How much of the media is owned by ClearChannel?
Bain Capital, Mitt Romney’s company, owns ClearChannel Communications.
How big is ClearChannel? What tv and radio channels do they own?
How much influence do you think owning a company like Clear Channel, can have on picking a presidential candidate?
Anyone paying attention to the Republican Primaries, knows it has played out like a movie so far, with every candidate having a rise and fall. All except Mitt Romney.
“When you trust your television, what ya get is what we got, cause when they own the information, they can bend it all they want.”
What do you guys think, conflict of interest? Yes or no?
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6 Answers
They own no TV stations any more. They are the largest single owner of radio stations in the U.S.:
“Clear Channel is the largest owner of full-power AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations and twelve radio channels on XM Satellite Radio, and is also the largest pure-play radio station owner and operator. The group was in the television business until it sold all of its TV stations to Newport Television in 2008.”
Wikipedia
@Marinelife
Thanks for that answer.
So in 2008, Bain bought ClearChannel, sold the tv stations to Newport Television, who is owned by Providence Equity Partners, whose Senior Adviser is Richard Parsons, chairman of Citigroup.
What kind of influence do you think close ties to the media like this has on Mitt Romney’s chances of becoming President?
It sure hasn’t worked so far. He’s been at roughly the same percentage of Republican voters for a year now.
@SquirrelEStuff I don’t think it has any influence. There is a clear dividing lie between ownership and editorial policy.
According to Wikiinvest, ClearChannel is one of the top ten radio companies in the US, but the top ten only make up 45% of the market. Outdoor advertising is a different story. The top 3 firms (including ClearChahhel) control 65% of the billboard market. This analysis looks like it was done 5 years ago, so things may have changed quite a bit since then.
You know, it is a time honored tradition for big media players to have a horse in the political race. Rupert Murdoch has been shilling for Republicans for decades now. ClearChannel does make politically sensitive business decisions but I don’t think that’s much different from any other media company, and I think ClearChannel’s brand of Republicanism is less offensive than Fox’s is.
As always, caveat emptor. Buyer beware. Get your news from multiple sources. Educate yourself.
People who aren’t good political consumers will get what they are willing to settle for. The rest of us may suffer as a result, but you can’t force people to be smart. You can’t force people to educate themselves.
The election of George Bush caused this recession. His removal of sensible regulations encouraged the irresponsible excesses of the mortgage and insurance and finance industries. Mitt Romney wants to build on Bush’s idiocy, and open up regulations so that businesses can make even more short-sighted decisions.
ClearChannel, itself, is more concerned with making money than anything else, I think. They have a big debt load to deal with. They are trying to position themselves to compete on the internet. They have resigned Ryan Seacrest for $60 million over 3 years.
ClearChannel is mostly about entertainment, anyway. I don’t know if they have a news operation at all, and if so, how much attention anyone pays to them. My guess is that the kind of people who listen to Ryan Seacrest think that “news” is about rock bands and singers, and wonder why people are talking about baseball players whenever the mention of “Mitt” shows up.
This is what ClearChannel did for Romney:
In 2008, Romney got 30,021 Iowa votes. In 2012 he got 30,015. Mitt-mentum!
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