Re: Fresh Air 7/23/2003

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 03:33 PM 7/25/2003, Peter Murray wrote:
>I'm surprised that there has not yet been any commentary on the interviews
>on Fresh Air this past Tuesday, where Terry Gross spoke separately with
>Eric Bohert (of online mag Salon.com) and Clear Channel Radio CEO John
>Hogan.
>
>There were good points made on both sides - though they didn't answer one
>another point-for-point, unfortunately, which I believe would have made
>for excellent discussion. John Hogan would have been in a corner in little
>time, I bet!
>
>-Peter Murray (N3iXY)
>Pittsburgh (home of 6 CC stations), PA


I did catch some of it, but the boss is on vaca so I'm running the office 
for a few weeks and I'm up to my eyeballs in work.  So I didn't really 
listen to it very well.

I think Clear Channel and how it operates bothers me LESS...after all, they 
have shareholders to answer to and they might be utter slimeballs but we 
the people - at ALL levels - are champions of our free market economy that 
dictates these tactics of winning at any cost.

What bothers me more is the WILLFUL ignorance of the public about it.  It's 
not that my friends...many of whom don't get what I do for a living...don't 
know about mass media corporatization and mergers and whatnot.  Although 
usually they don't know just how bad it really is, but they have a decent 
idea.  No, the real problem is that they don't care.  They don't want to 
hear it when someone says that Clear Channel is.  Even when they're whining 
about how outrageous the prices are for concerts at Great Woods (f**k 
Tweeter, Etc...it's Great Woods and I refuse to call it otherwise) and when 
told it's because Clear Channel can get away with it because they own all 
aspects of concert shows these days...they still don't want to hear 
it.  They blame greedy performers.

It's amazing how willfully stupid we are as a country.  It's something I 
often tell my more radical friends...they forget that the status quo IS the 
status quo because people WANT it to be.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA