Realtor.com quickly backed off from a boycott of Sean Hannity’s show Wednesday after Keurig was hit by a ferocious backlash to its boycott of the show days earlier — however, the real-estate website appears to be holding firm to a months-long boycott of Breitbart News.
Realtor.com joined Keuring in announcing on Twitter a boycott of Hannity over the host’s coverage of allegations of sexual impropriety leveled against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. Moore, a Republican, has denied those claims.
Under pressure from left-wing groups such as Media Matters for America, the coffee company pulled ads from the Hannity, sparking a counter-protest in which conservatives pledged not to buy from the company and smashed their coffee machines. Keurig’s CEO apologized, and Hannity subsequently called for a “cease-fire.”
But, according to the Wall Street Journal, Realtor.com deleted a tweet saying that it “will not be running ads in Hannity.” A spokesman told the outlet that staff didn’t realize it has “a practice of not engaging in boycotts.” (Realtor.com’s boycott of a Fox News program was particularly tricky for the company as it is owned by News Corp, which shares common ownership with Fox’s parent company 21st Century Fox.)
However, despite the claim of not participating in boycott’s, a boycott of Breitbart News appears to be in place — something that would contradict their claim.
In September an activist for Sleeping Giants — a shadowy, left-wing group that has launched a campaign against advertisers on Breitbart News — asked Realtor.com on Twitter to remove their ads from Breitbart. The company responded, saying it had “removed all realtor.com ads from this site.”
Sleeping Giants quickly claimed victory:
Breitbart News reached out to Realtor.com for clarification on whether there was a boycott. A spokesperson linked Breitbart to the following statement on their website:
“We advertise on dozens of television networks and hundreds of shows quarterly as a way to introduce realtor.com® to the widest audience possible. We will continue to place ads across a broad range of networks, including Fox News and its top shows.”
A spokesperson did not directly address the question of if there was or was not a boycott but said that it expected adverts to appear on Hannity and that there was no change to their ad schedule.
It is not completely clear, therefore, if the Breitbart boycott remains in place, despite multiple requests for a straight answer.
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Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY.