In an amazing twist, Mitt Romney's former hedge fund management may be the thing that kills off a major supply of hate on the radio.
Splashing Cash
Just saw this good news article about the slow inevitable sinking of Rush Limbaugh and the perfect storm mounting against right-wing hate radio. As you probably have heard, the campaign against Limbaugh has been effective at getting big name corporations from providing advertising revenue for the promoters of controversial radio show host.
According to the article,
(A)nother threat to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, et al, looms on the horizon, and comes from a very different direction: vulture capital.
None other than Mitt Romney's Bain Capital owns Clear Channel, which is the parent of the conservative talkers' syndicator, Premiere Networks. Clear Channel recently downsized, simultaneous with Bain Capital squeezing the company through a forced 2.2 billion dollar dividend. (This is one of the mechanisms by which Mitt Romney and friends have amassed their fortunes -- sucking cash out of troubled corporations, subsequently allowing some of them to go bankrupt.) Clear Channel was already 19.2 billion dollars in debt, and is facing a shareholder lawsuit related to loans between different Clear Channel entities that were used to cover the huge payout. In spite of crushing debt, Clear Channel is "splashing the cash" in "an attempt to rebrand itself as a hip digital music giant."
The move away from controversy cannot be very good news for the likes of Limbaugh. Hip is not really his thing. Not to worry too much; the devil takes care of his own (for the most part) and Rush is no exception.
