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This is advice just posted on dailyKOS from someone that works in the ad business: The best action we can take locally is to boycott local ABC newscasts, call or e-mail, be polite and tell them why and what you are upset about. Also, delete any DVR timers you've set for ABC shows, this data is sent on to ABC to project audience size.
"If ad revenue is king, then keeping affiliates happy is, well, queen. Your local ABC affiliate depends on the network to produce solid programming - especially programming that leads directly in or out of locally-produced newscasts.
The local affiliate has only a few commercials to sell in the network programs, because the majority of ads have already been bought by national advertisers (see above). Where the local affiliate makes its money is in their own newscasts, where they control (and make) 100% of the advertising inventory.
Telling the local affiliate that you won't watch "The Path to 9/11" is like throwing a lawn chair off the Titanic; it's meaningless because they control so little of the ad revenue there. The only real way to pressure the local affiliate is to stop watching their news. If you do that, the affiliate will exert its pressure uphill, to the network. And the network can hardly afford to piss off its affiliates.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: many of you have been sending emails to your local affiliates via their websites. Those emails, in the vast majority of cases, are going to the affiliate's Program Director. To be effective, you must send your emails to the General Sales Manager. He/she is the one person most concerned with the boycotts, news viewership, and the correlation between ratings and ad revenue.
Find a complete list of ABC affiliates here. "
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