Yesterday, ThinkProgress climate editor Brad Johnson reported on The Wonk Room that big oil giant BP has been engaged in a “massive greenwashing campaign, which includes months of full-page advertisements in national and regional newspapers, radio spots, television commercials, and Internet ads on websites including ThinkProgress.org.” Pursuant to Johnson’s posting, BP has decided to pull its ads from ThinkProgress.

Here’s what happened. BP purchased advertising on ThinkProgress through Common Sense Media, our outside ad company. Common Sense Media services a whole network of liberal sites, including Firedoglake, Crooks and Liars, AmericaBlog, Eschaton, and others.

BP has an agreement with Common Sense Media to be notified about blog postings that are critical of its advertising campaign, and BP reserves the right to pull ads if they are offended by the posts. ThinkProgress was aware that BP would in fact be notified of our post. Nevertheless, we felt the story of BP’s massive ad campaign was an important issue that deserved attention on our blog.

Today, our ad provider notified ThinkProgress that BP has asked that all its ads on the ThinkProgress sites (TP, Yglesias, and Wonk Room) be pulled through the end of their campaign.

When I informed the ThinkProgress community in Aug. 2008 that we were introducing one paid advertising spot on our site, I stated: “Please rest assured that our advertisers will have absolutely no bearing on determining or influencing what we do or don’t write about.” The commitment, of course, cost us some advertising money from BP in the short-run. But the cost for maintaining our long-term credibility, our progressive identity, and your readership is well worth it.

Linda McMahon, the Republican senate nominee in Connecticut, is selling herself as the consummate business woman, thanks to her years as an executive with World Wrestling Entertainment. But if her appearance last night on CNBC is any indication, McMahon is a little unclear about how much money the typical small business owner is earning.

CNBC’s supply-side devotee Larry Kudlow asked McMahon for her position on allowing the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans to expire, and McMahon used the standard Republican argument that permitting the expiration would cause a tax increase on small businesses:

The fallacy Larry, and you know this as well as anyone, it’s not just that top marginal tax rate that’s going to affect the wealthy, it’s going to affect small businesses. I’ve started as a Subchapter S corporation, and so when you increase that top marginal tax rate, if it goes from 35 to 39.6 percent, you know, that’s going to be a big dig for small businesses. And as I talk to small businesses all over the state of Connecticut, they’re telling me, ‘look, I’m not going to grow. I’m not going to go over that level. I’ll lay somebody off, I won’t take that next job, I can’t work any harder, and I’m just not going to work any more for the government.’

Watch it:

Florida’s senate candidate Marco Rubio said the same thing last week — calling the very phrase “Bush tax cuts for the rich” a “misnomer” — but it hasn’t gotten any more true in the interim. The fact remains that fewer than two percent of small businesses and less than three percent of people with any business income whatsoever will see a tax increase if the top two income tax brackets reset to the 2001 level, as President Obama has proposed.

McMahon tried to make the case that S-corporations — which don’t pay the corporate income tax, but pass their earnings through to owners who then file the income on their personal returns — would be hammered by the tax increase. But IRS data shows that those who both claim S-corp income on their personal returns and would be affected by the tax cuts expiring “come disproportionately from the ranks of the super-rich.” 89 percent of people claiming $10 million or more on their personal income tax returns have some S-corp. income.

According to the latest survey of small businesses by the National Federation of Independent Business, which is totally in the tank for extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich, nearly half of small businesses are not hiring due to economic conditions or sales prospects (so lack of customers), while just twelve percent cite “political conditions.” And handing more than $700 billion to the rich is not going to improve those sales prospects at all.

McMahon herself, who holds personal assets worth anywhere from $156 million to $400 million, would face higher tax rates if the tax cuts for the rich expire. The same can’t be said for the vast majority of small business owners.