Los Angeles Times Editorial Suggests MoveOn.Org Boycott Of Target Misguided Exercise In Extortion, MSNBC And Parent Company GE Refuse To Run MoveOn.Org Commercial Calling For Consumer Boycott Of Target

Tuesday, a Los Angeles Times editorial titled A Distasteful Move by MoveOn.org took to task the progressive political advocacy group, in particular its inordinate involvement in pressuring Target Corp, calling for a continuing boycott of the retailer because it bequeathed a donation of $150,000 to MN Forward, an anti-gay, conservative, far right-wing political action committee that in turn donated funds to the Tom Emmer gubernatorial campaign. Both MoveOn.org and the Human Rights Campaign met with Target executives, and asked for and received a public apology in addition to a commitment that Target would revisit its political campaign donation protocol to ensure fairness, the company said. But both MoveOn.org and HRC wanted more; specifically they wanted Target to contribute an equal amount of money to PAC supporting pro-gay candidates in Minnesota, a demand Target denied. “For MoveOn.org,” writes the Times, “the fight is at least as much about corporate money as it is about gay rights. The Target contribution is a high-profile result of an overreaching January decision by the Supreme Court that opens the door for more corporate donations to political campaigns. But by pointing out Target’s involvement in Emmer’s campaign and obtaining an apology, MoveOn.org and Human Rights Campaign had already won; their calls for a boycott and attempt to strong-arm money from the company are deeply counterproductive.”

Today, MSNBC announced it would not air an ad referenced in the Time’s editorial, produced by MoveOn.org aimed at Target, the cable news network saying that spot (featured in the link) “violates NBC’s Controversial Issue Advertising policy” presumably because it is an overt attack on an individual company. MoveOn.org – whose plan of attack appears to mimic extortion at times – released a statement that read in part “according to MSNBC and GE it is alright for corporations, like Target, to attack candidates and buy elections, but it is not OK for citizen organizations, like MoveOn, to fight back. This is the height of hypocrisy.”