Posted on 01/12/2012 6:15:07 PM PST by VinL
Wouldn't it be great if a Republican presidential candidate could just buy the support of just about every major conservative talk show host in America? Well, it may not be as far-fetched as you may think. Clear Channel owns more radio stations (850) than anyone else in the United States. They also own Premiere Radio Networks, the company that syndicates the radio shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck, among others. Needless to say, Clear Channel basically owns conservative talk radio in the United States. So who owns Clear Channel? Well, it turns out that Bain Capital is one of the primary owners of Clear Channel. Yes, you read that correctly. The company that Mitt Romney ran for so long is one of the "big bosses" over virtually all conservative talk radio in America. Of course Mitt Romney is not running Bain Capital anymore. He is a "retired partner", but he still has a huge financial stake in Bain Capital. We're talking about millions upon millions of dollars. If you doubt this, just check out page 34 of this public financial disclosure report. So if you have been wondering why so many conservative talk show hosts are being so incredibly kind to Mitt Romney, this just might be the answer.
In the media world, there is a clear understanding that you simply do not bite the hand that feeds you. Some of the most prominent conservative talk radio hosts are earning tens of millions of dollars a year.
If you were making tens of millions of dollars a year, wouldn't you be very careful to avoid offending your boss?
The deal in which Bain Capital became one of the owners of Clear Channel was initiated just a short time before Mitt Romney's first run for president. The following comes from Wikipedia....
On November 16, 2006, Clear Channel announced plans to go private, being bought out by two private-equity firms, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners for $18.7 billion, which is just under a 10 percent premium above its closing price of $35.36 a share on November 16 (the deal values Clear Channel at $37.60 per share).
The deal was finalized in 2008. Today, Bain Capital is still one of the primary owners of Clear Channel.
One of the subsidiaries of Clear Channel is Premiere Radio Networks.
Premiere Radio Networks distributes a whole host of conservative talk radio shows. Everyone in the conservative world knows names such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. Clear Channel also controls some other conservative talk radio hosts (such as Michael Savage and Mark Levin) that are not part of the Premiere Radio family.
The power that Premiere Radio Networks has is absolutely staggering. The following is directly from the official Clear Channel website....
Premiere Radio Networks Inc., a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, syndicates 90 radio programs and services to more than 5,000 radio affiliations and reaches over 190 million listeners weekly. Premiere Radio is the number one radio network in the country and features the following personalities: Rush Limbaugh, Jim Rome, Casey Kasem, Ryan Seacrest, Glenn Beck, Bob (Kevoian) & Tom (Griswold), Delilah, Steve Harvey, Blair Garner, George Noory, John Boy and Billy, Big Tigger, Dr. Dean Edell, Bob Costas, Sean Hannity and others. Premiere is based in Sherman Oaks, California, with 13 offices nationwide.
So do you think that any of those hosts is going to risk viciously attacking Mitt Romney and Bain Capital during this election season?
Not likely.
One of the controversies that has plagued Premiere Radio Networks in recent years has been the uproar over their use of paid actors to call in to their radio shows.
The following comes from Wikipedia....
Clear Channel, through its subsidiary, Premiere Radio Networks, auditions and hires actors to call in to talk radio shows and pose as listeners in order to provide shows, carried by Clear Channel and other broadcasters, with planned content in the form of stories and opinions. The custom caller service provided by Premiere Radio ensures its clients they won't hear the same actor's voice for at least two months in order to appear authentic to listeners who might otherwise catch on.
So perhaps that explains where some of the "Romney callers" come from.
There is nothing illegal about what Romney and Bain Capital have done, but it sure does not pass the "smell test".
Conservative talk radio has the potential to sway millions of conservative voters in one direction or another, and it is just not proper for Bain Capital and Romney to have such an overpowering financial interest in conservative talk radio.
And yes, Mitt Romney is still bringing in lots of money from Bain Capital. The following comes from a Wikipedia article about Mitt Romney....
At the time of his departure, Romney negotiated an agreement with Bain Capital that allowed him to receive a passive profit share as a retired partner in some Bain Capital entities, including buyout and investment funds.[62][57] With the private equity business continuing to thrive, this deal would bring him millions of dollars in income each year.[57] As a result of his business career, by 2007 Romney and his wife had a net worth of between $190 and $250 million, most of it held in blind trusts.[62] An additional blind trust existed in the name of the Romneys' children and grandchildren that was valued at between $70 and $100 million as of 2007.[63] The couple's net worth remained in the same range as of 2011, and was still held in blind trusts.
In addition, Bain Capital and Bain & Company continue to pour huge amounts of money into Romney's campaign coffers.
Just check out the following list of the biggest donors to the Romney campaign. These numbers come from opensecrets.org....
