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Corporate Nepotism: From the White House to Clear Channel, it's All in the Family

It seems as though the millennium is turning into the "Age of Nepotism". From the White House, to Clear Channel, one can draw a family triangle of sorts tying top government officials with top media ownerships. For example, we have been forced to accept a second generation of Bush in the White House, who's brother was conincidentally involved with the election controversy as Govenor of Florida.

While President Bush now resides in Washington D.C., the nepotism continues, linking him with the largest commercial radio station group owner, Clear Channel Communications out of Texas. Lowry Mays, CEO of Clear Channel is very friendly with the Bush family, being a fellow Texan with a background in petroleum interests. Another link between Bush and Clear Channel exists between the deal that was made when Bush sold his interest in the professional baseball team, the Texas Rangers, to Tom Hicks, then CEO of AMFM Communications. Tom Hicks, of the leveraged buyout firm Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst, has had substantial interests in the radio broadcast industry.

After the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Hicks combined radio companies (Chancellor Media) with his brother Steve Hicks (Capstar Broadcasting) forming AMFM. which was then aquired by Clear Channel Communications bringing in the Mays family. Lowry Mays, the patriarch is CEO of Clear Channel. His two sons, Mike and Randy are also closely tied in as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Clear Channel engulfed nearly 70 seperate radio groups across the United States. While on the campaign trail last year, FCC commissioner Michael Powell along with his infamous father General Colin Powell were being prepped for top offices under the hopeful Bush administration.

The FCC Chairman appointment to Powell was less than surprising after the ultimate outcome of the selection of our current President. One of the first big issues that Commissioner Powell had to face was the largest communications merger in history, the billion dollar AOL - Time Warner nuptuals. What the general public was shieled from thanks to the relationship of politics and corporate broadcasters, was the fact that General Colin Powell was on the Board of Directors for AOL, and subsequently was profiting from millions of dollars of AOL stock options.

Upon doing a search on SEC filings by General Powell, we found that he also owned stock in Time Warner prior to the merger. Commissioner Powell did not exclude himself from the FCC approval, citing there was no basis to a "fuzzy" connection between himself and AOL. The FCC has been quick in acting upon corporate media mergers, yet slow in acting when it comes to public needs and trust. The Hicks, Mays, Powell's and Bush's are all part of our corporate dominated landscape of nepotism.

It's a family orgy of wheeling and dealing, trading and influence in order to benefit their personal interests. It's corporate political control. A wilding entanglement of special interests and backdoor favors of the power elite. With the media under control of corporate and political interests, it's no wonder something like the 2000 election fiasco occurred. A theatrical display of correographed moves by the media shaped a staged future for America to which the extreme right wing can manipulate at will. Family ties like these are not unlike those which are portrayed as mafia like, but of a higher echelon. Our current administration is extremely friendly with the large corporate media families. For they all have something to gain from one another, at the expense of the trust and integrity of the American public.