Not content with airing and syndicating Rush Limbaugh, now Clear Channel is sponsoring pro-war rallies?
\\ 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.
While labor unions and special interest groups have organized and
hosted rallies for decades, the involvement of a big publicly regulated
broadcasting company breaks new ground in public demonstrations.
“I think this is pretty extraordinary,” said former Federal
Communications Commissioner Glen Robinson, who teaches law at the
University of Virginia. “I can’t say that this violates any of a
broadcaster’s obligations, but it sounds like borderline manufacturing
of the news.”
A weekend rally in Atlanta drew an estimated 20,000 people, with some
carrying signs reading “God Bless the USA” and other signs condemning
France and the group Dixie Chicks, one of whose members recently
criticized President Bush.
“They’re not intended to be pro-military. It’s more of a thank you to
the troops. They’re just patriotic rallies,” said Clear Channel
spokeswoman Lisa Dollinger.
Rallies sponsored by Clear Channel radio stations are scheduled for
this weekend in Sacramento, Charleston, S.C., and Richmond, Va.
Although Clear Channel promoted two of the recent rallies on its
corporate Web site, Dollinger said there is no corporate directive that
stations organize rallies.
Clear Channel is by far the largest owner of radio stations in the
nation. The company owned only 43 in 1995, but when Congress removed
many of the ownership limits in 1996, Clear Channel was quickly on the
highway to radio dominance. The company owns and operates 1,233 radio
stations (including six in Chicago) and claims 100 million listeners.
Clear Channel generated about 20 percent of the radio industry’s $16
billion in 2001 revenues.\\