It is so sad that Rep. Louise Slaughter-- so good on so many issues-- is one of our elected representatives who are beholden to the National Association of Broadcasters and their monopoly on radio. She is one of the people blocking the Sirius XM merger. And of course, Clear Channel (and their homeboy Mitt Romney, who is a partner of theirs, I understand from an Air America report) is lovin' this.
These guys took ONE meeting to approve of Exxon Mobil's disastrous monopoly-- but because they are bought and sold by terrestrial radio-- they are holding up a deal that benefits consumers and employees and stockholders of Sirius/XM??
We need to fire it up. This talk of a monopoly is b.s. Progressive voters should demand our progressive leaders do what's best for the economy, for CONSUMERS, and not for their campaign funds.
After the jump, some info from Jim Cramer (who has annoyed me in the past, but he's right about this:
So is it a coincidence that a handful of the Congressmen that sent a bipartisan letter opposing the merger to the FCC and Department of Justice also have accepted money from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) lobbying group?
Of the House Democrats, Cramer found out that Gene Green of Texas took $10,000 from NAB this cycle and another $6,000 in the 2006 cycle. Louise Slaughter from New York took a grand and put her name on the letter. South Carolina’s John Spratt got $2,000 from NAB this cycle and another $6,000 in 2006.
On the Republican side there is Missouri’s Roy Blunt, the minority whip who got $5,000 from NAB in 2006 and Tom Cole of Arizona who has taken $2,500 this cycle and took another thousand last cycle.
Separately, on another subject, The Sirius XM price cuts show that the merger will benefit consumers. Therefore, if the merger is stopped it will show that regulators don’t have consumer’s best interests in mind. Also aren’t these the same regulators that approved the ATT-SBC merger after the companies were split up years ago for having a monopoly and the AOL Time Warner Merger? Let’s not forget that we buy oil and diamonds from the biggest monopolies in the world: OPEC and DeBeers.