AP is reporting that Clear Channel Communications has just made Fox News Radio their primary top-of-the-hour "news" source for most of Clear Channel's 1,125 radio stations nationwide.
"Working this closely with a premiere national news provider for the majority of our news/talk stations makes overwhelming sense," said John Hogan, chief executive officer of Clear Channel Radio. "Because of the breadth of this relationship, our local news directors will get a more customized and higher quality national news product — and that's great for listeners."
By "higher quality", Hogan clearly means "brazenly one-sided and erroneous."
And now some old news that's worth repeating. According to the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA):
67% of FNC viewers think there was a clear relationship between Saddam and Al Qaeda (16% for NPR/PBS viewers and listeners).
33% of FNC viewers think we've found WMD in Iraq (the largest percentage of all news sources, with NPR/PBS scoring the lowest at 11%).
Amongst Republicans surveyed, 45% were found to have misperceptions about the war. But 54% of Republicans who watch FNC have misperceptions about the war.
And finally, by overwhelming margins (3:1) the people with the greatest misperceptions about the war voted for George W. Bush.
It's nice to know that FNC's positive influence on the truth will be further disseminated via hundreds of Clear Channel radio outlets.
And what about Clear Channel...?
John Hogan personally gave nearly $9000 to Clear Channel's PAC this year, which in turn gave 77% of the PAC money to Republicans.The New York Times discovered that when Tom Hicks, current Clear Channel vice chairman, was the head of the University of Texas Investment Management Company (Clear Channel's chairman Lowry Mays sat on the board), he clandestinely diverted a $13 billion endowment to private companies, including the Bush operated (and bin Laden financed) Carlyle Group, and Harken Energy's Bahrain oil drilling project.The Times also reported that in 1998 Tom Hicks bought the Texas Rangers and made Bush a fortune.In the 2002 election cycle, OpenSecrets.org reports that Clear Channel gave over $300,000 in soft money contributions to Republicans, while only $50,000 to Democrats.Between News Corp and Clear Channel, it's staggering that the myth of a "liberal media" is still championed as reality. Then again, there were WMD in Iraq and Saddam/Osama pajama parties, so...