Clear Channel- the San Antonio based media giant, and Bush War cheerleader continues to demonstrate the danger of allowing media octopii to buy more and more stations in a given market and then stifle dissent.
The latest - a directive that its stations, particularly rock stations refuse to play tracks from the # 1 album in the country - Bruce Springsteen's Magic.
Wonder where they were when Ronnie Rayguns was cheering on 'Born in the USA"?
Radio Nowhere ? Clear Channel is a good place to start. It is one of the companies that has been a buying binge since the Bushies declared antitrust and competition law to be like the Constitution itself a quaint anachronism. (Thanks to The Dick, John Yoo, and David Addington for that)
Don't think so ? Lost in the hue and cry over other decisions, this June, this 'conservative' 'non-activist' Supreme Court reversed by a 5 to 4 margin, and over 100 year old precendent that prohibits manufacturers from dictating retail prices.
This despite the fact that all the empirical data from an ill fated price fixing experiment in the 1970's shows that consumers, particularly those at the end of the scale, paid more. Ever wonder why every store has virtually the same price for an I Pod ?
Or why Clear Channel and other corporatists can dominate markets ? Decisions and policies like this are a big reason why.
It's one thing to redistribute income from you and me to the hedge fund guys and their 16% tax rates, where they will do something productive with it , snark, but when dissent is zippered, its going too far....
From Philly.com
http://www.attytood.com/...
It takes a lot to get the blood boiling after seven years of the Cheney/Bush administration, but Clear Channel -- that war-and-Bush lovin' media monopoly that dominates many markets around the nation and six here in Philly -- has got me more worked up than anything in recent weeks. If you care about what's been going in on this counrty -- and happen to love Bruce Springsteen, as I do -- then this should ensure that you never listen to Clear Channel ever again:
Bruce Springsteen should be very happy. He has the No. 1 album, a possible Grammy for Best Album of the Year, for "Magic," an album full of singles, and a sold-out concert tour.
Alas, there's a hitch: Radio will not play "Magic." In fact, sources tell me that Clear Channel has sent an edict to its classic rock stations not to play tracks from "Magic." But it's OK to play old Springsteen tracks such as "Dancing in the Dark," "Born to Run" and "Born in the USA."
It's OK to play the old songs, but not the new ones? Do you think that Clear Channel -- which held a series of thinly disguised pro-war rallies in the winter of 2003 -- objected to lyrics like this:
The kids asleep in the backseat We're just countin' the miles you and me We don't measure the blood we've drawn anymore We just stack the bodies outside the door
Who'll be the last to die for a mistake
The last to die for a mistake
Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break
Who'll be the last to die for a mistake
It's pretty bad when your best excuse for banning Springsteen is ageism (he's 58) but you have to conclude this is really all raw politics. Down with Tyranny has a good analysis of what's really going down.
The Clear Channel stations here are Q102, Power 99, WJJZ, WDAS-FM and WDAS-AM, and 104.5, which now plays the rock of the '90s, a format I never thought I'd live to see (no classic rock, by the way). I'm about to take 104.5 off my presets, and I suggest that anyone who cares about free expression exercise their freedom not to listen to Clear Channel.
Posted on October 31, 2007 9:07 AM | TrackBack
It's OK to play the old songs, but not the new ones? Do you think that Clear Channel -- which held a series of thinly disguised pro-war rallies in the winter of 2003 -- objected to lyrics like this:
The kids asleep in the backseat We're just countin' the miles you and me We don't measure the blood we've drawn anymore We just stack the bodies outside the door
Who'll be the last to die for a mistake
The last to die for a mistake
Whose blood will spill, whose heart will break
Who'll be the last to die for a mistake
It's pretty bad when your best excuse for banning Springsteen is ageism (he's 58) but you have to conclude this is really all raw politics. Down with Tyranny has a good analysis of what's really going down.
The Clear Channel stations here are Q102, Power 99, WJJZ, WDAS-FM and WDAS-AM, and 104.5, which now plays the rock of the '90s, a format I never thought I'd live to see (no classic rock, by the way). I'm about to take 104.5 off my presets, and I suggest that anyone who cares about free expression exercise their freedom not to listen to Clear Channel.