And, in announcing their reasons, they implicitly admit that The Learning Channel Network has attempted to hide it politicization of the subject of Islam in America:
In issuing that mea culpa via
a corporate blog post, Robert Birge, the chief marketing officer at Kayak, the travel Web site, laid a good deal of the blame for the matter at the feet of TLC, part of Discovery Communications. He complained that the channel “was not upfront with us about the nature of the show” and “went out of their way to pick a fight on this, and they didn’t let us know their intentions.”
“Sadly, TLC is now enjoying the attention from this controversy,” Mr. Birge wrote.
A spokeswoman for Discovery, Laurie Goldberg, said the company would have no comment on Mr. Birge’s contentions.
In his blog post, Mr. Birge said that Kayak had not pulled its ads from “All-American Muslim,” which appears at 10 p.m. Sunday on TLC. Rather, he said, “our ads kept running on this program, but we have made the decision not to give TLC more money when the show returns in January.”
Three other sponsors that the Florida Family Association identified as having withdrawn their commercials from the show have also disputed that claim. They are Bank of America, Campbell Soup and Sears Holdings.
Mr. Birge, in his post, said that Kayak had agreed to advertise in “All-American Muslim” because “we adamantly support tolerance and diversity.”
“We get what America is about,” he wrote.
Kayak’s decision against advertising on the series in the future “comes across as bending to bigotry,” Mr. Birge said, and “it also appears that we did not support people who deserve support as people and as Americans.”
“For that, I am profoundly sorry,” he said. “We would not want anyone to think that we caved to hatred.”
It was “angry e-mails” about Kayak’s sponsorship of “All-American Muslim” that led Mr. Birge to look into the series “more thoroughly,” he said, and “the first thing I discovered” was TLC’s lack of transparency about the nature of the show.
A reporter who received an e-mail from Kayak with Mr. Birge’s blog post was puzzled because there was considerable publicity about “All-American Muslim” before its debut. Articles outlined the contents of the show and its focus on the
Muslim-American community of Dearborn, Mich., a Detroit suburb.
The reporter e-mailed Kayak to ask why Mr. Birge believed TLC kept information from the company. In an e-mail response, Mr. Birge replied: “When TLC pitched ‘All-American Muslim’ to advertisers, it was characterized as a fair-and-balanced look at the life of an American Muslim.”
“However,” he continued, “what was not disclosed was the pre-existing controversy surrounding race, religion and specifically the divide between the Muslim and Christian communities in Dearborn, Mich.”
Dearborn “has been a center of controversy for right or wrong,” he added. “However, that was omitted by TLC when it pitched the show.”
In his e-mail, Mr. Birge wrote that as a company of 150, Kayak did not “have the resources or time to do a full
background check on the contents of every show on which we buy advertising.”
Mr. Birge’s e-mail did not address the matter of why Kayak believes TLC wanted to “pick a fight” about the series or was “enjoying the attention.”
Mr. Birge, in his blog post, said that as part of his exploration of the matter, he watched the first two episodes of “All-American Muslim” and, he said, “Mostly, I just thought the show sucked."
“Based on our dealings with TLC and the simple assessment of the show,” Mr. Birge concluded in his blog post, “I decided we should put our money elsewhere. Apologies again.
So, the point here is, Kayak has no problem advertising on a show with Islamic content. What Kayak seems to object to is the use of the show as agitprop designed to instill the notion that Muslims are victims of bigotry.
And, to top it off, the show sucks.
This is not the first time that The Learning Channel has attempted to sell propaganda as family programming. In 2010 TLC broadcast a TV show called Sister Wives which was about a Polygamist Family.
One must wonder what is wrong with the people at TLC. Certainly they know there has never been a Polygamist society which has afforded equal rights to women.
Likewise, certainly they must know that there is not a single Muslim nation on the face of the Earth which affords equal rights to women.
And yet, TLC is actively promoting two ideologies which similarly oppress women and promote polygamy.
Is TLC merely courting controversy for the sake of ratings, or do they have a vicious agenda against women?
Actually, I don't think it's either. I think they are Gramscians set on tearing down the foundational values of Western society in order to replace them with what they likely think of as a Progressive society.
In doing so, they are playing with fire.
Western Society, minus it's foundational values (all men are created equal with equal rights under the law) will not become "Progressive", but will instead give into the natural impulses of Primitivism, which means women will be devalued, the assertion of male dominance through violence will be prized, and property will not be a matter of individual rights so much as it will be a matter of the invidual's willingness to kill and murder.
reliapundit commented: