The fundraising debacle last Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall has claimed its first rolling head. Slim-Fast has terminated its relationship with Whoopi Goldberg, Reuters reports (via Memeorandum):

Comedian Whoopi Goldberg will no longer appear in ads for diet aid maker Slim-Fast following her lewd riff on President Bush's name at a fund-raiser last week, the company said on Wednesday.

Florida-based Slim-Fast said it was "disappointed" in Goldberg's remarks at last Thursday's $7.5 million star-studded fund-raiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York. "Ads featuring Ms. Goldberg will no longer be on the air," Slim-Fast General Manager Terry Olson said in a statement, adding that the company regrets that Goldberg's remarks offended some customers. ...

The New York Post said of Goldberg's appearance at the event: "Waving a bottle of wine, she fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name in a riff about female genitalia."

Shortly, we will hear howls of protest from Hollywood about chill winds and McCarthyism and political repression. However, Slim-Fast took action in response to (or more likely anticipation of) consumer reaction to Goldberg's commentary, not because of government edict. It doesn't even qualify as political pressure. It's market pressure, and people who run around saying outrageous things shouldn't act surprised when other people decide that they no longer want to do business with them.

Whoopi Goldberg had every right to say what she did at the fundraiser, and no one's stopping her from saying it again. Equally, Slim-Fast has every right to keep its business from being damaged by its association with Goldberg. Even more so, consumers have the right to spend their money on products not associated with Goldberg. Any gripes about Goldberg's financial loss should be addressed to Goldberg's judgement and sense of proportion, both of which seem in need of serious adjustment.

UPDATE: I'm not sure if anyone else is experiencing this, but I'm getting a slew of search-engine referrals for Whoopi Bush, Whoopi Comments, and so on. If you're finding this blog off of that search, drop a note in the comments to this post and let me know what you think.

UPDATE ON GOOGLANCHE, 7/15 noonish: I'd really like to know if anyone else is experiencing this. I'm getting the most Google hits I've gotten since the tragic Nick Berg beheading. Fortunately, at least this time no one died.

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