WASHINGTON, DC — According to a new report from Media Matters for America, a nonprofit media watchdog, major corporations that are publicly celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride Month are also simultaneously advertising on Fox News, funding the network's virulent anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ propaganda.
According to Media Matters' research, companies like Procter and Gamble, General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, Progressive Insurance, and others have run hundreds, if not thousands, of ads on Fox News so far this year — while simultaneously celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride month publicly and across their social media platforms. According to Media Matters:
—GlaxoSmithKline is Fox New's largest corporate advertiser in Pride month. The company has run 1680 on Fox News in 2021, and 155 during June 2021. This comes even as GlaxoSmithKline posted Pride messages to its Twitter (twitter.com/GSK/status/1399763922949967873 ), Facebook ( www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php ) , Instagram ( www.instagram.com/p/CPlaz-AM1y7/ ) , and LinkedIn ( www.linkedin.com/posts/glaxosmithkline_wetakepride-transgender-activity-6806127316830363648-CTl8 ) pages.
—Procter and Gamble has run more than 1320 ads on Fox News in 2021, including 62 in Pride month. This despite the fact that the company issued a Pride statement on its website that in part describes the company's "three key initiatives that aim to raise visibility and support of the LGBTQ+ community," and sponsored a June 4 "Can't Cancel Pride" event, a virtual celebration for the LGBTQ community that featured queer entertainers and artists.
—General Motors has run more than 1680 ads on Fox News in 2021, including 24 in pride month. And yet, they took various steps to publicly assert themselves as allies, including changing their homepage to a Pride-themed image of a car that reads, "everybody in," and posting on social media about Pride month. General Motors even touted their support for the Equality Act, which Fox News attacked in 18 segments in less than two months.
—Progressive Insurance updated all their social media profiles with Pride imagery, while over 831 of their ads ran on Fox News this year. As of June 16th, Progressive Insurance has not run any ads on Fox News during Pride month.
While many companies have fled ( www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/business/media/tucker-carlson-advertisers-ratings.html ) the network because of its toxic programming, the companies in this report remain some of Fox News' leading advertisers.
Read the full report HERE: https://www.mediamatters.org/justice-civil-liberties/companies-celebrating-lgbtq-pride-month-are-also-advertising-fox-0.
Fox News is a hotbed of anti-LGBTQ extremism in the post-Trump era. Media Matters' research found that from January 20, the day President Biden took office, through March 18, Fox News aired 86 segments about trans people, primarily attacking trans youth and trans athletes. In fact, Fox aired more segments on trans athletes in the first three months of 2021, at 72, as it did in 2019 and 2020 combined.
A separate Media Matters report shows that Fox News aired 19 segments in the first week of Joe Biden's presidency, totalling just under an hour, that miscategorized an executive order telling federal agencies to protect LGBTQ+ Americans from discrimination in numerous areas of public life, such as housing, health care, employment, public accomodations, and education. Fox News' coverage miscategorized the order as a move that would destroy women's sports; only one of those segments even alluded to its nondiscrimination protections.
"In a year when we've seen a stark increase in legislative attacks on trans people and unprecedented anti-trans violence, we don't need companies to change their profile pictures for Pride Month — what we need is for corporate America to put its money where its mouth is," said Brianna January, senior researcher for Media Matters for America's LGBTQ Program. "It's despicable that the same companies trying to sell us rainbow logos and feel-good PR statements are also funding the anti-LGTBQ hatred of Fox News personalities like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham."
At the start of the annual advertising Upfront period, Media Matters and more than 40 organizations penned a letter urging media buyers to drop Fox and not buy advertisements on the network which fuels conspiracy theories, extremism, and attacks on democracy. To read more about why Fox News is bad for business visit DropFox.com .
