Daily Caller is condoning "doxing".
Did Twitter leak the docs, or were they obtained by minions of intelligence agencies?
14
Breitbart's claim that Matt Rivitz's actions are "speech suppression through economic force" and "is among the most reviled techniques of coercion" is nonsense. All Rivitz did.was inform advertisers where their ads were appearing. The Truth is still an expression of free speech, I believe, That the reaction of these advertisers was to 'have a hemorrhage' or a 'near heart attack' tells you all you need to know about Breitbart.
47
@Dennis
they are part of the groups that support lies, and their foundations are lies
3
Thank you Sleeping Giants for helping companies to stop supporting xenophobia, homophobia, white supremacists and anti-women activist sites. As Americans, we are better than them.
33
Finally some good news!
16
More utter hypocrisy from the so-called alt-right. They talk the big talk about the free market and letting markets decide everything. But, when the market changes course based on new information ("perfect information" is the basis of any truly free/efficient market, btw) and then runs against their personal financial interests as a result, they bogusly rant about censorship.
No one's censoring Breitbart and their ilk -- they can continue to spew their xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, homophobic garbage -- they're just not getting paid for it by as many advertisers since advertisers became aware of the xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, homophobic garbage their ads were appearing next to. It's simply advertisers making a choice in the free market of advertising.
36
I thought Twitter was closing down fake accounts?
Or just conservative fake accounts?
No bias here at all.
4
@Sparky Jones How is Sleeping Giants a fake account? It is run by real people.
Fake accounts are robots run by software or trolls who are not actually using the accounts beyond spreading misinformation.
22
@Sparky Jones
Is the information posted by Sleeping Giants false? No. Therefore it is not a fake account; it was an anonymous account. Please review Miriam-Webster; words do have meaning.
Based on your phrasing, you’re okay with fake accounts that support your views but not accurate accounts if they identify truthful information that is averse to your political philosophy.
14
Thank you, Mr. Rivitz and Ms. Jammi. You are true heroes of democracy, truth and justice.
32
Can the Daily Caller be sued or legally sanctioned by law enforcement for threatening the safety of these folks?
21
I love this. Liberals have been at a perpetual disadvantage because they don’t stoop to conservatives’ lows. The right exploits hate and paranoia for market share. These two have figured out how to use that strategy against them. If Breitbart writes like NRO or Reason, it won’t lose advertisers, but it WILL lose readers. That’s why they’re mad.
38
Anything that hurts Breitbart is a priori good. That site is about news like Putin is about democracy. Robert Mercer is an early funder of Breitbart and together with Bannon, they stooped to the lowest levels to support Trump and trash HRC with scurrilous lies. They have connections to Cambridge Analytica and who knows what other slime sites, probably Russia too. Any advertiser who supports Breitbart by buying ads deserves to know what it's doing, and if it continues then people who care about saving democracy from the likes of Bannon and Mercer (even if these two are no longer associated with Breitbart) should boycott the advertiser. Mr. Rivitz and Ms. Jammi, please keep up the good work. The louder Tucker Carlson screams the better the job you're doing.
53
@Avatar - Agreed. An astonishing 7/19 NPR-Fresh Air interview "Links Between The Men Behind Brexit And The Trump Campaign” reveals more detail about how Cambridge Analytical harvested tens of millions of Facebook users' data without their knowledge and used it to run the Brexit and Trump campaigns. Funded by hedge fund billionaire Richard Mercer—Trump's largest campaign donor—Cambridge used this data to create psychological profiles of FB users and target them with messages and stories supportive of Brexit in the UK and Trump’s campaign in the U.S. Cambridge Analytica servers were accessed by Russia. Aaron Banks, Brexit's major funder, is married to a Russian and it’s unclear where his money comes from. He’s talked to the Russian UK ambassador multiple times and both he and Nigel Farage (Mr. Brexit) also communicated with Wikileaks' Julian Assange. CA offered help to Julian Assange distribute Sec. Clinton's stolen emails. Steve Bannon may have consorted with Assange; Roger Stone certainly did. Both Trump (through Brad Parscale's company) and John Bolton, now the U.S. National Security advisor, relied on Cambridge Analytica to run up to 50,000 ads, stories and plant "invisible" posts on social media. Sigh. All of this points to a 2016 election heist. Really sucks to have no data protection privacy laws.