Goldman Sachs $367,200 Credit Suisse Group $203,750 Morgan Stanley $199,800 HIG Capital $186,500 Barclays $157,750 Kirkland & Ellis $132,100 Bank of America $126,500 PriceWaterhouseCoopers $118,250 EMC Corp $117,300 JPMorgan Chase & Co $112,250 The Villages $97,500 Vivint Inc $80,750 Marriott International $79,837 Sullivan & Cromwell $79,250 Bain Capital $74,500 UBS AG $73,750 Wells Fargo $61,500 Blackstone Group $59,800 Citigroup Inc $57,050 Bain & Co $52,500
As with anything, whenever you want to get to the real truth you just need to follow the money.
Earlier this week, Sean Hannity told Rick Perry that his attacks on Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital sounded like something that "Occupy Wall Street" would say.
Just the other day, Rush Limbaugh compared Rick Perry to Fidel Castro and rabidly defended Mitt Romney on his radio program....
“There’s no way you can try to dress that up,” Limbaugh fumed. “I don’t understand it. Well, politically I understand it, but that’s just absurd. It’s sad. ‘Cause I really, really, really like Rick Perry! I really do. I had such hopes! I did. I’ll tell you, I did, but all of this talk about “corporate raiders,” and as I listen to politicians start talking about capitalism, lights are going off in my head. “Maybe they don’t really know what it is. Maybe they’re under some misconception about what capitalism is, because this characterization of it? A distinction with venture capitalism and vulture capitalism? This bite from Perry doesn’t compute.”
So why are these conservative talk show hosts defending Mitt Romney so furiously?
I think now we know.
It is all about the money.
When you have enough money, you can get conservative talk show hosts to promote an extremely liberal candidate.
Yes, of course Bain Capital does not "control" what these talk show hosts say.
Yes, of course some of the talk show hosts toss some light criticism at Romney from time to time.
But they simply do not go after Romney like they should be.
The truth is that Mitt Romney is really a Democrat that is masquerading as a Republican. When you closely examine his record, he is very similar to Obama.
There is no way in the world that any self-respecting conservative should ever cast a single vote for him.
But right now Mitt Romney is running away with the race for the Republican nomination.
If Republicans can be fooled this badly, is there any hope for the future of the Republican Party?
As a 20 year listener of Rush, I emailed him today and told him I’m done. I know he doesn’t care. Neither do many of you.
Our system is so corrupt that we have absolutely nothing to do with the outcome of this primary. We are all conditioned every day to expect the outcome already decided by the power brokers.
I’m done. I hope Newt has the balls to break this damn system into pieces even if it sets us back. I will no longer show up for Dole, Bush, McCain, Romney.
I will put my baseball cap on backwards and play Call of Duty on my PS3.
This is all such total crap. I’m pretty sure Rush could buy and sell Bain Co. if he wanted to. Rush, Hannity, and the WSJ have clearly explained the free market logic and beauty of Bain’s operations.
And while I’m at it, I think that the time and resources of “conservatives” would be much better spent making videos that attack Obama rather than Romney-—and they’d have a much easier time.
I monitor the show for professional reasons almost every day. Newt is being savaged along with Perry for what they are doing. Mitt is being savaged for his tepid “doing just what Obama did with GM” response too.
Now, Rush is wrong on the issue of attacking capitalism - some of what goes on Wall Street is part of Rush’s blind spot on economics. But that response from Rush was predictable and would have been his response long before he was part of Clear Channel and long before Bain Capital existed. It’s who he is.
But again, the money does not flow from Clear Channel to Rush. It’s the other way around. They syndicate him to their stations to make money off of him at every step of the way. He brings in the revenue, so the whole idea that he is towing the corporate line does not line up with follow the money.
It could be as simple as the fact that in his anti-Capitalist attacks on Bain & Romney
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In AMerica today, there is no such thing as captalism. Was bailing the banks capitalism- or would capitalism let them fail. Is the Fed giving free money to the banks to invest in the carry trade capitalism— or is it the plundering of the American citizens in order to save the rich? Was Bush’s record spending capitalism, or the enhancement of nanny state socialism.
The GOP does not practice capitalism— so how can they say Newt is an anti-capitalist?
Newt wasn’t attacking capitalism - he’s attacking the anti-free enterpise vultures. Over a quarter of the businesses Bain took over were stripped and decimated.
Bain bought failing businesses and either revialized them or stripped them down for liquidation. In one case they recieved a $10Million bailout from the Feds. (”According to the Globe, Romney’s company failed to repay at least $10 million to a failed bank and the rest of us had to absorb the loss. Romney and others made $4 million dollars in this deal.”)
