Sunday, March 11, 2012

Update on Carbonite and Rush Limbaugh

Last week I went on the Carbonite web site to tell them that I was not going to be renewing my subscription to their service because of their actions with respect to the Rush Limbaugh show. As you might expect, I received this corporate weasel word response.

Response Via Email (Riley B. - [redacted], ME) 03/04/2012 06:46 PM
Hello and thank you for contacting Carbonite Customer Support.

We do not endorse political views or opinions of the companies, magazines, newspapers, TV stations or radio stations that we advertise on. We simply choose a range of programs designed to reach a broad range of people so they might hear about Carbonite.

Please let us know if you need additional assistance.

Sincerely,
Riley
Carbonite Customer Support
It hardly addresses the issue at hand and doesn't seem consistent with the original announcement put out by their CEO:

Over the past two days we have received a tremendous amount of feedback on Rush Limbaugh’s recent comments. I too am offended and very concerned about his comments. Limbaugh’s remarks have us rethinking our future use of talk radio.

We use more than 40 talk show hosts to help get the Carbonite message out to the public. The nature of talk radio is that from time to time listeners are offended by a host and ask that we pull our advertising. This goes for conservatives like Limbaugh and progressives like Stephanie Miller and Ed Shultz. We even get customers who demand that we pull the plug on NPR. As an advertiser, we do not have control over a show’s editorial content or what they say on air. Carbonite does not endorse the opinions of the shows or their hosts.

However, the outcry over Limbaugh is the worst we’ve ever seen. I have scheduled a face-to-face meeting next week with Limbaugh during which I will impress upon him that his comments were offensive to many of our customers and employees alike.

Please know your voice has been heard and that we are taking this matter very seriously.

Sincerely,
David Friend
Interesting that his customer service folks didn't get his memo.

2 comments:

  1. translation: we didn't think this one through.

    mulligan?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that when they saw their stock prices continue to fall after they dropped Rush, they might have realized that it was his FANS who were unhappy with them. But that would be giving them credit for big picture thinking.

    ReplyDelete