https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/big-data-better-donald-trump/1383025
14
@Avatar - spot on. An astonishing 7/19 NPR-Fresh Air interview "Links Between The Men Behind Brexit And The Trump Campaign” reveals how Cambridge Analytical harvested the Facebook data of tens of millions of users without their knowledge and used it to run the Brexit and Trump campaigns. Funded by hedge fund billionaire Richard Mercer—Trump's largest campaign donor—Cambridge used this data to create psychological profiles of FB users and target them with messages and stories supportive of Brexit in the UK, and the Trump’s campaign here. Aaron Banks, Brexit's major funder, is married to a Russian and it’s unclear where his money comes from. He’s talked to the Russian UK ambassador multiple times and both he and Nigel Farage (Mr. Brexit) also communicated with Wikileaks' Julian Assange. CA offered help to distribute Sec. Clinton's stolen emails to Julian Assange who also consorted with Steve Bannon, the VP of CA. Cambridge Analytica servers were accessed by Russia. Both Trump (through Brad Parscale's company) and John Bolton, now the U.S. National Security advisor, relied on CA. And around it goes. All points to a 2016 election and Russian interference.
https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/big-data-better-donald-trump/1383025
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/10/russian-influence-brexit-v...
3
Liberals and their anonymous attempts to shut down free speech are despicable. How did so-called civil rights advocates become hooded thugs on the Internet, intent on stifling legitimate debate and news. I guess when all conservative thought is extinguished, progressivism will have been realized. I don't see these folks trying to shutdown DailyKos or CNN or Vox Media.
6
@TL If you have problems with those sites, why don't you do the hard work for trying to get the sites shut down? It's easy to be a keyboard warrior. It's harder to do the actual work.
18
@TL Hmmmm. Think about it. If you are so adamant that DailyKos, etc are guilty of publishing something that advertisers would abhor and drop, why don't YOU start sending screen shots of Kellogg Cereal ads above a DailyKos web page editorial and see if you can get ANYone to blacklist their ads from being displayed there. Just ONE (ok, not Breitbart or DailyCaller). We are waiting....
3
@TL How arethey shutting down free speech? They're merely informing advertisers that their product ads are associated with hate filled, racist, bigoted, misogynist content. Peddling lies and being racist is not something to support. Move to Saudi Arabia, you and other conservatives would be at home there - but oh women there just gained the right to drive!
1
This group did the research and questioning companies should have done all along. *applause*
40
Companies should know where their ad dollars are being spent, and which outlets they are paying as part of their brand identity. Sleeping Giant is helping them understand this better. Bravo. Used to be on old time radio the announcer would say, "Brought to you by..." Seems fair to me.
56
@Coco Pazzo - Unfortunately, today's real-time digital ad automation is out of control, highly corrupt and indifferent to a brand's need to know where its ads are placed.
4
censorship? No one is telling a company they can't advertise on brietbart. the companies are simply making business decisions about where they want their ads.
61
“Speech suppression through economic force” is one of the more Orwellian phrases I’ve heard in some time. And these days, it has a lot of competition.
24
It's good to know the name of our heroes.
56
Some real American heroes. We should all be proactive against hate speech+anti-democratic values. Alt-right uses First Amendment(inaccurately) to harass people. Advertisers deserve to +SHOULD make informed decisions where their ads are 'speaking' for them. ..Thanks!
45
My heart is bursting with pride at these American who saw something terribly wrong and stepped in to change it. THAT is what America is about.
Mr. Rivitz, like so many of us, was not an "activist" until he realized the danger OUR country is in from the hate-anger-fear-Lies,Lies,Lies-WAR- death-destruction-rape-pillage-plunder Robber Baron mongers got control of OUR government in 2016. He and Ms. Jammi have my unadulterated gratefulness for their actions.
I do my own little thing in WalMart, Safeway and any other checkout stands that have the National Enquirer and other hate-LIES media in front of unsuspecting customers. I simply turn the front piece around so the back is showing and their "subliminal" hate photos and messages are not visible.
Try it. Makes one feel good.
75
@njglea - Sounds like another great campaign idea. Just like I don't want to shop in a store that has Fox (Faux) News playing on its big screens.
16
You shop at Walmart? Do more research hon.
4
Bravo and thank you for your courage and determination. Sorry that you had to experienced Tucker Carlson and the Daily Caller's tactical intimidation - it's their weapon of choice. But I am hopeful that you will also find a swelling number of supporters who are ready to stand up to these folks and in your defense. Please Please Please - Persist! And again - thank you!
