Personally, I don’t care if it appears Komen is backing down- I still intend to boycott anything related to Komen, because them backing down doesn’t make them any less a political organization staffed with fringe right-wing lunatics, nor does it change any of the information I have learned this week about how Komen is a terrible organization that donates very little while acting as a marketing shill for major corporations:
I’ll keep donating to Planned Parenthood and other organizations that manage to do some good with the money (Ed at G&T has some solid suggestions), rather than spend 70% of it lavishing a half million dollars on the CEO and other expenses (self promotion, mainly) while spending only 30% on actual breast cancer related issues.
But the important thing now is to not back down. Komen is backpeddling, which is good, but it doesn’t change who they are. All that has changed is that they realized they were just a tad too brazen this time around. The nature of the beast has not changed, the same people who cut stem cell funding to Hopkins and other universities are still there, the folks who attempted to play petty partisan games by attacking Planned Parenthood are still there, and they will do the same sorts of things in the future, only this time they will try to be more sophisticated in the PR efforts. Keep up the pressure. Keep calling companies and pressuring them to drop Komen. Don’t do what liberals always do and stop just because it appears we have won. Keep your foot on their neck, no matter how many times Nancy Brinker whimpers “uncle” through mealy-mouthed PR releases. We need this to be an object lesson in pain for anyone else who wants to try some bullshit like this in the future.
Basically, pretend you are a Republican and we are talking about ACORN.
satby
Right there with ya, John!
Major Mel Funkshun
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Komen-said-no-to-Planned-Parenthood-but-yes-to-2990641.php
It just keeps gettting better and better……
cathyx
I agree. It’s as if they had no idea so many people disagreed with their point of view. How out of touch can someone be?
Egg Berry
Damned Komen thugs! I’ll believe it when their CEO takes a 50 percent paycut.
Tractarian
But…. money is fungible!
slag
OK. But only if you have to be the prostitute this time. Those heels don’t work as well on me as they do on you.
Yutsano
The ACORN thing was a lie. We’re telling the truth about SGK. That’s the difference.
The Dangerman
@cathyx:
Do they get there news only from FOX?
Zifnab
You know, everyone kinda sorta suspects this kind of thing happens. But it’s refreshing to point to a charity or other organization and say “There! That is the perfect example of where corporate ‘giving’ and for-profit charities are bilking the system in the name of public good.”
If nothing else comes of Komen, it will serve as an model against which other charities may be judged.
amk
Go cole. Appreciate your role in the pushback.
BGinCHI
People are learning that giving to organizations that actually get the money efficiently to the people for whom they are raising it is the way to go. Scrutinize where you give.
Corporate irresponsibility and inefficiency is exactly what the Komen Foundation represents. Corporate welfare posing as charity.
geg6
I’m with you, John. But one quibble…
They lied about ACORN. The ugly lie behind SGK public image was what was shattered in this episode. The rot at the core of SGK that’s been uncovered is true. It’s a very different thing and one that just makes me more determined to see this organization killed.
amk
@Yutsano: Yup. The left is finally learning to fight back in an unified manner ? Keeping my fucking fingers crossed.
Bubblegum Tate
I absolutely agree. It’s great that SGK was forced into this humiliating about-face, but it’s too little too late. The damage has already been done, and the sordid truth about an organization for which a lot of people (myself included) used to have vaguely positive warm fuzzies has come out. I now hold SGK in contempt, I am redoubling my support of Planned Parenthood, and I will no doubt be contributing to an actual breast cancer research/breast cancer patient support org.
SteveM
If Komen’s health plan covers Brinker’s plastic surgery, it’s amazing there’s any money left over for women’s health.
Comrade Mary
Guys, I think John knows that the right lied about ACORN.
The Moar You Know
@Yutsano:
@geg6:
John’s not saying they’re the same. He’s saying to treat it like the Republicans treated ACORN. Doesn’t matter which was a lie and which was true. Totally irrelevant. Treat it the same. Don’t stop talking about it, don’t stop demanding action about it, and don’t stop until they’re defunded and broke and no one would dare put it on a resume. Treat them the way Republicans treated us.
JPL
The reputation if forever tarnished. I won’t be buying pink.
Betty Cracker
Crush Corporate Charity, see it driven before you, and hear the lamentation of its sponsors!
kfreed
Damn straight!
P.S. Rightwing fundies running amok: anti-gay haters at American Family Assoc. targeting JCPenny to get Ellen Degneres outed as spokeswoman; Family Research Council targeting Starbucks over “radical pro-gay support”
Fighting back. All In.
