There have been many diaries with Divine Strake as a topic here on Kos. Many of you know that Divine Strake has been cancelled.
But did you know about the fallout from Divine Strake?
Follow me over the fold and see.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports:
Watch for KTVX, Channel 4 co-anchor Ruth Todd to disappear from the air within the next few days. Her contract expires this week and, reportedly, it won't be renewed.
In a few weeks, according to rumblings among TV news types around town, the other Channel 4 anchor, Terry Wood, will be demoted to weekends.
Why?
The scuttlebutt around town is that KTVX's owner, Texas-based ClearChannel, went into a tizzy over the station's editorializing against Divine Strake, an idea that came out of the administration of George W. Bush, a particular darling of the redder-than-red owners of ClearChannel.
And does it matter that the administration finally caved to public pressure and canceled the megabomb test just outside Utah's borders?
Apparently not.
ClearChannel is nationwide, with 1200 radio stations and 40 tv stations, and I haven't ever really paid attention to where they stand on national issues. But, if they're axing people here in Utah for reporting a serious threat to the health of Utahns, what are they doing nationwide?
I received this message today from Diana Lee Hirschi:
As a long-time resident of Utah, it's dismaying to learn from our local newspaper that Clear Channel's owners in San Antonio, Texas are punishing KTVX anchor Terry Wood for his courageous and much-appreciated editorial stand against Divine Strake. This does not bode well for freedom of the press, nor for corporate influence on media content. Mr. Wood understands this area, it's history and its sentiment very well. Utahns may have voted for George Bush, but when it comes to anything at the Nevada Test Site, they do not trust nor support this administration's plans. This should be evidenced from the 10,000 responses that the Defense Threat Reduction Agency received from Utahns; from the resolute opposition of our Republican governor to Divine Strake; from the opposition from Western congressional delegations on all sides of the political spectrum; from the unanimous resolution Utah's Republican legislature passed against Divine Strake; from the resolutions of the Salt Lake City Council and Mayor against it; from the resolutions of rural, highly Republican county commissions in utah and Arizona; and from the thunderous will of our citizenry. Clear Channel obviously failed to grasp the complex political pulse of this state. Regardless of political persuasion, we absolutely will not tolerate a repeat of our tragic past.
If you care to write to the CEO of Clear Channel, address your comments to Mark Mays. markmays@clearchannel.com
I hope you'll join me in expressing outrage that they would do this, and if you have other examples of ClearChannel doing something so obviously wrong, please share!
Update: (Thanks to Adios for these links in the comments)
From BuzzFlash:
It's no coincidence that Clear Channel executives Tom Hicks and L. Lowry Mays have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Bush's gubernatorial and presidential campaign coffers. Or that Clear Channel gave $119,370 in "soft money" to Republicans in 2001-2002, this on top of the $82,850 it gave in 2000. (Democrats, meanwhile, got $25,000 in soft money in that same three-year period.) Or that Clear Channel stations have been known to pull radio ads criticizing Republicans.
They go on to talk about how Senator Feingold has introduced legislation that would limit further deregulation, and if you follow the information presented from there on out, they tie the money and the laws all the way aroudn back to Bush.
You can see a quick chart explaining it at TakeBackTheMedia.com, who had this to say:
Whether or not the close ties between the radio behemoth Clear Channel and the president have anything to do with their rallying support for his policies is unclear. If it were a small company it would not much matter. But Clear Channel is a media giant, dominating the radio and promotion industries. The potential for the alignment of big media and the government should concern us all, especially as FCC Chair Michael Powell continues to push to reduce the barriers to even further media consolidation.
According to Sourcewatch:
n August 2006, TheDeal.com reported that Clear Channel "is considering filing a formal petition to the Federal Communications Commission seeking to raise the caps limiting how many stations one company can own in the largest individual U.S. markets."
They also list other accusations of censorship by Clear Channel.
Rollingstone points out exactly how big Clear Channel is:
Critics say the company also has a political agenda, given Clear Channel executives' close ties to George W. Bush and the company's willingness to drop Howard Stern at a time when many media companies are fighting for free speech. "If you don't realize that they've sent a chill throughout the creative community, you're living on another planet," says Howie Klein, the former head of Reprise Records. "Clear Channel pretty much can dictate what they want."
....
There is no bigger company in the music business, and none with such close ties to conservative politics. Along with Mays, Tom Hicks, the former head of AMFM and a Clear Channel board member, was an investor in the 1989 Texas Rangers deal that made George W. Bush a very rich man.
Apparently, they've succeeded in taking over New York. Is America next?
Last, but not least, from City Pages:
"I define competition, at least as far as our company is concerned, as getting all the money," Lowry Mays told the Texas A&M Aggie Daily in 2000 after receiving a distinguished alumni award. And Mays told Fortune magazine in 2003, "We're not in the business of providing news and information. We're not in the business of providing well-researched music. We're simply in the business of selling our customers products."
Products like Bush's lies?