94
Where can I donate to #SleepingGiants? Thank you, thank you, thank you!
68
One for the good guys!
60
Excellent work! Hit Breibart and all hate groups where it hurts: the pocket
59
At some point, after Civil War 2.0 when the good people have finally vanquished conservatism and white supremacism once and for all, I hope we can have a monument with people like these two’s names etched on it.
I’m thinking of something like that big rock from the movie Red Dawn, where the Wolverines were memorialized. Or maybe something more on the order of the Vietnam memorial.
These people are truly heroes!
49
I have added Rivitz and Jammi to my list of patriots. I am grateful to them!
Great article, too, Sapna :):)
47
This is the appropriate way to protest against bigotry and lies; not harassing people in restaurants. I love that some people with a conscience were able to translate their ire into suich coherent activism.
Efforts like this are important if we are to save the republic, seriously. And this kind of thoughtful activism is what is needed. i love the part in the Biblical story of King David which is an account of the kind of people the with whom the King surrounded himself. He particularly loved the "men of the tribe of Issachar" because "... they knew the times they were living in." smart guys
36
I disagree. Boycotts are effective, yes, but so is public shaming of public employees. Sarah sanders gets too many passes in her day job of spreading lies. I love the video of spicer being confronted in an Apple store. Resist. Speak out. Especially when it’s not convenient or expected. Truth to lies, or the liars get away with it. Just look at trump!
5
This is PRECISELY what needs to be done - hit conservatives in the only location they seem to feel pain - their wallets.
It is not censorship. Breitbart and the other hate mongers can publish whatever they want.
They just need to pay for it themselves or from donations from their hate-filled readers.
67
You are true American heroes. Thank you.
41
Bravo!
6
Good on 'em! The purveyors of the actual fake news, or as we used to call it, "garbage," need to either go under or become a permanent financial burden for the likes of the Koch brothers, Mellon-Scaif, the Mercers, and their ilk. The great thing about personal fortunes is that after a few generations the scions spend more time fighting each other over the money instead of advancing the agenda of the criminals who stole it in the first place.
39
Good news. Made my day.
33
Breitbart or The Daily Caller’s response is classic obfuscation, aka lies. This is NOT what makes this country great, yet again!
34
You had me at "Anti-Breitbart".
I'm sick and tired of Leftist getting angry about the latest Right wing outrage and marching around with banners and justified fury and accomplishing nothing. This hits them where they live. Case in point: David Hogg v.Laura Ingraham. Ingraham often mistakes ridicule for debate as in her description of Senator Richard Blumenthal as having "a rat like appearance". She tried to pull that on Hogg, who is one of the Parkland students. But rather than sending her angry tweets or organizing protests, he simply contacted her advertisers and asked them "Do you approve of this?". The very next day, Ingraham was on the air begging her advertisers to stay.
Hats off to EFFECTIVE protesters.
85
Great work! While I understand their strategy, why do ad platforms accept sites like Breitbart in the first place? I mean, I get their own revenue needs. But if Google is delivering ads to Breitbart, they could easily forego the money. Perhaps there's a way to leverage the employees at these ad companies to adopt better policies?
19
@Robert
Read the article again, more carefully. So much of our economy uses logarithms to make specific choices. This future is now.
11
@Robert,
The advert-spreaders (Google, Facebook, Twitter and whatever others) charge advertisers for the services of their advert-spreading "machine(s)."
At first, advertisers were happy enough with the service; however, content-producers started pointing out that, without them, there would be NO ONE TO SEE/READ the adverts, so the spreaders now charge advertisers for BOTH the machines' services AND are now also a DOLE for any and all content-producers, no matter what the content is.
Of course, then advertisers demanded/got the power to opt-out/block using THEIR (ADVERTISERS') MONEY to support specific content-producers.
Sleeping Giants and similar campaigners are a perfectly NATURAL part of the oft-vaunted MARKET FORCES.
And more power to them!
9
@John Dresler, I did read the article, and I work in advertising, am very familiar with the platforms, content standards, and how they're managed. And when you join Google to try to get their ads served on your site (which I've also done as a publisher), they have a human review process. It has never been and never will be handed over to logarithms.
So the question remains, why do employees at Google countenance working in B2B relationships with websites that are promoting racist and hateful content?
"...Matt Rivitz’s speech suppression through economic force is among the most reviled techniques of coercion.”
Sounds like someone is pretty uncomfortable with how market forces might judge their work. And it is NOT Mr. Rivitz, but the folks who like to promote this model of the market as the sole social organizing principle in our nation.