If Romney has nothing to hide, then he should be transparent about his career at Bain and about his term a Governor of Massachusetts.
As for Newt Gingrich, Romney dumped crap and negatavism on Gingrich in Iowa because Newt was ahead in the polls. Gingrich was talking positively, not attacking anyone but Obama, and about how he intended to better the nation. Politics is like war - once you attack your opponent, you can’t start whining about the counter-attack.
Sour grapes? I think not.
Dems are now saying Solyndra = Bain. Do we really want our candidate to have that target painted on him? How will the GOP counter that now? What is going to happen to all of the anti-crony capitalism arguments that the GOP was storing up for 2012?
In the end, if Obama supports bailouts and Romney does, too, and Newt challenges them, it would be Romney and Obama putting free enterprise on trial, not Newt.
Though I went to a rally for him last year, I was ambivalent on Newt until he started attacking private business success.
This week he sounded like an Occupy Wall Streeter. This is some dangerous c(**$
He won’t make anybody in Washington afraid if he is attacking Wall Street, and I can’t remember him saying very much about Solyndra, eliminating Fanny Mae, eliminating EPA and the rest of the blood sucker’s Crony Capitalism. Wall Street needs to be corrected, but the first, survival-related job is to stop firehosing billions in tax dollars to favored companies and industries.
With his BIG money from Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, Newt seems like the very embodiment of fat cat elite Washingtonians, not their nightmare. So he’d better figure out a way to get this straightened out quick.
Dems are now saying Solyndra = Bain.
Thanks to Newt.
yeah. Bain and Romney created thousands of jobs for workers — laid off thousands of well-paid full-time workers, and created thousands of part-time low wage jobs. But you have a point, that is part of the capitalist system. Without profit, there is no reason to keep a business running.
Of course, there is some morality involved when you claim you created thousands of jobs without telling “the rest of the story.” Kind of like Willard and his Dad George who ran as Republicans, but ran from the Republican platform, and were nowhere to be seen when there were Conservatives running.
Look, George Soros is a capitalist too. that doesn’t mean he would be a good Republican nominee for POTUS.
If my only choice is to vote for leftist 0bama, leftist Romney or 3rd party leftist Paul, I will vote for every position that has a Conservative running. I will NOT vote for Romney, EVER! NEVER! NOT EVER!
Did I make that clear?
The boogie man is behind everything. Kill the boogie man. Viva la revolution!
yep yep and yep
Had a guy used to help break down the Wall Street stuff related to Goldman Sachs and Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer and Warren Buffet and related Wall Street/economic stuff for him.
Had being the operative word.
That seems to connect a few dots.
Try reading what Gingrich said today. He isn’t attacking free-enterprise or business, not at all.
Gingrich Decries ‘Backdoor Socialism’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2832231/posts
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When a middle-class citizen is elected to Congress and returns home 20 years later a multi-millionaire, it is due to corruption in government. And that influence pedaling corruption may even be legal!
Businesses with government contracts and ties, political and otherwise to members of Congress, are bankrupting this nation and in some cases driving foreign policy. Our tax code, and the temptation to legislate favorable breaks for big poltical donors, just makes the situation even more grave. Is it legal? Sure. Is it good for the nation? No.
We are now $15Trillion in debt and counting. Crony capitalism, whether Democrat or Republican, must be obliterated and our government returned to being a constitutional government.
Newt Gingrich knows where all the secret ways and byways by which influence peddling moves in Washington. I can’t think of a better person to go and change Washington, D.C.
We have to change Washington in order to get our nation back on the right track.
Ironically, according to info on another thread, Bain is SENDING TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS to liberal politicians who are the political enemies of what Rush preaches.
And ironically, Rush's show profits will go down as more and more people turn him off as he defends Bain/Romney's twisted, amoral breed of government-distorted "capitalism" to the advantage of Romney and at the expense of Newt Gingrich.
It’s been a while but I’ve worked around enough radio stations to know you do not talk smack about the bosses.
Doubt me? Ask Howard Stern.
I totally agree that Rush has a blind spot on this issue, and misses the fact that what Bain does is not exactly free market in action. And that Bain execs now support liberals does back this up.
As to whether it will hurt Rush or not, interesting theory.
Yeah. Becusae the DNC woulda never come up with that one /s
The Democrats have been planning on running against Romney for quite some time. He’s a rich, white man who is Mormon; a big, easy target for Dems.
Newt just brought the subject out into the light ahead of schedule.
Bain is not Rush’s boss. If they were, you’d have a point. And Rush has talked a lot of “smack” about Mitt. Some this week in fact.
So basically, you are oh for two.
The Stern issue is totally different. In so many ways. But basically he was a paid employee. Rush is a business partner so to speak.
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