JC Penney and Ellen, Lowe’s and All-American Muslim: A Tale of Two Bigotries

By JAMES PONIEWOZIK | February 9, 2012 | +

JC Penney did the right thing this week, standing by its celebrity spokeswoman Ellen DeGeneres despite a conservative activist group’s demand that it drop association with her because she’s gay. The group, One Million Moms, asked Penney to “remain neutral in the culture war” by firing a gay celebrity. (“Neutrality” must mean not employing heterosexual spokespeople, either, right? Any asexual celebrities the store could hire? R2-D2, perhaps?) Penney repudiated the group, and De Generes also got backup from Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who likened the campaign to McCarthyism.

Related Topics: Companies & Industries

@TIMEBusiness

Latest on Business

Economy May 28, 2012

Book Review: What America’s Banana King Teaches Us About Capitalism

Americans puzzling over the role of today’s powerful corporations — Bain Capital, Goldman Sachs, Google — may profit from considering the example of the United Fruit Company.

It seems almost quaint to think that a company specializing in bananas might have once been considered a capitalist giant on the level of today’s firms, but so it was — at its height in the first half of the last century, United Fruit owned one of the largest private navies in the world. It owned 50 percent of the private land in Honduras and 70 percent of all private land and every mile of railroad in Guatemala.
From our Partners
The Bomb Hidden in Mitt Romney's Education PlanSlate

The Richest Woman in the World: How Gina Rinehart Earns her BillionsDaily Finance
Why Dell Will Never Be Great AgainHuff Post Business
Management & Leadership May 28, 2012

Why Companies Can No Longer Afford to Ignore Their Social Responsibilities

In 1970, the economist and Nobel laureate Milton Friedman published an article in The New York Times Magazine titled, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” In the article, he referred to corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs as “hypocritical window-dressing,” and said that businesspeople inclined toward such programs “reveal a suicidal impulse.” Even four decades ago, at a time of growing public concern for the environment, his views represented the general skepticism and contempt with which many in Corporate America viewed CSR.