Fortunately, most of us recognize hypocrisy of the most rank kind, so the complaints by Breitbart sycophants will bring more laughs than nods of approval.
Now if we just get people to the polls to kick this minority of greedheads to the curb. The election process they have spent millions to corrupt by discouraging and blocking access to voting needs to be rescued before they drown it. Don't get too distracted by Russians, who don't appoint our Supreme Court justice, facilitated by a Congress that coddles presidential incompetency as the same time it gifts corporations with billions in unearned income, and others who are doing their best to undermine our democracy in the name of restoring a mythical 18th century republic.
Calling attention to Breitbart for its role in this collapsing of democracy into what some rich, doddering fool thinks is his years-long coronation was not only necessary, but justice.
61
Sleeping Giants is performing a valuable public service. A close friend of mine runs a small business and they advertise online. They don't have a Social Media Director or a marketing department to monitor automated ad placements.
They were contacted by Sleeping Giants because their ads appeared on Breitbart. They had no idea this was happening and were extremely grateful Sleeping Giants alerted them. The views expressed on Breitbart are anathema to them and they immediately blacklisted the site.
138
@Joe Bob the III
Many advertisers that Sleeping Giants notified expressed the same gratitude in their responses. And as consumers, it's good for us to know what kind of businesses we're supporting (or not supporting) with our money. It is truly a valuable public service.
57
Thanks for this story. Grassroots resistance to hate and growing authoritarianism is one of the best ways to overcome our slide into tyranny. I'm now a follower of them on my Twitters.
61
It's inconceivable to me that large, image-conscious companies would not use their own tech-savvy employees to scour the internet daily in order to protect their brand from association with odious sites like Breitbart. If they can pull their ads after Sleeping Giant has alerted them, why can't they make these discoveries for themselves? Is the new advertising technology really too complex for them, or is it that they don't care until someone publicizes where their advertising money is going?
68
@Stephen Wyman asked: "Is the new advertising technology really too complex for them, or is it that they don't care until someone publicizes where their advertising money is going?"
Answer: The latter. All they think about is potential buyers' credit cards, not their brains or morals.
7
As someone who spent years in the advertising business, Breitbart doesn't have a leg to stand on. Advertisers have every right to pick and choose where their ads are broadcast, after all, they are paying for it. But I agree it is a tech problem and needs to be solved upstream. The fact that the tech industry is more interested in money than ethics is not a surprise. It means we have to force them to do the right thing.
143
Keep it up. And thank-you for your service to your country.
162
@Stephen yes!!
4
Excellent. Where can I donate?
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Advertising on any site should elicit sales and profit given the ad is well made. The goal in American business always support the ends and not the means. This fact will hopefully continue the dissipation of America’ capitalis.
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Good for them! I looked at the Breitbart site out of curiosity after the election-I was trying to figure out what a Trump supporter reads. The articles are terrible! They don’t come straight out and lie, but they are incredibly misleading. Yes, they are often racist and sexist, but the worst ones are on guns-almost invariably written by Awr Hawkins. The articles massage numbers and present half-truths to make the argument that gun regulation is not only ineffective, but downright dangerous. It’s actually ‘news’ organizations like Breitbart that most concern me about the future of our country. Anyone who does something to undermine Breitbart is a hero in my mind
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Matt Rivitz and Nandini Jammi are true patriots and heroes. Now they are going to face alt-right, Russia-promoted backlash - please support their efforts!
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Thank you, Sleeping Giants. Please keep up the good work.
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I thank them for their work.
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Hooray for these guys. They are the real America.
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“Sleeping Giants’ political playbook is to attack opposing speech through harassment and false claims to try to drive it out of business,” Mr. Glicklich said. “They and others have failed at this every time it has been attempted. Democracy flourishes from more conversation, not less, which is why Matt Rivitz’s speech suppression through economic force is among the most reviled techniques of coercion.”
Ha! Like Breitbart has never tried to incite a boycott. Taste a little suppression through economic force yourselves.
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I've been a follower of Sleeping Giants since its inception. As far as I'm concerned, Rivitz and Jammi are American heroes and have offered Americans a sensible way to protest and feel empowered. If ethics don't sway advertisers, dollars do. Kudos to these two and the still-anonymous others. Well done.
