it isn’t rare to find me applauding the efforts of apple. simply put, they have a superior line of products. in terms of everything from hardware to the operating system to overall innovation, it isn’t difficult to understand why, year in and year out, apple is voted by peers as the most admired company.

but in this case, my applause and admiration is for something, ultimately, more important than just computers or phones or product beauty. in a bold statement, apple has decided to boycott fox news by withholding millions of advertising dollars.

why? look no further than our pal glenn beck.

in a story by howard kurtz in the washington post, the “beck factor” is considered and posits that his effect on even fox news has been largely negative (despite indisputably increased ratings). from calling president obama a racist to branding progressivism a cancer to urging christians to leave churches who engage in social justice, beck’s negative impact and hyperbolic falsities have reached far and wide.

as someone who works in a media company, i can attest (in good and bad ways) to the power and importance of advertising dollars. this makes the revelation about beck’s effect on fox news even more startling. kurtz states,

More than 200 companies have joined a boycott of Beck’s program, making it difficult for Fox to sell ads. The time has instead been sold to smaller firms offering such products as Kaopectate, Carbonite, 1-800-PetMeds and Goldline International. A handful of advertisers, such as Apple, have abandoned Fox altogether. Network executives say they believe they could charge higher rates if the host were more widely acceptable to advertisers.

good work, glenn.

i loudly applaud apple for their decision. this isn’t an easy decision, especially with the impending ipad launch, but it’s another example of apple taking a stand for their values over a sheer dollar. (other examples include donating significantly to the fight against prop 8 & fighting child labor.)

quite frankly, i think this is the kind of thing that not only companies should do more often, but also individuals when it comes to fox news. obviously, you and i—the average joe blow—don’t have advertising dollars to withhold, but we can certainly discontinue to watch (if you ever watched in the first place). there’s actually a media group (buzzflash, to be specific) who runs the website TurnOffFox.com, which urges people to get public places—doctor’s offices, pubs, restaurants, etc.—to leave their tv’s on a different channel. the point is that i truly believe that fox news has stunted the political discourse and caused a vitriolic atmosphere of misinformation and loaded innuendo that has led to such things as fringe political groups like the teabaggers.

so, kudos to apple, once again. this time, though, it’s for making a stand for values over dollars.