http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=8728Clear Channel Rewrites Rules of Radio Broadcasting
By Dante Toza
Special to CorpWatch
October 8, 2003
Against a backdrop of red, white and blue curtains, emblazoned with the words of the constitution of the United States, the heads of some of the world's biggest radio companies gathered for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual meeting last week in Philadelphia, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. </snip>
<snip>
Yet when radio began in this country, it was not supposed to simply be a commodity. The Federal Communication Commission, a government federal agency that was established by the Communications Act of 1934, was charged with allocating spectrum space to maximize "the public interest and to encourage a diversity of voices so as to promote a vibrant democracy."
Over the years this original mission has largely been forgotten, says Norman Solomon, the executive director of Institute for Public Accuracy. "The FCC has functioned much more as a lap dog to the media industry than any kind of watch dog on behalf of the public to further deregulate and further hijack the public airwaves for private profit."
Clear Channel has gone beyond just axing news. Many believe that the company fires anyone with political opinions other than their own such as Davey D, the host of a popular talk radio show on KMEL, a black-owned station in Oakland, California, that launched the careers of rappers like Tupac Shakur and MC Hammer.
In October 2001 when the United States was on the verge of launching its invasion of Afghanistan, Davey D broadcast an interview with Barbara Lee, the only member of the United States Congress to vote against the war.
KMEL, which had recently been bought by Clear Channel, heard about the show and promptly fired him. Meanwhile company executives sent a memo round to its stations at about the same time warning them not to play any peace songs such as John Lennon's "Imagine" or music by the band Rage Against the Machine.
On the other hand, Clear Channel has not been opposed to all forms of political organizing. In 2003 the company paid for pro-war rallies around the country to support the invasion of Iraq as well as for a 33,000-pound tractor to smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CDs, tapes and other paraphernalia, at an event in Louisiana, because the bands had the arrogance to protest against the war.
Today the rules of media ownership that spawned Clear Channel have been further loosened. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)), which is led by Michael Powell, none other than the son of United States secretary of state, Colin Powell, voted in June to allow companies to buy more television stations and own newspapers as well as broadcast outlets in the same city.</snip>
What Clear Channel is, is a monopoly we have corporatism....fascism. We own the airwaves at least that's the way it started out, I don't understand why some people would think this sort of crap is just business as usual, it's not!
The reason clear channel is shutting up dissent (their own form of McCarthyism) they want Bush* to keep that FCC (Powell) rule that came down which by the way people on both sides of the political spectrum where against. It will allow Clear Channel to buy up even more radio stations it's a monopoly that's working as a tool for Bush* so they can get what they want more ownership of what is suppose to be the peoples airwaves.