Keep up with the latest fundie outrages at People for the American Way: http://www.rightwingwatch.org
P.S. Black Ribbon Komen Campaign: http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/black-ribbon-campaign-against-susan-g-komen-foundation-12952
ShadeTail
I think they have *not* backed down. Their statement doesn’t promise that they will renew PP’s grant after the current one expires. It also weaselly redefines their “no investigations” policy in a way that sounds good but doesn’t satisfy me.
This is a more thorough explanation of my opinion.
Redshift
@cathyx:
One of the fatal flaws with the wingnut bubble is that they’re always certain a large majority agrees with them right up until the backlash hits. It’s one of the few advantages we have.
slag
@BGinCHI: It does concern me when such a big name in the nonprofit world deservedly loses trust. I think it puts the whole sector on the defensive. For sure, the cancer-related organizations are going to be. They’re going to be threading the needle in distancing themselves from the Komen model without directly stating, “We’re not like those people!”. It can be good, as long as citizens don’t use Komen’s behavior as an excuse to not do their part.
There are many bad-doers in it, for sure, but we need a do-gooding sector. Just like there are many bad politicians but we need a public sector. Just like there are many bad businesspeople but we need a private sector.
Angry Egilsson
This is getting even better.
Having turned themselves into the charitable-equivalent of PP by becoming controversial (and thus justifying everyone refusing to give them money), and thus shooting themselves in one foot, Komen now firmly seizes the shotgun again and takes a blast at their OTHER foot.
Now the pro-lifers who rallied to their side feel completely abandoned and foolish, and they ALSO will disdain Komen.
It’s a twofer! This story is like the 12 days of X-mas, presents every day.
patroclus
Of course I will be boycotting SGK from now on. They will have to alter their behavior FOR YEARS in order to get back into my good graces. But in this post, I want to specifically thank John and all the frontpagers for covering this issue so thoroughly over the past few days. BJ has really been the place to go to find out about this issue.
Wiesman
Agree 100% with Cole on this.
The ACORN parallel is spot on, except that ACORN was never as well-funded, and it actually, you know, accomplished things, which is why it was targeted obviously.
JoyceH
I’m with you, John. I’m seeing ‘yay, we won’ posts all over my Facebook feed. Baloney. Not only is Handel still there, but the board who hired Handel, knowing she’s a fringe wingnut who ran for governor pledging to defund PP, they’re still there too and they’re not going anywhere. They hired her because she’s one of them – flocking together with birds of a feather.
Frankly, I don’t think there’s anything Komen can do that would regain my former benign opinion of them. We know who they are now. To quote the LOLcat, “What has been seen cannot be unseen.”
MikeBoyScout
Ok, but I’m not wrapping my head in foil and I don’t give a sh*t if Karen Handel has a photo ID.
Niques
@patroclus: I absolutely agree . . . thank you BJ!!!
Southern Beale
Exactly. Yesterday they said it wasn’t the investigation, it was the fact that PP didn’t perform mammograms in their clinics. So who wants to bet that one gets dusted off in about 4 months when PP is denied its grant?
Horrible people.
Jewish Steel
Is there nothing a former Bushite can’t fuck up? Seriously, anything they have their grubby little paws in should come with a warning label. The incompetence.
The Bobs
Brinker got rich and successful prostituting her dead sister’s name to any willing corporate client.
JGabriel
NICE rant, John. And, of course, I’m with you too.
.
Rafer Janders
Keep your foot on their neck, no matter how many times Nancy Brinker whimpers “uncle” through mealy-mouthed PR releases. We need this to be an object lesson in pain
This is why we love you.
edmund dantes
Yeah. Read those words carefully. I don’t think they’ve substantially changed their stance at all.
amk
This whole unholy mess has gone even international.
Great job, you rwnj’s.
Villago Delenda Est
Right on, John.
This outfit is rotten to the core…it’s another griftapalooza scam. Fuck Brinker, fuck her fundigelical co-conspirators. Burn, baby, burn.
Donut
@ The Moar You Know
This – a respects not only SGK, but every single issue. We are in a war with these people. They don’t play by rules like “always tell the truth” and they certainly don’t believe in rational discussion of issues and principled compromise.
