Stephen King has had enough of ABC and its annoying and somewhat shady advertising practices so the horror author has decided to take to X to air out his complaints.
King often uses his platform on X to call things out, usually his posts are addressed to Donald Trump or Elon Musk because let’s face it, they are always doing something worth calling out and criticizing. But this time it’s ABC News that King has firmly in his sights — so what could the network possibly have done to earn the wrath of Stephen King?
Why is Stephen King blasting ABC?
In a post made Monday Aug. 12, King came out guns blazing, calling out the network for featuring stories about Disney on three 30-minute broadcasts in a row. For those unaware, ABC is owned by Disney, so it’s almost like an undisclosed advertisement for the company which is a big no-no for many, King included.
King calls it “advertising masquerading as news” and you can certainly see where he’s coming from. These news segments may well be genuine news, but that doesn’t change the fact that it still doubles as advertising for the mega-corporation, and for those who don’t know ABC is owned by Disney, they may not realize that there’s an ulterior motive going on here.
While it is certainly annoying, it isn’t exactly illegal — although not disclosing that something is a paid advertisement is definitely against the law in the US. According to the Federal Trade Commission an individual or company must give full disclosure when giving an endorsement — but that’s not all it says.
“If there’s a connection between an endorser and the marketer that a significant minority of consumers wouldn’t expect […] that connection should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously.”
However, in this case you probably couldn’t consider these stories as advertisements, they technically count as news despite the fact that they are still kind of advertising Disney on ABC.
It’s a loophole, and one that seems to have gotten under King’s skin as he felt the need to express his frustration with seeing so many stories about the company. Three broadcasts in a row featuring Disney related stories is pretty blatant though so it’s easy to understand why this has upset King.
MAGA conspiracy theorists agree
For what might be the first time ever, MAGA conspiracy theorists are agreeing with King. Many chimed in with claims that the mainstream media is being controlled by corporations and has been for years.
Stephen, the legacy media has been running such tactics for years across many fronts. Welcome to the party.
— Klay Thompson (@Thompsonklay) August 12, 2024
Others didn’t really see the issue with it.
No, Steve. ABC and Disney have different names. Legally speaking, companies cannot be the same unless they have the same name
Stick to writing poems and leave the business to businessmen like me
— Three Year Letterman (@3YearLetterman) August 12, 2024
King is right in telling ABC that it needs to do better, but unfortunately such practices seem to be the norm so it’s unlikely we’ll see anything change anytime soon.
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