owners and their political views (was: Boston radio's pizza connection)

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

>it was written--
>However, the original point that someone asking if we need to bring in
>politico barbs into a discussion about radio.

And before we are accused of advocating cruelty to animals, could we please 
stop beating this dead horse?????  (Btw, Donna sez: keep the government out 
of people's bedrooms.  Thank you.)

Now, how about a discussion about politics and radio?  True story:  a 
certain owner of a certain very large chain of radio stations (see if you 
can guess which one) sent a memo to all of his employees telling them he 
strongly suggested they should vote for George W. Bush; the reason this 
owner gave was that Bush would give more freedom to broadcasters (I am not 
making this up).  Now, forgetting the candidate's name -- [I would be 
asking the same question about ethics if it were somebody telling employees 
to vote for Gore] -- do you think owners should actively advocate for 
particular candidates and make their views known to their employees; 
further, do you think by sending such memos, the owner is hoping that the 
station's news department will give the candidate favourable coverage?