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"Woke capitalism": Conservative group targets MLB with seven-figure advertising campaign

08 July 2021
 Dan Ackermann

A conservative group is targeting Major League Baseball and Ticketmaster with a seven-figure advertising campaign ahead of next week’s All-Star game accusing them of practicing “woke capitalism.”

Why it matters: By taking direct aim at MLB — and other private entities — Consumers' Research is putting corporate America on notice that it will try to talk directly to their customers with the express goal of hurting their bottom line.

  • “Commissioner Rob Manfred moved the All-Star game from Atlanta, parroting dishonest, partisan talking points,” the narrator intones in the MLB ad. “Why is he making baseball political anyway? Because of his terrible record.”
  • MLB declined to comment.

The big picture: In April, Manfred announced that the 2021 All-Star Game would be moved out of Atlanta due to Georgia's law curbing voting access, a move the President Joe Biden said he would support.

  • The decision to move the game to Denver was heavily criticized by Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
  • A Texas-based conservative organization, the Job Creator Network, tried to sue MLB, but the suit was dismissed by a federal judge, who called the lawsuit “weak and muddled.”
  • Critics of the Georgia law claim it was intended to target heavily Democratic jurisdictions and will hurt Black and Latino voters the most.

Go deeper: Conservative groups have been trying to “name and shame” organizations for their perceived partisan positions, often attempting to influence the C-Suite by buying ads on CNBC, the network many executives watch

  • In May, Consumers' Research launched a similar seven-figure campaign against Coca-Cola, American Airlines and Nike.
  • The new ads against MLB and Ticketmaster are scheduled for cable and local TV where the companies are headquartered, as well as in Atlanta, where the decision to move the game to Denver was criticized by local business leaders.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.