Efter att sångerskan Natalie Maines kritiserade Bush har "arga fans arrangerat offentlig krossning av Dixie Chicks-skivor". Så skrev DN igår 24 april, (Kulturdelen sid 4).

Arga fans, bara sådär? Inte precis. Paul Krugman konstaterade i New York Times att protesterna organiserades av radiokanalen Clear Channel, som kontrollerar mer än 1200 radiostationer över hela USA och mer och mer dominerar den amerikanska etern. Varför gör de så?

"Experienced Bushologists let out a collective "Aha!" when Clear Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war rallies, because the company's top management has a history with George W. Bush. The vice chairman of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks (...)
When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel's chairman, Lowry Mays, was on its board.
Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco placed much of the university's endowment under the management of companies with strong Republican Party or Bush family ties. In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire.

There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear, but a good guess is that we're now seeing the next stage in the evolution of a new American oligarchy. As Jonathan Chait has written in The New Republic, in the Bush administration 'government and business have melded into one big us'."
(Paul Krugman: Channels of Influence, NYT 25/3)

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