Exponential

Round about lunchtime is when I learned 1,500 people signed up to be FOX Attackers. Now, the AP—linked by Drudge!—is reporting it's over three times that:

NEW YORK — Liberal activists are stepping up their campaign against Fox News Channel by pressuring advertisers not to patronize the network.

MoveOn.org, the Campaign for America's Future and liberal blogs like DailyKos.com are asking thousands of supporters to monitor who is advertising on the network. Once a database is gathered, an organized phone-calling campaign will begin, said Jim Gilliam, vice president of media strategy for Brave New Films, a company that has made anti-Fox videos.

The groups have successfully pressured Democratic presidential candidates not to appear at any debate sponsored by Fox, and are also trying to get Home Depot Inc. to stop advertising there.

At least 5,000 people nationwide have signed up to compile logs on who is running commercials on Fox, Gilliam said. The groups want to first concentrate on businesses running local ads, as opposed to national commercials.

When I was on vacation earlier this month, FOX News was playing in the rental car office at the Denver airport. I asked for the manager, and told him that having FOX News on his TV was an affront to any of his customers who weren't conservative Republicans. He obliged me and turned it off, but seemed taken aback. He clearly hadn't thought about it ever before. FOX News is just taken as a "normal" news source by most people who haven't bothered to give it much thought before—like local advertisers. Once they learn that by advertising there, they're displaying a middle finger to a wide swathe of potential customers—they'll turn it off, too.

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