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American heroes. I don't see anything wrong with their tactics, and even if there is something wrong, I feel relatively certain that the Right's tactics are far more devious. Among the Right's chief tactics is to accuse the Left of doing what they themselves are doing, e.g., attempting to suppress free speech. And in the age of Trump and McConnell, all bets are off anyway as to fairness and the rule of law. The so-called Culture Wars used to be about culture. Now they have become all-out war.
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If all companies can be persuaded to yank advertisements from Facebook or Amazon, then no particular company will be at a disadvantage.
Sleeping Giants is a mission well worth supporting.
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@John - :)) Amazon advertises on Breitbart. I just checked today's front page and voila, the ads are still up.
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These people are heroes and patriots.
I regret that their identities have been exposed by hatemongers and their apologists/enablers, but I'm hopeful that their example will inspire others.
For awhile now, I've believed that the way we're ultimately going to win this struggle is by using the tools of capitalism to build a stronger community and polity. Sleeping Giants is showing the way.
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Extreme care was once taken by ad agencies to be sure ads were placed in a context that did not damage the client brand. Random placements has always made me wonder if "any eyeball" is such a good idea. Companies should want to be informed about negative contexts. Then there are the whacky ones. X File reruns and a non profit promoting organ donation, really?
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Apparently one needs a Twitter or Facebook account to support them.
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@BobMeinetz
Yes, but in their quest to get Amazon to quit advertising on Brietbart, many supporters have closed their Prime accounts.
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@LBJ I made a decision last year to buy nothing through Amazon.
Thank you! It’s impressive and inspiring that you both use your free time to fight against bigotry in an effective manner.
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Why would Rivitz's wife and friends need to be exposed, unless they were also helping manage the site? If every time Tucker Carlson said something ridiculous and his wife's name was mentioned, I can only imagine the shrieking he'd do about keeping his private life private and how his family should not be attacked.
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Tucker Carlson is only one of a great many figures on the right (and I'm sure the left has some of these too, but I do think they are far more prevalent on the right) who clearly do not believe in the precept "Do NOT do unto others as you would NOT have them do unto you." (I emphasize the NOTs because, as it was explained to me many years ago, this is actually a negative command but gets mis-quoted all the time.)
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@pHodge - Agreed. People should not know that Carlson's over-amped self-righteous anger, lies, white-man-as-victim, claims, etc. are supported by an 115 percent income increase in the last 2 years and his net worth acquired from a career spewing hatred and false news is now an estimated $39 million.
https://finapp.co.in/tucker-carlson-net-worth
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I read an interview with Tucker Carlson a year or more ago and what stunned me is that he didn't seem to care who or what he promoted or derided. Paycheck.
Congrats to Mr. Rivitz for doing good for the world. Hope the site gets more followers.
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Kudos to Sleeping Giants for this important contribution. Sorry you had to spend so much time at those despicable sites to do the work though.
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I've been a member of Sleeping Giants for over a year. The arguments that making sure companies know their ads display on websites they may have never known they would display on isn't suppression of speech or harassment. It is knowledge. Sites that run counter to a company's ethics or mission are able to monetize and profit off that company without their knowledge due to ad tracking and ad buys.
If a company or product wants to support a site like Breitbart then fine. But they should know they are supporting the site and make a conscious choice to do so. Most companies didn't know they were supporting BB and decided not to. Some companies now know they support BB and still choose to.
Trying to force what Sleeping Giants does into a suppression of free speech argument is deceptive and incorrect. That argument is being made by those that were deceptively making money from companies and their gravy train is living due to knowledge (brought to them by free speech) to make decisions (freedom of association).
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Thank You, Mr. Surface!
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@Troy Surface--Excellent analysis. Another point advertisers underwriting Fox (unreal) News advertisers need to see is that they are supporting an entertainment channel (posing as news) that actually hurts their sales. Many of the products these companies advertise will be harmed by Trump's reckless and stupidly punitive tariffs. Fox is trumpeting Trump and ill-conceived policies like tariffs--companies advertising on Fox are shooting themselves in the foot. Another good reason to boycott Fox and Fox advertisers.
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@Ann - According to the FCC, broadcasters may not intentionally distort the news: "rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest." Because it broadcasts over cable, Fox isn't held to the rules and regulations as legitimate news organizations broadcasting real news over public airwaves. Fox News claims to be an entertainment medium, perhaps to save itself from civil penalties and government purview and liability. https://www.quora.com/Is-Fox-News-registered-as-a-news-organization-with...
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/complaints-about-broadcast-journalism