All the time. Every fight. We need to be vicious with rhetoric and maintain pressure like this. Romney is going to lie (already does) about Obama every single day from now to Nov.
gordonsowner
Komen reversed its stance, and will continue to fund Planned Parenthood? Upon closer reading through the media hype on the reversal, I find that 1.) Komen intended to honor its obligations to PP for the next 3 years, even before the uproar, and 2.) Komen didn’t give full-throated support for the work of PP, who brings need cancer screenings and other necessities for the poorest of women where other organizations don’t go, but instead says that, since PP is not under criminal investigation, they are still free to apply for grants.
This is good news to me, as I think I can get in on this action too. As I am not under investigation, and still have my “Federal Breast Inspector” badge from 8th grade, I bet in the eyes of Komen I have as much qualification for their money as PP does. Well done, Komen, whatever you are paying your SVP of Public Policy, Karen Handel, is isn’t enough…
amk
@The Bobs: Yup. And the assholes here were defending her gouging ways. Fuck’em.
scav
@amk: I saw stuff on The Guard before I saw anything in the nuanced NYT and ChiTrib empire.
JGabriel
@The Bobs:
Brinker was already rich:
So, to be fair, Brinker prostituted her dead sister’s name for power, not fortune.
.
Midnight Marauder
@Yutsano:
And that is precisely why we should ramp up the pressure on these clowns.
David Hunt
@Tractarian:
Amen. So every penny that goes to Koman is an accomplish to the salary that goes to Handel. The only solution to the travesty of that woman getting paid is to make sure that NO donations go to Koman while she’s there.
satby
OT, but it’s a good day to be a liberal.
honus
First let me say that I totally agree with John’s treat it like ACORN advice. The way it mirrors ACORN is striking. ACORN was a lie, with a phony misleading video. SGK was unmasked by it’s own press release. And the video of Brinker trying to justify it is so damaging it almost looks an O’Keefe dream piece.
scav
@David Hunt: Handel is a shiny object and the cute smiley-mask, no more. Don’t be mislead by whether she’s there or not. The forces that put her there remain.
Violet
@Jewish Steel:
So true.
Agreed, John. Boot on the neck. Make them pay. Turn them into the example about what happens when you do this kind of thing.
Suggestion: If you have not yet written any letters to SGK’s sponsors, now is a very good time to do so. Let them know that despite this pathetic PR attempt by SGK to make this controversy go away, it is not going away. That you are not willing to support any of the pink tie-ins because SGK doesn’t focus on cancer research and treatment, as it says it does, and that they have a history of doing this sort of thing. Let the corporate sponsors know you’re still there.
WaterGirl
@satby: oops, if there’s still time, you will want to fix your link.
SectarianSofa
No, I surrender! I am sending Komen flowers and cards! Thank you, Komen, for pretending you care about poor women and their health! Job well done.
amk
@scav: Fucking fourth estate in US of A are fucking fifth columnists.
Jay C
@Redshift: @cathyx:
Near-totally, if the SGKF flap is any indication: but I think the basic problem with today’s Organized Right is that for all too many issues, they really don’t care how many people disagree with them. Especially when it comes to abortion-related crap (or anything that the tag of “abortion-related” might even vaguely be connected to, even tenuously) – they’ll just retreat behind a cloak of “religion”, i.e. self-righteous holy-holy sentimentalism about Baby Jebus and happy snowflakes from heaven or whatever; and redouble their efforts: only more under-the-radar this time.
JGabriel
TBogg (of course) finds the perfect image to illustrate the SGK executive leadership.
.
kindness
Actually the way to push back against groups like Komen are to hit their corporate sponsors where it hurts. And that’s being done here and it has shown to be working. Well, then keep doing it. Keep e-mailing the corporations that bankroll scam charities like Komen and tell them you won’t buy their product until they stop paying off the right wing idiots.
Lex
We need this to be an object lesson in pain.
That, my friends, is how a free market is supposed to work.
schrodinger's cat
From God Botherer Dreher’s blog, on the day the controversy broke out. Is he for real? Sounds insufferable.
satby
@satby: I would fix the link, but it’s John’s next post anyway.
Lex
@Betty Cracker: WIN.
scav
@scav: Not that the sound of her tears, as she is driven before us, wouldn’t be Handel’s Water Music to mine ears.
Jager
Here is a link to the entire list of SGK corporate sponsors and partners
http://ww5.komen.org/corporatepartners.aspx
catclub
@Jewish Steel: David Frum couldn’t keep a job with AEI.
But that was because he told the truth.
