Clear Channel Censors the Truth about Wal-Mart

From the Campaign for America's Future | http://www.ourfuture.org


Clear Channel Censors the Truth about Wal-Mart!

Displaying clear political bias, Clear Channel has censored our progressive community's fact-based message about Wal-Mart. Censorship of facts cannot be tolerated in a free society. One man, Bob Sadler, has claimed the license to silence our voice. Please, send him an email and demand that he support freedom of speech and tell him not to censor facts about Wal-Mart.

After allowing us to reserve a billboard less than a mile from Wal-Mart’s World HQ, Clear Channel has refused to accept our ad, censoring the message that you selected about Wal-Mart. Bob Sadler, Clear Channel’s Fort Smith, Ark., division president, unilaterally made the decision. To try to rationalize his censorship, he forwarded a copy of Clear Channel’s official content review policy which stated:

"I wish I could offer objective guidelines for reviewing copy, but I can’t. Frankly, I think these kinds of issues need to be viewed the way Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart approached a very controversial pornography case many years ago: "You know it when you see it."

This is outrageous. Our ad isn’t pornography. It is a clear statement of the truth about Wal-Mart. Mr. Sadler is suppressing free speech out of fear of offending Wal-Mart.

Clear Channel owns more billboards than any other company in America and over 1,200 radio stations nationwide. It is simply outrageous that they would use this power to suppress speech -- even a message that we are prepared to pay for. We have to let Clear Channel know that their censorship is unacceptable. Please send an email to Bob Sadler, the man who rejected your billboard, and demand that he not suppress speech to placate Wal-Mart.

http://www.ourfuture.org/No_Censorship.cfm

Clear Channel has a distinct right-wing political bias. Right after the 2004 elections when emotions were still running high, Clear Channel sponsored a billboard with an image of President Bush next to the words “Our Leader.” In addition, the company’s political action committee gave 75% of its donations to Republicans from 2000-2002, and Clear Channel’s founder, Lowry Mays, a close friend of the Bush family, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republicans. [1]

Clear Channel executives are entitled to their own political views, but the company must not be allowed to suppress views that conflict with right-wing ideology on its billboards. Billboards are a public media. Clear Channel owns more of them than any other company. It cannot be allowed to leverage its ownership for partisan political purposes, or to suppress the truth.

The ability of a major communications corporation to censor information clearly infringes on the marketplace of ideas. One man, Bob Sadler, has claimed the license to silence our voice. Please, send him an email and demand that he support freedom of speech and tell him not to censor facts about Wal-Mart.

http://www.ourfuture.org/No_Censorship.cfm

As you know, “Wal-Mart: Killing Local Businesses One Main Street at a Time” isn’t just rhetoric, it's reality. Within the first five years of Wal-Mart’s arrival in nearly 1,800 U.S. counties, an average of four small businesses, one mid-sized store and one large store go out of business. [2] And, rather than generating substantial new business, Wal-Mart takes 84% of its business from existing stores, closing down stores on Main Streets across America. [3]

No one censors Wal-Mart’s multi-million dollar ad campaigns. No one stops Wal-Mart from painting its workers as happy, without noting that they are paid so little that most can’t afford health care for their kids.

Wal-Mart’s market power should not be able to suppress the truth. The billboard we submitted is grounded in fact -- facts the American people and Wal-Mart executives need to know. Please, send an email to Bob Sadler and tell him that the message on our billboard isn’t just rhetoric, it’s a harsh reality that needs to be exposed and corrected.

http://www.ourfuture.org/No_Censorship.cfm

We pledge to you that Clear Channel will not stop us from getting your message out. We are now pursuing legal options against Clear Channel. In addition, we’re going to develop alternatives to take the message that Clear Channel censored across the country. We’re going to enlist more allies in challenging Clear Channel and in getting this important message out. Please, forward this email to friends and family, point out this injustice and encourage them to take action in this first step of that effort.

http://www.ourfuture.org/No_Censorship.cfm

Thank you so much for all you do.

Sincerely,

Robert L. Borosage, Co-Director, Campaign for America’s Future


Robert L. Borosage, Co-Director
Campaign for America's Future

[1] G.R. Anderson Jr., “Clear Channel Rules the World.” City Pages. Vol. 26, Issue 1263, February 16, 2005.

[2] Emek Basker, "Job Creation or Destruction? Labor-Market Effects of Wal-Mart Expansion", By , University of Missouri, Review of Economics & Statistics, February 2005, http://www.missouri.edu/~baskere/papers/

[3] Thomas Muller and Elizabeth Humstone, "What Happened When Wal-Mart Came to Town? A Report on Three Iowa Communities with a Statistical Analysis of Seven Iowa Counties", National Trust For Historic Preservation, 1996. Quoted in "Store Wars," PBS http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/chat_transcript.html