Stardock CEO Boycotts UPS Over Fox News

[Andy Chalk]

Stardock CEO Boycotts UPS Over Fox News

'Tis the season for boycotts and the latest combatant to enter the arena is none other than Fox News [http://www.sinsofasolarempire.com/].

It's a complicated story to try to keep up. A few weeks ago, UPS announced that it was pulling its advertising from Fox News because it could no longer tolerate the opinions expressed on the Glenn Beck [http://www.glennbeck.com/] show. The final straw apparently came when Beck, a conservative radio and television talk show host notorious for his inflammatory statements, said U.S. President Barack Obama is a racist "with a deep-seated hatred for white people."

The decision to pull its advertising from Fox News as a whole didn't sit too well with Wardell, who said Stardock does a "non-trivial amount of shipping with UPS" and that if the report of the boycott was true, he'd switch the company to FedEx [http://fedex.com/] instead. It was true, Stardock switched couriers and that was that; except, as we should all know by now, that is never just that.

A lot of people understandably took Wardell's decision to drop UPS as support for Beck and his political views, which didn't sit too well with Wardell either and prompted him to issue a statement clarifying that his reasons for boycotting UPS have nothing at to do with Beck himself.

"My Facebook comment was taken considerably out of context. I could care less about Glenn Beck or whether someone advertises on their show or not," he said. "But UPS is boycotting the entire channel which annoyed me enough to ask my publishing director to look into whether it was true (it was) and have them look into Fed Ex which provided competitive pricing and make use of them for our uses."

"Frankly, I wouldn't have cared if UPS had pulled their ads from Fox if they had done so quietly. But they didn't. They had to 'take a stance'," he explained further on his personal blog at JoeUser.com [http://frogboy.joeuser.com/article/365378/Facebook_Boycotts_and_Politics]. "I'm not a huge fan of FOX. But as a conservative, it is nice that there's one station where my values aren't ridiculed. I don't have some 'thing' for Fox. But Fox makes an easy target and it irritated me to see UPS playing such games."

I wonder if he'll get a free trip to UPS headquarters out of this?

Source: GamePolitics [http://gamepolitics.com/2009/09/28/boycotting-boycotter-stardock-takes-ups]


Permalink

 

[Horticulture]

Looks like it's time to boycott Stardock.

 

[mambodog]

All I took from this is that Stardock supports racism. Even if I wasn't supposed to.

 

[Skrapt]

Yeah I just lost a massive amount of respect for Stardock. I have friends with what would be considered conservative points of views in the US and respect them but what Fox news spouts is pure and utter BS and they should be slapped down already for having the tenacity to use the words 'fair' and 'balanced' on their website and news.

Besides, I'd say allowing someone to act as Glen Beck does is a good enough reason to boycott the entirety of Fox.

 

[somekindarobot]

Looks like it's time to boycott Stardock.

Nice. With luck, such a boycott of a boycott of a boycott will snowball into a cascade of boycotts that will end up forcing people to live in tiny adobe huts and living off gardens and barrels of rainwater as everybody refuses to buy or sell anything from anyone else because they all hate each others guts.

 

[Sephiwind]

I am a fan of Glenn Beck, al though I don't agree with everything he says, and I could understand if UPS pulled their advertisments from the show, but pulling them from then entire station is just stupid. Granted UPS sucks anyways, but I still think it's an idiotic decision.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Looks like it's time to boycott Stardock.

I think I already have a good start on that; as unintentional as it is.

I like the line: "I'm not a huge fan of FOX. But as a conservative, it is nice that there's one station where my values aren't ridiculed."
It's Fox News that make conservative values a target of ridicule. Guys like Beck and Oreilly make conservatives look like raving lunatics.

I actually like some of the conservative values (small government, conservation of resources, and fiscal conservatism), it's just too bad vocal conservatives have dumped them all for selective religious morals, racism, and class warfare.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

Wow, I had a lot of respect for the guy until did this. Not that I'll boycott Stardock (seeing as they're one of the few PC publishers that don't make you jump through firey hoops when you try to install their products), but he probably should watch an episode of Glen Beck before complaining about another company's boycott on those grounds. Some of the stuff Beck says is vile and just a little bit concerning for his mental health.

 

[Baby Tea]

Dang it Stardock! Here I was hoping that it was a boycott for free speech! Even though Glenn Beck is a douchebag, he still has the right to say his douche-baggy things (No matter how much we hate it).

But you just had to make it about conservatism. Shucks.
Oh well. I still love you, Stardock. You're great.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

I'm with UPS on this one. Stardock just made a big mistake.

 

[uppitycracker]

Looks like it's time to boycott Stardock.

