Posted on 03/24/2003 11:27:59 PM PST by Timesink
March 25, 2003Channels of InfluenceBy PAUL KRUGMAN
Who has been organizing those pro-war rallies? The answer, it turns out, is that they are being promoted by key players in the radio industry ? with close links to the Bush administration. The CD-smashing rally was organized by KRMD, part of Cumulus Media, a radio chain that has banned the Dixie Chicks from its playlists. Most of the pro-war demonstrations around the country have, however, been organized by stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, a behemoth based in San Antonio that controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly dominates the airwaves. The company claims that the demonstrations, which go under the name Rally for America, reflect the initiative of individual stations. But this is unlikely: according to Eric Boehlert, who has written revelatory articles about Clear Channel in Salon, the company is notorious ? and widely hated ? for its iron-fisted centralized control. Until now, complaints about Clear Channel have focused on its business practices. Critics say it uses its power to squeeze recording companies and artists and contributes to the growing blandness of broadcast music. But now the company appears to be using its clout to help one side in a political dispute that deeply divides the nation. Why would a media company insert itself into politics this way? It could, of course, simply be a matter of personal conviction on the part of management. But there are also good reasons for Clear Channel ? which became a giant only in the last few years, after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 removed many restrictions on media ownership ? to curry favor with the ruling party. On one side, Clear Channel is feeling some heat: it is being sued over allegations that it threatens to curtail the airplay of artists who don't tour with its concert division, and there are even some politicians who want to roll back the deregulation that made the company's growth possible. On the other side, the Federal Communications Commission is considering further deregulation that would allow Clear Channel to expand even further, particularly into television. Or perhaps the quid pro quo is more narrowly focused. Experienced Bushologists let out a collective "Aha!" when Clear Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war rallies, because the company's top management has a history with George W. Bush. The vice chairman of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks, whose name may be familiar to readers of this column. When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel's chairman, Lowry Mays, was on its board. Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco placed much of the university's endowment under the management of companies with strong Republican Party or Bush family ties. In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire. There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear, but a good guess is that we're now seeing the next stage in the evolution of a new American oligarchy. As Jonathan Chait has written in The New Republic, in the Bush administration "government and business have melded into one big `us.' " On almost every aspect of domestic policy, business interests rule: "Scores of midlevel appointees . . . now oversee industries for which they once worked." We should have realized that this is a two-way street: if politicians are busy doing favors for businesses that support them, why shouldn't we expect businesses to reciprocate by doing favors for those politicians ? by, for example, organizing "grass roots" rallies on their behalf? What makes it all possible, of course, is the absence of effective watchdogs. In the Clinton years the merest hint of impropriety quickly blew up into a huge scandal; these days, the scandalmongers are more likely to go after journalists who raise questions. Anyway, don't you know there's a war on? |
Actually during the Clinton years, I believe it was the reverse. The hugest scandals were treated as mere improprieties. (If they were even dealt with at all.)
The left, if it is not to condemn itself to become a fantasy ideology, must reconcile itself not only with the reality of America, but with its dialectical necessity America is the sine qua non of any future progress that mankind can make, no matter what direction that progress may take.
The belief that mankinds progress, by any conceivable standard of measurement recognized by Karl Marx, could be achieved through the destruction or even decline of American power is a dangerous delusion. Respect for the deep structural laws that govern the historical process whatever these laws may be must dictate a proportionate respect for any social order that has achieved the degree of stability and prosperity the United States has achieved and has been signally decisive in permitting other nations around the world to achieve as well. To ignore these facts in favor of surreal ideals and utterly utopian fantasies is a sign not merely of intellectual bankruptcy, but of a disturbing moral immaturity. For nothing indicates a failure to understand the nature of a moral principle better than to believe that it is capable of enforcing itself.
It is not. It requires an entire social order to shelter and protect it. And if it cannot find these, it will perish.' - Excerpt from 'The Intellectual Origins of American Bashing' by Lee Harris of Policy Review
This writer Paul Krugman is obviously one of the leftist with moral immaturity. His order is destined to go down in history as the Dummies of the World. It sickens me how the left has always used our Bill of Rights to try and weaken our beliefs. We must fight them, and fight back hard! We must expose their lies and filth for what they are. Damn the Dixie Chickens, or Baghdad B*tches (if you prefer). And I damn every anti-war protestor as an amoral coward and a parasite, they are vermin and should be treated as such. Its too bad so many valiant men have laid down their lives to allow these spawn to have the freedom to spread the filth they propagate about our country. I am a proud veteran whose served for 20 years on active duty to defend our way of life, and I am saddened that these ba*tards call themselves Americans. To my brothers who still fight and serve, I support you 100%!
I guess they paid off all the protestors to show up. Krugman is an economic imbecile. Politically he's even worse.
The competition is stiff, but Paul Krugman is probably the Times' most reliable Bush-bashing columnist. His latest "Channels of Influence," doesn't disappoint in that regard, but Krugman saved his most vicious comment for war supporters.People are catching on.Krugman doesn't trust the media company Clear Channel Communications, which he accused of organizing pro-war rallies as a political favor to the Bush administration. "The company appears to be using its clout to help one side in a political dispute that deeply divides the nation," Krugman wrote. (The Times would never do anything like that, of course, and neither would Krugman.) As for "deeply dividing the nation," the Times front-page poll on Saturday showed 70 percent of Americans approved of Bush's handling of Iraq.
Truly offensive was Krugman's comment on a pro-war rally not organized by Clear Channel: "One of the most striking took place after Natalie Maines, lead singer for the Dixie Chicks, criticized President Bush: a crowd gathered in Louisiana to watch a 33,000-pound tractor smash a collection of Dixie Chicks CD's, tapes and other paraphernalia. To those familiar with 20th-century European history it seemed eerily reminiscent of ... But as Sinclair Lewis said, it can't happen here."
Criticism of liberals is a latent, though potent, form of Nazism. Proving once again that conservatives are really nazis, or is klansmen? I get so confused.
"NAZIs, NAZIs, NAZIs" The liberal equivalent of a well reasoned argument.
The marxists have been saying this for over 100 years. Don't they ever get tired of singing the same song? Everywhere these people get the upper hand, they leave a trail of tears and tragedy. Yet, our society stupidly listens to their nonsense, and continues to give them a stage from which to proclaim their vile dogma.
The evil is never with socialist tyrants. It is always with the U.S. Government and big business. They are conspiring to enslave the proletariat. Poor enslaved proles, the poorest of them are richer than half the people in the world.
No kidding!!! AND.....our rallies last weekend would have tripled if ads and such were on every Clear Channel station!
I cannot believe how much of a total ignoramus this guy is......
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