www.theguardian.com/…
Coachella is in the news.
Coachella is the increasingly popular 3 day annual music festival in California. I haven't been but it brings to my mind pleasant visions of what Woodstock may have been like (I’m too young to have attended.) It seems like it might have been a fun thing to go to sometime. Great bands. They promote sustainability- even have a sustainable dance floor. But I have changed my mind after the above great story in the Guardian by Alan Yuhas in SF. First, what is the Anschutz Corporation, the Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Anschutz Foundation and who is Philip Anschutz?
My internet search (open to correction) shows Coachella, started in 1999, is organized by the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) a subsidiary of the Anshutz Corporation, which is run by Philip Anschutz, a billionaire entrepreneur with conservative views, who also founded the Anschutz Foundation. There is a difference between what AEG does and what Anschutz and his foundation have done, but it seems like a don't-look-at-the-man-behind-the-curtain situation to me.
The above Guardian article cites a report by Freedom For All Americans, a gay rights group, that found that the Anschutz Foundation contributed nearly $200K to anti-LGBT groups including Family Research Foundation and Alliance Defending Freedom. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center these organizations champion RFRA’s that “wrap bigotry in the cloak of religious freedom.” www.splcenter.org/… Anschutz emphatically denies this support. He released a statement to the Rolling Stone that.. “Neither I nor the Foundation fund any organization with the purpose or expectation that it would finance anti-LGBTQ initiatives.” He is calling this story fake news. So far I haven't read that he denies that he previously did fund these. The implication is that when he found out what these organizations actually stand for he evidently stopped the funding. (?)
There is a now aging article in SB Nation in 2011 about Philip Anschutz [(2] Zach Woosley, The Two Sides of Philip Anschutz, SB Nation, November 10, 2011) that suggests he at that time was "a radical faith based political activist, a man who uses his vast fortune in attempts to advance an anti-homosexual and anti-science (specifically evolution) agenda," [2] Good grief! He even funded the anti-evolution Discovery Institute. Maybe he has done a complete about face, but uh, where is the evidence?
I don't know him but I think it is important to see what information there is about him and this foundation. Whether or not the foundation has any expectations of what happens to their donations, what kind of diverse people they now employ or whether this specific kind of funding has currently ceased, it is interesting look at Sourcewatch.org to see what this Anschutz Foundation supports apart from the LGBT issue. They do some good. It is a 501C3 that support Boys and Girls Clubs, universities and hospitals, but it also contributes to the State Policy Network. That is a network of conservative think tanks that work "to change public policy and opinion and promote policies like privatization, school voucher programs, low taxes, pro-life causes, and more.” (Sourcewatch.org)
According to the Guardian article the Center for Responsive Politics has Anschutz himself down as having contributed over $1M to conservative candidates in 2016. Especially US Senate candidates. This helped keep the Senate in Republican hands and will be losing us our healthcare, SS, Medicare, etc. The article says he has attended Koch brother events and has donated to Americans For Prosperity, which, as we know seeks to block climate change research and regulations.
According to sourcewatch.org “Anschutz also founded, owns, or contributes to many major league sports teams such as the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Houston Dynamo, Chicago Fire, Los Angeles Lakers, and Los Angeles Kings. Despite his ownership and stakes in many sports teams, "Anschutz has managed to remain quietly in the background, limiting any connection between his social conservative activism and his multi-billion dollar sports and entertainment business," according to SB Nation.[2]"
I won’t be ceding any profits to the Anschutz universe by attending Coachella ever, but many others will. According to Wikipedia the 2015 festival sold 198,000 tickets and grossed $84.3 million, both records.[3] said
Apparently the organizers of Coachella have resisted adding corporate sponsors to preserve the “purity” of the event. But profit dollars are flowing into climate-denying Republican pockets even as the event organizers arrange for recycling. Am I wrong about this?
Can’t we have a true non-profit Woodstock-type annual Mecca, one that supports climate change action, preservation of SS/Medicare/caid, voting and human rights or one that is at least does not support Republican destruction of our way of life and is “purely” about the music?
