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.
In a move that has raised eyebrows in some legal and journalistic circles, Clear Channel radio stations in Atlanta, Cleveland, San Antonio, Cincinnati and other cities have sponsored rallies attended by up to 20,000 people. The events have served as a loud rebuttal to the more numerous but generally smaller anti-war rallies.
The sponsorship of large rallies by Clear Channel stations is unique among major media companies, which have confined their activities in the war debate to reporting and occasionally commenting on the news. The San Antonio-based broadcaster owns more than 1,200 stations in 50 states and the District of Columbia. [...]
oh, this is gonna make heads pop off for sure
ClearChannel sponsors pro-war rallies
Tags: big brother, corporations, music
Current Music: Eat Static -- Survivors ♬
11 Responses:
I hearby refuse to listen to any more ClearChannel stati....
oh, wait.
I didn't anyway.
Did you read the internal memo from ClearChannel to all its employees, about the proper protocol for handling things when war did finally break out? Very sad.
Yeah, that was pretty creepy, though not terribly surprising.
Link to said memo?
It was surprisingly hard to find a complete copy of it! There's one here.
Actually, that memo was from a station manager in a newsradio station owned by Clear Channel for the rest of the employees. It wasn't necessarily a Clear Channel-wide thing.
Radio? I haven't listened to the "RADIO" since I did pirate radio shows.
Do you still need an antenna for that sort of thing?
Oh God. I was near a radio espousing Clear Channel around 10pm last night, and I got to hear about our little adventure from an over-produced, stylishly vocoded announcement cutting in with: "The liberation of Iraq has begun!"
Absolutely turned my stomach.
If you want to avoid Clear Channel you'd better not go to too many concerts. Bill Graham Presents is CC, which means that so is the Fillmore and the Warfield and most of the larger venues. They sponsor a lot of smaller shows through their subsidiaries too. And TV and billboards. And newspapers. They're more invasive than Microsoft.
I do security for Bill Graham Presents.
I get paid by Fillmore Theatrical Services.
I work for Clear Channel Entertainment Worldwide.
Good times.
According to Salon, ClearChannel "officials threatened to cut the microphones if there was any political speech onstage" at Ani DiFranco's concert last night.
Ooooh. Got a link on that?
Salon's protest coverage, though you'll need to click through ads if you're not a subscriber. Let me check: No, it's not mentioned on Ani's site, nor on that of Amy Goodman, the source of the info.