Mark Schirmer, a spokesman for Ford Motor Company (which owns Lincoln and Volvo), contacted ThinkProgress this afternoon, in response to your emails calling on O’Reilly’s corporate advertisers to stop supporting the O’Reilly Harassment Machine. Schirmer — speaking for himself and not on behalf of Ford — said he agrees with the thrust of ThinkProgress’ criticisms of O’Reilly, but explained that Ford advertises on the show because it has high ratings:
I agree with you about the rantings of the hopelessly pig-headed Mr. O’Reilly, recognize that I am just an innocent bystander in this email letter silliness. I work at Ford and support Ford, but have no idea how the decisions are made on where we advertise. Frankly, as a mainstream company, we advertise everywhere there are good ratings. That is not an endorsement of the show — that is recognition that people are watching the show. Don’t know why they watch that mindless ranting. But they watch in droves. Welcome to America, I guess.
Schirmer, again speaking for himself, added, “I saw the tapes of O’Reilly ambushing Hertzberg of the New Yorker a few month back. It demonstrated how moronic O’Reilly really is.” He concluded that “what Bill O’Reilly does or says is not important.” Getting Ford back on its feet though, “that is important.”
Keep up the pressure. Click here to tell O’Reilly’s advertisers to stop supporting the O’Reilly Harassment Machine.
Update:
As of 5:30 pm ET, more than 1,300 of you have stood up against O’Reilly. Thank you! Please keep the heat on.
Update:
,Mark Truby, Director of Corporate Communications at Ford Motor Company, tells ThinkProgress that Shirmer’s “comments don’t represent the view of Ford Motor Company.”
Update:
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