Matthew Balan writes (and sporadically boldfaces) in a Dec. 12 NewsBusters post:
ABC, CBS, and NBC’s morning shows on Monday all used news briefs to highlight how home improvement giant Lowe’s is “facing a backlash” after it pulled its ads from TLC’s “All-American Muslim” reality TV series. All three noted that the company reacted to a complaint from a “conservative” or “Christian” group who threatened a boycott. CBS’s Early Show played up how Lowe’s “critics call that bigotry.“
NBC’s Natalie Morales stated in her brief that the chain is “sparking outrage after its pulled its ads from a reality show about American Muslims. The retail giant bowed to pressure from an evangelical Christian group, which called for a boycott against the chain of home improvement stores.” Morales added that a “California state senator, meanwhile, says he is considering a boycott and legislative action if the company does not reverse its decision.”Josh Elliott on ABC’s Good Morning America used the “facing a backlash” line and continued that “Lowe’s pulled the ads from TLC’s ‘All-American Muslim,’ after a conservative Christian group complained that the show, which follows families from a Detroit suburb, is Islamic propaganda.”
What’s Balan’s problem? We’re not sure. The group that is leading the boycott against “All-American Muslim,” the Florida Family Association, is a conservative evangelical Christian group. That’s entirely accurate. There’s nothing ambiguous about the group’s agenda.
The closest Balan gets to an actual, substantive complaint is lamenting, “By contrast, when the Big Three networks first covered the Occupy Wall Street protests during the first 11 days of October 2011, only once did one of their reporters label them ‘liberal.'” Which, of course, has nothing whatsoever to do with this story.