MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION: The Case For Boycotting Keurig | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN.

    On Sunday, conservatives fought back against Keurig Coffee's decision to pull advertising from Sean Hannity's Fox News show. The Keurig decision came on the heels of a campaign from Media Matters, a left-wing agitprop organization dedicated to launching astroturfed boycotts against conservative hosts ranging from Rush Limbaugh to Hannity to Mark Levin.

    Media Matters began its campaign by putting out a false transcript of a Hannity interview on his radio show discussing the sexual molestation allegations against Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. Media Matters' version of the transcript had Hannity acquiescing in a guest's description of sexual activity with a 14-year-old as consensual; he said no such thing. Actually, Hannity has consistently said that if such allegations are proven, Moore should step down.

    Next, Media Matters suggested that Hannity had defended Moore, even though Hannity's discussion with Moore was one of Hannity's better interviews - an interview in which Moore came off dicey at best.

    Keurig responded to Media Matters' astroturf campaign by announcing they had pulled their advertisements. So conservatives rallied to Hannity's defense by announcing they would boycott Keurig. Some even went so far as to smash their Keurig machines - an odd decision, considering they had already bought them. If they really wanted to undercut Keurig, they would sell their machines on eBay and flood the market.

    So, are people right to boycott Keurig?

    In a normal time, the answer is obviously no: Keurig is a company seeking viewers on a mainstream show, and decided they no longer wanted to undergo controversy. That's their call. But we're living in a time where Media Matters routinely makes up controversies, then badgers advertisers into dropping shows that aren't particularly controversial. The goal of a boycott of Keurig isn't to boycott Keurig, but to teach the Left that such boycotts can backfire.

    Now, this is an awkward way of doing it. The better way to teach Leftists to move away from boycott tactics is to reverse them against Leftist hosts - to create a mutually assured destruction, as we attempted to do at Truth Revolt, when we led campaigns against MSNBC hosts Martin Bashir and Alec Baldwin. But this is a situation where if the Left isn't taught that boycotts can run both ways, we're likely to see politicized products from now until the end of time.