An upcoming Media Matters protest against Tucker Carlson at Fox News headquarters in New York City received some help Tuesday from three Obama administration alums.
On the podcast “Pod Save America,” former Obama spokesperson Tommy Vietor, as well as former Obama speechwriters Jon Favreau and Jon Lovett encouraged listeners to attend the protest.
Want to make your voice heard about Tucker Carlson? There is a protest outside of Fox News HQ on Wednesday at 11am ET – when Fox is having a meeting with their advertisers.
More info: https://t.co/zoyoZL6frI pic.twitter.com/PUBaupzUCl
— Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) March 12, 2019
“They’re having a protest outside of Fox News headquarters on Wednesday at 11 a.m. in New York because Fox is having an emergency meeting with their advertisers,” said Vietor. “So if you want to send a message, and you want people to actually care there, let the advertisers know because that’s the only reason the Bill O’Reillys and the Laura [Ingrahams] and the other people actually get punished.”
“And the Glenn Becks too. It’s the only thing that’s worked,” added co-host Jon Lovett.
“Tucker Carlson is their most popular host in their most popular time slot,” Favreau said. “That is Fox News.”
The protest is an attempt to get the network to cave on its popular anchor as it hosts key advertisers and media buyers at a pre-scheduled sales event Wednesday. While neutral shows like “Shepard Smith Reporting” and “Special Report with Bret Baier” will be the primary focus, protesters hope to amplify the recent contention surrounding Carlson, whose decade-old statements to a shock jock were disseminated Sunday by Media Matters. (RELATED: Tucker Carlson: ‘We Will Never Bow To The Mob’)
“The clips are from 2006 to 2011,” wrote CNN’s Brian Stelter in an eye-opening explanation of the group’s tactics. “But Media Matters drew new attention to Carlson’s history of offensive comments with an eye toward Wednesday’s advertiser shindig.” Carlson has maintained that he “will never bow to the mob,” which he believes will stop at nothing but complete silence from their political opposition.