West of the Cascades
Amen, Cole. I’ve marked the date of the Race for the Cure in Portland and want to talk to friends who are organizers in Occupy Portland to float the idea of an “Occupy the Race” event, letting participants know they’re unwitting tools paying Brinker’s bloated salary and suggesting alternative, more direct ways to fund breast cancer research and prevention.
David Hunt
@scav:
She’s a shiny object righto up until the time she becomes a (figurative) head mounted on our pikes. The idea is to make Koman offer up a blood-sacrifice hoping it will make the calls to all their sponsors stop. Of course since we’re talking about coming after them the way that Republicans came after ACORN, it should have zero effect on the PR assault that they’re under, but killer her job could serve as a deterrent to future right-wing urges even if the organization survives.
Chet
@Bubblegum Tate:
Call it the Penn State Effect.
Bulworth
@schrodinger’s cat: Even if cutting off PP results in fewer cancer screenings and more cancer deaths. Because abortion is teh dirty.
Someguy
Great. Meanwhile, as SGK restores funding (maybe) for a few outsourced breast exams, the Catholic bishops declare war on Obama Care. Guess you all missed that one.
Arclite
You know, if you’re a charity, you should be forced to give 80% of contributions to charitable causes or lose your tax exempt status. The end.
scav
@David Hunt: So long as the head on spike is not seen as the finish line, I’m with you.
Trinity
@amk: This brings me great joy.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Repost from the last thread here:
EE over at RedNeckState has an explanation up to assuage the anger of the locals:
So nothing has changed eh? Keep ringing those bells people!!
Calouste
@kfreed:
We should put more emphasis on the pro-gay stances of Apple, Google and Microsoft, and how wingnuts should stop using their products.
Mnemosyne
@kindness:
Exactly. As a lot of us have been saying since this thing broke, Komen’s strength was that they were safe and non-political, so it was a non-controversial organization for giant corporations to partner with.
Now they’ve managed to make themselves radioactive. They wanted Planned Parenthood to be “controversial,” but they managed to make themselves the center of the controversy. And there is NOTHING that giant corporations hate more than being associated with a partner’s controversy.
Komen Pink Ribbon boycott, and don’t forget to let Kraft, General Mills, Con Agra, etc. know that you won’t be buying their products that benefit Komen and why. Those companies depend on busy moms grabbing their product off the shelves without thinking about it too much, and knowing that the Komen pink ribbon will make people think twice about buying that product means those companies are scrambling to figure out how they can drop Komen without too much fuss.
Cap'n Magic
Sully finally posts – and decides to quote others (I.e., the usual clowns) – but not take a stand himself. Daniel Halper’s screed is is incredible:
Soonergrunt
@Yutsano: True enough. But those same tactics in furtherance of the truth ought to be so much more powerful than they have been in the past. And SGK is a LOT larger than ACORN ever was.
Kill it. Kill it with fire.
Trinity
@Arclite: THIS.
Mnemosyne
@Someguy:
Dude, that happened a week and half ago and was fully covered at the time. Try to keep up with current events.
Lex
@Calouste: Problem is, Microsoft also is a Komen sponsor.
scav
@David Hunt: to be entirely blunt, I’m after the troika, not the passenger they elect to throw to the wolves.
Pongo
Their apology was qualified and they only agreed to reinstitute funding already granted to PP in this funding cycle–not to fund PP in the future.
They dropped a turd in the punchbowl. Even if they fish it out, the punch is forever contaminated.
geg6
@Soonergrunt:
THIS.
Oh, and I appreciated your apology and extend my own.
Ben Cisco
Actually, the lyric should be don’t give up the fight.
jibeaux
@The Moar You Know: And bring it up frequently, in reference to completely unrelated topics, for years!
Mnemosyne
@West of the Cascades:
Hate to say it, but that sounds like a really, really bad idea. The last thing you want is to give the forced birthers a chance to make themselves look like martyrs because they got booed for doing a cancer walk.
It would probably be a better idea to set up an alternative walk benefiting the American Cancer Society and/or a local Portland cancer treatment center and start getting pledges now. From what I’ve read, a lot of people who would otherwise lean Republican are PISSED about Komen’s actions and you may be able to get them to sign onto a competing event if you play your cards correctly.
Soonergrunt
@Someguy: We can multitask. It’s time to ask the next Catholic Bishop you run into whether or not he’s more concerned about providing appropriate healthcare to all his employees in accordance with the law or protecting and sheltering pedophiles.
Ask whether or not the part he objects to is the part that would pay for counseling for victims of sexual abuse.
