Florida Federation of Republican Women MEDIA ALERT
For Immediate Release Contact: Cindy Graves
September 6, 2008 904/448-0801 cindyfgraves@aol.com
Florida Republican Women Officially Boycott Oprah
(Tallahassee, FL) The Florida Federation of Republican Women today called for a boycott of the Oprah Winfrey Show based upon Ms. Winfrey’s refusal to have Governor Sarah Palin as a guest on Oprah until after the election, according to Linda Ivell, President of the FFRW.
Ms. Ivell said her 58 year old group, the largest political organization in Florida, is also encouraging women to join the grassroots national movement to cancel their subscriptions to O Magazine.
“Women in Florida helped build Oprah into the icon she is today. With our Republican sisters across the nation, we have collectively enjoyed her entertaining, informative and female-driven programming as we raised our families and became more empowered as women. We are deeply disappointed in Ms. Winfrey’s decision to sit out the greatest political moment in the history of Republican women since suffrage,” said Ms. Ivell.
Ivell went on to say, “We find it to be an abuse of her power –gained on the backs of our patronage of her advertising empire - to use her program to so blatantly support Obama in the face of this historic moment. So, we are tuning out and cancelling our subscriptions to O Magazine and encourage other women to do the same. Maybe not forever, but at least until ‘after the election’,” said Ms. Ivell in a direct reference to Oprah’s refusal not to host Governor Palin until ‘after the election’.
Ms. Ivell stated that her members respect Ms. Winfrey’s personal endorsement of the Democratic ticket as every American is entitled to their personal opinion and vote. The boycott is a part of the FFRW’s new truth in the media and fair reporting watch dog committee organized in direct response to what Ivell termed as ”the unfair and misleading reporting regarding the selection of Sarah Palin as running mate on the Republican ticket.”
“The women of my organization stand united in our stance for fair and balanced reporting. We were sickened by the liberal media assault on Governor Palin’s family and her underage children. We are simply taking our spending dollars elsewhere and will publish a watch dog report on unfair media practices weekly on our web site: www.ffrw.net,” said Ms. Ivell.
