(CNSNews.com) - In covering the recent financial woes of the Ford Motor Company, most media organizations have ignored one potentially significant factor -- a year-long boycott by pro-family organizations over the corporation's support of homosexual-rights groups.

In a report released on Wednesday, the Culture and Media Institute (CMI) notes that since March 2006, "Ford has been the target of a boycott by one of the largest pro-family groups in the country, the American Family Association (AFA)."

But, it adds, "you'd never know it from media reports."

A Nexis search conducted by CMI -- a division of the Media Research Center, the parent organization of Cybercast News Service -- revealed that over the three-day period following Ford's January 25 announcement of a 2006 loss of $12.7 billion, the media carried 653 items about the corporation's problems.

"Curiously, none mentioned the boycott," the report said.

Ford, GM and Chrysler all experienced similar drops in sales in 2006 - Ford by 8 percent, GM by 8.7 percent and Chrysler by 7 percent, according to Business Week.

Ford finished 2006 with a 17.5 percent market share, down from 18.6 percent the year before.

CMI Director Robert Knight in a news release noted that:

-- Ford's sales have fallen in 10 of the past 12 months, compared with the year before;

-- More than 700,000 people have signed an online petition supporting the boycott;

-- AFA's email list, with updates on the boycott, has grown to more than three million; and

-- A group representing 75 north Texas Ford dealers sent a letter to Ford in June 2006 asking the company to rethink its sponsorship of homosexual-rights activism.

"With Ford closing plants, laying off employees, hemorrhaging red ink and facing a dealer uprising in Texas, wouldn't you think that business reporters would include at least a mention of the boycott in their coverage of Ford's woes?" Knight asked. "Alas, no."

Knight acknowledged that Ford was also being hurt by pension obligations, high wage and health costs, and intensified competition, "but the company's willingness to alienate large numbers of Middle American consumers in order to appease the tiny segment of the population (less than 2 percent) that describes itself as 'homosexual' should also be news."

As Cybercast News Service previously reported, the AFA began organizing a boycott of Ford and its Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Volvo, Jaguar and Land Rover divisions in 2005 because it said the corporation had supported "the homosexual political agenda."

Along with donations to such groups as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the Human Rights Campaign, Ford also began including same-sex couples in its definition of "family."

Six months later, the AFA called off its boycott after Ford officials agreed not to advertise in "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)" media outlets.

But in March of 2006, the pro-family group reinstated the boycott after the company met with leaders representing 43 advocacy groups and, in the view of the AFA, "caved in to the demands of the homosexuals."

Knight said Wednesday that the news media "reported the beginning of the boycott, but then hurried from the scene like accident witnesses who don't want to get involved."

"The selective reporting might just say something about media priorities, the power of the homosexual lobby and the media's fear of giving even a little credit to Christian conservatives lest it embolden them."

Nevertheless, Knight did see evidence of a possible shift by the corporation. He noted that Ford chose not to sponsor GLAAD's Media Awards in 2007, as it had done in previous years.

And on its boycottford.com website, the AFA notes that "for years, Ford has advertised in the homosexual publications OUT and The Advocate. Since January, Ford has not had any advertising in the magazines."

Telephone calls seeking response from the Ford Motor Company were not returned by press time. In a March 10 Detroit News article on the corporation's decision not to sponsor this year's GLAAD awards, a spokeswoman was quoted as saying "advertising and sponsorship decisions for all our brands are strictly driven by business considerations."

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