Courtesy of the LA Times:
After recent decisions by companies such as the Kellogg Co. and Allstate to pull their ads, a number of German companies have followed suit, including BMW, Deutsche Telekom and the restaurant chain Vapiano.
Deutsche Telekom is the parent company of wireless carrier T-Mobile.
A spokesman for BMW of North America said that the carmaker doesn’t advertise on Breitbart directly and only individuals who specifically expressed an interest in the brand and then visited the Breitbart site would have received an ad from BMW.
“We continuously review sites where individually targeted ads are available and Breitbart is no longer among them,” the company said in a statement.
Deutsche Telekom said in a separate statement that “we have had our advertising removed from [Breitbart] and have block listed them, to ensure that no further Deutsche Telekom ads appear there. Deutsche Telekom stands for values such as tolerance and openness and we do not condone any discriminatory acts or comments.”
Breitbart has recently suggested that they will be expanding into Germany, and have already written multiple posts critical of Chancellor Merkel.
However good this news might seem, I recently learned that Breitbart is actually supported by some wealthy right wing donors, and does not rely solely on advertising dollars:
Breitbart refuses to release revenue figures, although pundits suspect that its advertising streams are not big enough to sustain its current operations in America and Britain. It is financed by private backers, notably Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire and a big donor to Mr Trump’s campaign, who reportedly invested $10m in the site a few years ago. Yet compared with traditional media, its overheads are small: a few opinionated journalists, some interns and readers who fill up the comments page at no extra cost.
Breitbart’s ad revenues, such as they are, could prove volatile. Its content is frequently toxic: its comment section is a platform for members of far-right hate groups to rail against immigration and Jews.
This means that Breitbart is not hampered by any potential financial concerns as they spread hate, racism, and Islamophobia at will.
So long as they please their wealthy benefactors there is no down side to attacking liberals in this country or others, and despite their new ties to the president elect there are no signs that they intend to change their tactics one little bit.
In fact there is every indication that they plan to become even more aggressive in attacking politicians like Angela Merkel, and promoting politicians more in line with their world view.
Is anybody else having flashes from "The Boys From Brazil?"
After recent decisions by companies such as the Kellogg Co. and Allstate to pull their ads, a number of German companies have followed suit, including BMW, Deutsche Telekom and the restaurant chain Vapiano.
Deutsche Telekom is the parent company of wireless carrier T-Mobile.
A spokesman for BMW of North America said that the carmaker doesn’t advertise on Breitbart directly and only individuals who specifically expressed an interest in the brand and then visited the Breitbart site would have received an ad from BMW.
“We continuously review sites where individually targeted ads are available and Breitbart is no longer among them,” the company said in a statement.
Deutsche Telekom said in a separate statement that “we have had our advertising removed from [Breitbart] and have block listed them, to ensure that no further Deutsche Telekom ads appear there. Deutsche Telekom stands for values such as tolerance and openness and we do not condone any discriminatory acts or comments.”
Breitbart has recently suggested that they will be expanding into Germany, and have already written multiple posts critical of Chancellor Merkel.
However good this news might seem, I recently learned that Breitbart is actually supported by some wealthy right wing donors, and does not rely solely on advertising dollars:
Breitbart refuses to release revenue figures, although pundits suspect that its advertising streams are not big enough to sustain its current operations in America and Britain. It is financed by private backers, notably Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire and a big donor to Mr Trump’s campaign, who reportedly invested $10m in the site a few years ago. Yet compared with traditional media, its overheads are small: a few opinionated journalists, some interns and readers who fill up the comments page at no extra cost.
Breitbart’s ad revenues, such as they are, could prove volatile. Its content is frequently toxic: its comment section is a platform for members of far-right hate groups to rail against immigration and Jews.
This means that Breitbart is not hampered by any potential financial concerns as they spread hate, racism, and Islamophobia at will.
So long as they please their wealthy benefactors there is no down side to attacking liberals in this country or others, and despite their new ties to the president elect there are no signs that they intend to change their tactics one little bit.
In fact there is every indication that they plan to become even more aggressive in attacking politicians like Angela Merkel, and promoting politicians more in line with their world view.
Is anybody else having flashes from "The Boys From Brazil?"