Culture of Truth
Halper: Free speech is beautiful, except when I don’t like it. Then it’s creepy and despicable.
Mnemosyne
@Cap’n Magic:
So people can stop giving money to Komen, but they’re not allowed to talk about it or explain why?
I do love how conservatives can besmirch liberal institutions six ways to Sunday without a peep out of idiots like Halper, but let liberals dare to do anything similar to a conservative group and you’ll never hear an end to the screeching about how unfaaaaaiiiiirrr it is.
jibeaux
@Cap’n Magic: Got it, Sully thinks we ought to judge others by the color of their ribbon rather than the content of their character.
EDIT: Halper thinks, sorry
Constance
No donations. No purchases. That’s a promise. And I will talk/write letters about it.
Culture of Truth
Halper: it’s very creepy to go online and smear an organization, which is what that despicable Planned Parenthood did.
slag
@Culture of Truth: To be fair, if there’s one thing that dude knows, it’s creepy and despicable.
Bulworth
Probably because you don’t give a shit about ensuring breast cancer screening programs across the country especially for those lacking other health care options and probably because you don’t give money to SBK to help ensure said access. But if you do, then you’re likely to be upset and act to change that.
Also, too: prick
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
This is probably the only time I’ll quote a Jeff Goldberg piece. From the documents he posted there:
Anyone see an actual answer there? I read lots words, some comprising sentences, none of which address the actual question posed. I’m thinking feature, not bug.
Just as a careful reading of the “reversal” shows it’s not in the least a reversal, but the liberal MSM is reportimtg it as such.
Bulworth
From the Sully mention:
And we all appreciate the many, many times McArdle has taken to keyboard to argue on behalf of the right to choose…
(snark)
Jamey: Bike Commuter of the Gods
@kfreed:
They’re about fifteen years too late…
Culture of Truth
Calouste
@Lex:
It wasn’t in reference to Komen. It was in reference to the post that wingnuts wanting to boycott JC Penney’s because they have hired Ellen DeGeneres as a spokesperson. If we could only get the wingnuts to boycott Apple, Google and Microsoft products, the average level of the conversation on the internet would double overnight.
Rekster
@Mnemosyne: I agree with you completely. Now is not the time for us to celebrate this victory. It is time to continue this fight. We need to keep the pressure on all of these “sponsors” and let them know we will not purchase their products is they continue to be associated with Komen.
I feel that Komen thinks that this will just “blow over”. We need to make sure that we “blow it up”! We can’t just wait for the next little skirmish to come along. We need to keep our pressure on and be proactive.
geg6
The good news in all of this just came in an email from PP:
WereBear
@Betty Cracker: Most awesome!
Odie Hugh Manatee
Nutpicking a rarely sighted realist at RedNeckState about the reversal:
I like their optimism! :)
JCT
@geg6: See what we can do when we focus…. Awesome!
Angela
@geg6: Thanks for posting this, it is so good to read/realize what we can do.
gwangung
Hm….if some of the local affiliates want to spin off and go independent, I’d certainly wouldn’t want to discourage them….
Angela
I will be re-writing the corporate sponsors of SGK this weekend and letting them know, if they continue their affiliation, they are aligning with a company that has politicized women’s health care and refused to take responsibility for it.
Bullsmith
So Sully finally put something up. I tried to read it but when the first blocquote was about the moral outrage PP has perpetrated upon poor Korman, I simply couldn’t read on. Sully has some serious problems with women.
Rawk Chawk
Amen, Cole.
But I WOULD donate to a fund to have Nancy Brinker’s face repaired to correct whatever she’s had done to it.
Woman looks like a robot.
The Raven
As of noon today, they still haven’t approved the grant, link.
Have they backed down at all?
Maus
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/02/03/418797/exclusive-ari-fleischer-komen-planned-parenthood/
But it’s not political, because we said so. Would we lie?
pseudonymous in nc
@Bulworth:
It was standard McArdlism: claim herself pro-choice sotto voce, then talk about all the horrible horrible people who accuse anti-abortion activists of hating women.
She’s an awful human being.
(And yeah, I called the “revise our criteria” thing last night. Standard emergency PR tactic.)
Roxie
I happened to stumble across a right to life facebook organization. One of my friends posted a question on a thread andI, being the curious voyeur, read how they felt about the Komen cave-in . Almost everyone was devastated by their decision and vowed to never support Komen again. There are as angry as we are. Komen is fucked