Clear Channel Sponsoring Pro-War Rallies
Clear Channel, the Borg-like media & propaganda conglomerate that controls most of the radio and billboard advertising in the US (and also ensures that radio playlists are such terrible, homogenized soma-like pap), is sponsoring pro-war and pro-Bush rallies. Some might say this is a case of manufacturing the news, or maybe consent. Others see significance in the fact that Clear Channel’s increasing monopoly over what Americans hear and see is currently being reviewed by both Congress and the FCC. They set up the rallies, encourage listeners to attend, and also supply “anti-French”, “anti-Dixie Chicks“, and “God Bless…” and “One Nation Under God” posters.
Some of the biggest rallies this month have endorsed President Bush’s strategy against Saddam Hussein, and the common thread linking most of them is Clear Channel Worldwide Inc., the nation’s largest owner of radio stations … “I think this is pretty extraordinary,” said former Federal Communications Commissioner Glen Robinson, who teaches law at the University of Virginia. “I can’t say that this violates any of a broadcaster’s obligations, but it sounds like borderline manufacturing of the news.”
The vice chairman of Clear Channel is
Tom Hicks, whose name may be familiar to readers of this
column. When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was
chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management
Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel’s chairman, Lowry
Mays, was on its board. Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco placed much
of the university’s endowment under the management of
companies with strong Republican Party or Bush family ties.
In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal
that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire.
i was with your stalker until he withdrew his support for the doors.