Posted on 01/31/2008 5:04:51 AM PST by knarf
We are all about information.
What would it cost to buy the support of just about every nationally syndicated neocon talk show host in America? About $19.5 billion, which is what Mitt Romney's private equity firm, Bain Capital, and Thomas H. Lee Partners have agreed to pay in a leveraged buyout agreement with Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio station owner in the country. This is part of a negotiation that has been pending for over a year.
Clear Channel owns more than 1,100 full-power AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations, twelve radio channels on XM Satellite Radio, and more than 30 television stations in the United States. Premiere Radio Networks, which is the largest syndication company in the United States, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Clear Channel and is home to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and many others. Sean Hannity recently signed a large multi-market contract with Clear Channel, as well.
From an anonymous email:
"I'll bet those hosts won't reveal that conflict of interest, but it's worth noting when you hear them begin hyping Romney, which has already begun. A lot of GOP supporters will support whomever they are told to support, so be prepared for a big push for Romney. On the bright side, Romney has more vulnerabilities than Rudy, based on his record. Look at this as the GOP establishment doing us a favor. Rich men can bankroll their own campaigns (a la John Kerry), but it takes a special breed to use investors' money to buy entire networks that can operate as passive wings of a presidential campaign."
It should be noted that Mitt Romney, while no longer the CEO, remains a silent partner of Bain Capital."
This got me to thinking about the last ten years of my life.
I got my first computer in 1998, and it was in that year I discovered talk radio and FreeRepublic.
Up until then, I was a classic sheeple ... wife, job, 4 or 5 kids (can't remember if one was out of the house at the time), and happy to be alive.
But in 1998, there was a lot of murmering about Bill Clinton, and though I did not consider myself political, I was intrigued with the thought that something un-American might be going on in the White House and politics in general.
Rush was talking sense and FreeRepublic offered me the opportunity to sit and stare at the printed word, mulling over the thought(s) transcribed, and reverberating in my head.
Which brings me to the here and now.
FreeRepublic and talk radion are both about diseminating information.
Someone has said "Knowledge is power" and Rush was the one I heard say, "Words mean something"
If the wrong person gets into the White House, I think we can be assured that a lot of the information we all get daily would cease.
Now, I am not necesarilly a Romnet fan ... but he is no more connected to Baine than Cheney is to Halliburton. But I think I would want someone that understands the business of talk radio making decisions, and vetoeing, than someone who has no problem with trampling on and eliminating 1st Ammendment rights.
I welcome serious commentary on what I've posted here.
After all ... that's what I frequent Freerepublic .... that, and the fact that Jim allows me into his living room to take part in the on-going discusion about our (once?) blessed land.
Make no mistake.
If Mrs. Impeached President is elected, she will enact the fairness doctrine and effectually kill talk radio, THE primary voice of conservatism.
Well thought out. You win the best vanity of the month.
Thanx, but the red print is from an e-mail ... it just sparked my thinking.
So will John McCain, if he is elected. In fact, the Fairness Doctrine is, if anything, more likely to be revived under McCain Administration because he has scores to settle with Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, et. al. Not only did the conservative talkers ruin the McCain-Kennedy amnesty plan, they are by and large coalescing around Romney as the last stand against the Arizona Senator. McCain will cloak it under the veneer of bipartisanship and sway a few RINOs to vote with the Democrats.
1 Do not spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness.
In business competition is good. Rush understands that about business. There is much more interest in the spending dollar when there is more choices. Also there are other reasons Rush is doing this but it is not what you just stated.
Rush will move to satellite transmission and solve the problem. You will still be able to pick him up over the internet .
I see it the other way around. If a Democrat wins, they will feel no need to hurry and enact the fairness doctrine. They will instead feel victorious that the little conservative talk radio hosts were unable to stop their win.
The bigger problem will be John McCain, he will be all for the fairness doctrine because he is a mean vindictive little man, and will take no critcism. He is the one that will fire the Dems up for the fairness doctrine just to show how bipartisan he is. *snicker*
This crap has been posted before. Clear Channlel turned turned down an offer from the same group in April that was for a few billion more dollars. Why would they take less now?
After this story was originally posted the site from which it was taken was no longer available on the net.This is a political hatchet job.
</sarc>
The fear(s) however are real.
I've heard Hannity talk about it, Savage is sueing CAIR, Imus was fired ... and I don't know whom else might be in the sights for anti-American freedom.
Hatchet job or not ... Is it not true that Romney is a 'business man' (and at least once affiliated with an organization that wanted Clear Channel), and would act in accordance to what I've read here in FreeRepublic innumerable times ... "If this was a business, he'd be fired ..." ... or ... "We have to balance our checkbooks, he should be held to the same ... " ... or ... "If I had done that, I'd be in jail now" ...
?
etc.
If McCain is elected, he will too, as retaliation against Rush, Ingraham, Malkin, Coulter, etc.
The x42 bwitch has already voiced it's disdain for the internet, and free speech internet in particular ... which is one of the main points in the Communist Manifesto ... Control the media.
I just don't want to take a chance on losing my ability to prove to my children (I'll probably be dead) how I came to the conclusions I've come to, and act/speak the way I do.
THEY are America now ... whether we believe that or not ... I recognize my own mortality, and the older I get ... the more the word 'posterity' becomes real and important.
Wickapaedia has been compromised ... The 'modern' dictionaries are crap, very few people actually READ a book ... the gummint skoolz teach everything BUT readin', writin' n' 'rithmetic.. (kids don't even know what arithmetic IS!).
If America is/was the great experiment .... consider in the same light talk radio and FreeRepublic.
It doesn't take much for me to see the connection that all things free (We, the people, etc.) are being attacked, with the intent to destroy.
Is Talk radio on the Romney hook/conflict of interest?
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961240/posts
I don't pretend to know what IS the outcome of all this (gas prices/Bush ... whose fault is it?) ... but I think I'd rather have a President that understands business, when the Dhims are SURE to push for a resurfacing of The Fairness Doctrine. Especially if they lose the Presidency.
I'm SURE McCain (/Feingold) will sign it into perpetual law.
I’ve listened to Rush for years (at least 12).
I have never heard him take as big of 180 degree turn as he did the last couple of weeks. His mantra for 3 months was “I don’t get involved in primaries”, then something changed and he started discussing every minute. His show has become fractured lately and I have never heard him in so many uncomfortable moments on the air. Rush probably has enough money to buy most of clear channel outright, but something is up, ‘cause the program isn’t the same.
Quite true. It's sad and sickening.
So I am not familiar with what you say, but I'll take your word for it .... there's no doubt this is probably the most charged election I've ever experienced.
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