Politics

Tea Party leaders plan Proctor and Gamble boycott over Chris Matthews advertising

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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A group of Tea Party leaders aim to meet with Proctor and Gamble to convince the company to abandon its sponsorship MSNBC’s Hardball because, they say, host Chris Matthews intentionally portrayed Tea Party groups and individuals in a bad light during a recent documentary.

Earlier this month, the network aired “The Rise of the New Right,” hosted by Matthews, and a coalition of Tea Party groups called on sponsors to drop the show.

Brendan Steinhauser, the director of federal and state campaigns for Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, told The Daily Caller that he and two other activists plan to visit Proctor and Gamble’s headquarters in Cincinnati, to discuss the boycott with the company.

“We hope to get a meeting so we can discuss the issue of their funding ads on Hardball, which has been attacking the Tea Party movement so viciously,” Steinhauser said.

Soon after Matthews’s documentary aired, the Tea Party Federation, made up of various groups across the country, released a joint statement condemning it. Since then, one Tea Party group, Kitchen Table Patriots, made a protest video showing activists throwing away Procter and Gamble products.

“Per company policy, we do not comment on our advertising placements,” said Procter and Gamble spokeswoman Martha Depenbrock.

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