CNN Ignores Polling, Slams 'Right-Wing Mob' Over Bud Light Boycott
Brad Wilmouth
June 21st, 2023 6:22 PM

On Monday's CNN This Morning, the show devoted a segment to fretting over a "right-wing attack mob" recently mounting a successful boycott against products that have promoted transgender activism. But while the segment portrayed older whites as out of touch with public opinion, what was not mentioned was a recent Gallup poll that found Americans overwhelmingly opposing liberal positions on transgender issues.

As business correspondent Christine Romans appeared on the show, the keyword was "inclusion" as some form of the word was spoken nine times. Romans sounded like a broken record as she used the word six times in just 40 seconds. After stating that "inclusion has always been good for business," she reiterated:

   But inclusion is good for business, and they know that. They're just trying to figure out how in the world do you navigate like Target or Bud Light when you have so many people online that are demanding that you boycott a product simply for being inclusive.

Much of the discussion was dominated by liberal analyst Ron Brownstein, whose political leanings were not hinted at as he was identified merely as a "CNN senior political analyst." Brownstein - a senior editor for the left-wing The Atlantic - portrayed older whites as trying to take America back to before the 1960s and go against trends toward the country allegedly becoming more liberal. He asserted:

   They're basically non-urban, older white voters, and they are using that to impose the values of that coalition on changing places before the new demography maybe changes the political balance in a place like -- in a place like Texas.

He added:

   So you see half the country moving in this direction, and then these boycotts are kind of the business flank of that same effort that, in many ways, is attempting to reverse what has been six decades of nationalizing more rights and creating common rights that are more available in every state. I mean, we are moving back toward a pre-1960s world where your basic civil rights and civil liberties depending much more on your zip code.

No conservative contributors were included in the discussion. Romans went on to describe those who lobbied against corporate promotion of gay issues as a "right-wing attack mob."

It was not mentioned that a recent Gallup poll found that the number of Americans who identify as "conservative" surged to 38 percent in the last few years while those who were "liberal" dropped to 29 percent.

More than a week ago, Michael Smerconish was the lone CNN host who actually devoted a segment of his eponymous Saturday show to the polling in which Gallup editor-in-chief Mohamed Younis also informed viewers that 55 percent of Americans believe "changing one's gender" is "morally wrong." He also notably added that a whopping 69 percent believe transgender athletes should have to compete with the gender that is consistent with their birth gender.

This CNN spin defending liberal activism was sponsored in part by Flex Seal. Their contact information is linked.

Transcripts follow:

   CNN This Morning
   June 19, 2023
   6:54 p.m. Eastern

   ERICA HILL: New evidence that America's culture wars are having a financial impact on companies supporting the LGBTQ+ communities. Brands like Target and Kohl's among a number of companies facing backlash -- even threats against their employees -- for promotions and merchandise reaching out to the LGBTQ+ community. Bud Light's sales have suffered since partnering up with a transgender influencer, Dylan Mulvaney that, of course, sparked a customer boycott. But what are the other factors at play here?

   CNN chief business correspondent and Early Start anchor Christine Romans is with us. Ron Brownstein back as well, CNN's senior political analyst. Christine, is it really that simple? "Oh, these things happened -- oh, there was a backlash -- there was a big move on the right to try to get people to boycott these companies -- and now, all of a sudden, they're floundering"?

   CHRISTINE ROMANS, HOST OF CNN's EARLY START: Look, there are other -- there are other business trends at play here, but I think it caught the C-suites by surprise -- this right-wing, culture warrior movement. Inclusion has always been good business for these companies -- their employees want it -- their customers want it -- always been good business, and, on earnings calls, for years you've heard these CEOs and CFOs talk about inclusion, diversity and equity and inclusion, and, all of a sudden, they're a little bit quieter about that because they're seeing these instances where their brand has been pilloried for being inclusive, and so they're trying to figure out how to tread this -- how to tread this water.

   But inclusion is good for business, and they know that. They're just trying to figure out how in the world do you navigate like Target or Bud Light when you have so many people online that are demanding that you boycott a product simply for being inclusive.

   VICTOR BLACKWELL, FILL-IN CO-HOST: You know, what's interesting is the new target of some of these groups. Chik-fil-A staved off a boycott because they acknowledged they had a DEI -- diversity, equity and inclusion -- executive, and they were looking for someone, Ten years ago, holding up a Chik-fil-A sandwich, to some people, was your way of showing where you stood on some of these issues.

   RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, you know, these boycotts have to be seen, I think, as part of a broader movement. I mean, the red states, in many ways, are building a nation within a nation, on all sorts of issues -- LGBTQ rights, voting rights, abortion rights, book bans, classroom censorship -- and this is extending that attempt to kind of impose those values onto the -- onto the corporate sector.

   But with what Christine said, they are cross-pressured. I mean, they're looking at their future. A majority of everybody under 18 in this country are kids of color. One-fifth of Gen Z identifies as somewhere in LGBTQ. Two-fifths of them do not belong to any organized religion, So the -- the -- the -- the -- the -- the -- the attempt to kind of impose the values and force companies to toe the line of the values of one segment of society really puts them in a hard place. And, ultimately, they have to decide whether they're going to embrace this changing, inclusive America or whether they're going to back down in the face of this kind of pressure.

   HILL: This is going to feel like a rhetorical question, but I mean it very seriously. As -- as, from a political -- both the political and a business standpoint, as you're looking at this, right, inclusion is good for business. How and where is exclusion good for business or for politics when you're narrowing your pool?

   BROWNSTEIN: Yeah. Well, look, it's very different between the red states and the blue and purple states. I mean, in the red states, you have Republican coalitions that are running state government with an electoral coalition that is fundamentally rooted in the parts of the state that are not changing. They're basically non-urban, older white voters, and they are using that to impose the values of that coalition on changing places before the new demography maybe changes the political balance in a place like -- in a place like Texas.

   So you see half the country moving in this direction, and then these boycotts are kind of the business flank of that same effort that, in many ways, is attempting to reverse what has been six decades of nationalizing more rights and creating common rights that are more available in every state. I mean, we are moving back toward a pre-1960s world where your basic civil rights and civil liberties depending much more on your zip code.

   And I think, look, in some places -- like the period before the Civil War -- no institution was equally credible on both sides of the sectional divide. And these companies, much as they want to stay out of it, ultimately have to decide: Are they going to embrace the changing America? Or are they going to embrace this effort to, in effect, make America great -- again -- by going back to older rules and older values?

   ROMANS: How you respond is critical because this has been one of the things is they've sometimes responded badly, you know. I mean, in the Bud Light case, it was a single Instagram post that blew up into this -- into this huge thing -- and in the Target situation, it was threats against their customers, right, with this Pride material -- Pride stuff was on display. They were having threats against their -- I'm sorry, their employees. You know, how you respond by not giving in to the right-wing attack mob, but acknowledging, you know, your position. I think that's what the C-suites have got to figure out -- the rapid response for the communications teams has got to be better.

   BLACKWELL: You can lose either way with that.

   ROMANS: Yeah.

   BROWNSTEIN: The pressure is working on the C-suites. They are pulling back.

   (...)

   CNN's Smerconish
   June 10, 2023
   9:42 a.m. Eastern

   MICHAEL SMERCONISH: Are Republicans winning the culture war? A new Gallup poll finds social conservatism in the U.S. at its highest level since 2012. You might be wondering: How is this possible? After all, Republicans barely won control of the House last year while Democrats performed better than expected in the Senate during the midterm elections. But new state proposals related to transgender issues, abortion, drug use, and the teaching of gender sexuality in schools is suggesting America may be inching toward the right.

   And, according to Gallup, 38 percent of Americans say they're "very conservative" or "conservative" on social issues. That's a jump from the previous two years when the number was at 33 and 30 percent, respectively. At the same time, Americans sharing "very liberal" or "liberal social views" fell from 34 to 29 percent.

   Perhaps the most interesting finding in this survey is the rise of socially conservative views over the past two years seen among nearly all demographics, including millennials. Here to explain the trend is editor-in-chief of Gallup and host of the Gallup podcast, Mohamed Younis. Mohamed, what's driving this, according to your interpretation?

   MOHAMED YOUNIS, GALLUP EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Really two things, Michael. Numerically, it's about Republicans really owning their conservative identity. We see now a jump from 60 to 74 percent of Republicans identifying as conservative in the past two years. But, socially speaking, contextually, this is happening at a time when, in the same survey, Americans are at a new high of describing moral values in the country as "poor," and 83 percent describing it as "getting worse." And I think you nailed it.

   The elephant in the room really are those transgender rights issues and gender-affirming care. We asked about that in this poll. Right now, Michael, 55 percent of Americans describe changing one's gender of birth as "morally wrong." And that is a really important statistic to keep in mind -- 43 percent say it's "morally acceptable" -- 69 percent of Americans say that, when it comes to things like sports and competition, one should only be allowed to compete with people of their birth gender -- not their gender identity.

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