Nice. With luck, such a boycott of a boycott of a boycott will snowball into a cascade of boycotts that will end up forcing people to live in tiny adobe huts and living off gardens and barrels of rainwater as everybody refuses to buy or sell anything from anyone else because they all hate each others guts.

I'm pretty sure this is how communism starts. Eventually we'll have no choice but to have the state provide everything.

 

[Cousin_IT]

*sigh* even Bobby Kotick keeps his mouth shut about his political views, especially over something so trivial as who sends your mail.

oh, & lol defending FOX as mouthpiece for conservatism.

 

[hansari]

"My Facebook comment was taken considerably out of context. I could care less about Glenn Beck or whether someone advertises on their show or not," he said. "But UPS is boycotting the entire channel which annoyed me enough to ask my publishing director to look into ....I wouldn't have cared if UPS had pulled their ads from Fox if they had done so quietly. But they didn't. They had to take a stance..."

What a crock...

The first explanation says its purely business. UPS is barring ads from a channel that receives enormous traffic...its bad for business, and that is that. No emotions are being played here.

Then it says he wouldn't care if it was done in private?

What a hypocrite...I hope the internet calls him out on it. Regardless of how good/bad his games are...

I mean now he says its personal and feels as if his conservative values are being attacked...what?

Beck said Obama, the elected leader whether we like it or not, was a racist. Thats pretty inflammatory...and in terms of the ad industry, you have to be careful with whom your product is associated with and how consumers perceive you. Imagine the outrage if Trojan started running ads during Spongebob breaks...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Of the two reasons, the mans "feelings" getting hurt are probably the reason he switched shipping companies.

The only way number could be justified is if Stardock owned significant stock in UPS and felt that boycotting Fox was a move that would lose substantial profits. But I'm sure the article would have mentioned that...

 

[Bat Vader]

This is why I stay out of politics.

 

[Royas]

As a conservative, Wardell should also be taking a stand against Beck. That guy makes conservatives look like a pack of looneys. I'm fairly conservative myself, and I just wish the guy would shut up. As for criticizing UPS for boycotting the whole channel, what else are they supposed to do to express themselves? It won't have an effect to pull advertising from just Beck's show, Fox could just add the commercials elsewhere. No, this is an effective way to say "We can't support this type of television". Finally, Wardell really needs to be more careful. I initially took this to mean that he supports Beck and his opinions pretty strongly. Perception is everything in business. Now, no matter what he says or how he objects, he's likely to go in the books as "that racist game publisher". In other words, he screwed this one up pretty thoroughly, perception wise.

I will say that I'm glad to see protests and actions being taken in the proper way, using wallets as weapons rather than bombs. That's the way thing ought to be done, and I'm pleased some groups are, in fact, willing to take stands. The practice corporations have of just accepting everything that comes down the pike in the name of profit makes me sick. An occasional decision based on principle (right or wrong) gives me some hope.

 

[Infiniteloop]

The problem with UPS pulling out (haha), is that their decision was based on emotions. Never let emotions enter your decision making process. No one watches Beck, sees a UPS commercial, and then thinks "Yeah UPS agrees with Beck".

Good for you stardock. The only thing people understand is money. Hit their wallet.

 

[somekindarobot]

Dang it Stardock! Here I was hoping that it was a boycott for free speech! Even though Glenn Beck is a douchebag, he still has the right to say his douche-baggy things (No matter how much we hate it).

But you just had to make it about conservatism. Shucks.
Oh well. I still love you, Stardock. You're great.

You could say that. However, in UPS's defense, they have a right to not pay people to say douche-baggy things.

 

[Pendragon9]

Now boycotts are getting boycotts? WHAT?!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

But as a conservative, it is nice that there's one station where my values aren't ridiculed.

Perhaps having the same views as someone who says that U.S. President Barack Obama is a racist "with a deep-seated hatred for white people" should have told you something, Mr. Wardell.

Namely that you're views co-align with a news station that trivializes issues, broadcasts mistruths and spouts hate speech.

Perhaps, and this is just a theory, your views might be, dare I say, [small]wrong?[/small]

 

[Baby Tea]

Dang it Stardock! Here I was hoping that it was a boycott for free speech! Even though Glenn Beck is a douchebag, he still has the right to say his douche-baggy things (No matter how much we hate it).

But you just had to make it about conservatism. Shucks.
Oh well. I still love you, Stardock. You're great.

You could say that. However, in UPS's defense, they have a right to not pay people to say douche-baggy things.

I suppose that is also true! Man, we've got rights up the wazoo (Though I'm not entirely sure where said 'wazoo' is).
Well, who can really win in a situation like this?
At least Stardock is still a great developer. That makes me happy.