Townsquare Media launches campaign against GOP

On Monday -- October 17, 2016 -- Bill Spadea, an agent of Townsquare Media, launched a campaign aimed at defeating conservative Republican legislators who voted for the tax restructuring plan that ended the Estate Tax, eliminated the tax on retirement income for most New Jersey seniors, cut the sales tax for consumers, provided a tax credit for low-paid workers, provided an income tax cut for veterans, and funded the bankrupt TTF through a rise in the tax on gasoline instead of by increasing property taxes.  On Monday, Spadea wrote: 

"Even if the current crusade by courageous community leader, Senator Kip Bateman is successful in forcing a vote it’s not gonna pass.  Even if by some miracle the legislature voted to repeal the (tax restructuring package) they overwhelmingly supported, it would be met with a veto by the Governor who led the charge for the largest tax (cut in New Jersey's history)." 

That said, this repeal push is not about actually repealing the tax.  It’s about giving notice to the politicians that we’re watching and we’re gonna #remember in november. 

...Kudos to Senator Kip Bateman for stepping up.  Think twice before attacking what may seem like a quixotic battle.  It’s actually necessary to identify who we need to thank and vote out in November 2017."

Spadea makes it pretty clear that this a political action campaign.  Instead of reporting the news or even commenting on it, this is the news.  Spadea has long craved this kind of political power.  Remember when he was using the money of some pharmaceutical millionaire to build a party structure?  Remember Spadea's "red shirts."  No, we're not kidding, like those old boys back in the 1930's, Spadea did the whole shirt thing too.  It goes nicely with the cult of personality.

Note the intensity and the anger in the singing.  That kind of rage -- unreasoning, stage-managed, and directed at some scapegoat -- may be found almost any day on radio station NJ 101.5 FM.  But then, radio is a very old vehicle for this kind of thing.

Townsquare Media is the corporate entity that owns the license (Townsquare Media Trenton License, LLC) to operate radio station NJ 101.5 (FCC Facility 53458).  The license is a for-profit monopoly granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). 

Townsquare Media is owned by Oaktree Capital Management.  This corporation dates from the mid-1990's.  Media sources note:  "Oaktree quickly established a reputation in the high-yield and distressed-debt markets."  The Securities & Exchange Commission fined Oaktree and ordered them to disgorge profits after the SEC ruled they had "sold securities short".

According to Oaktree Capital Management's filings with the Securities & Exchange Commission, it has important holdings in the petroleum sector, with one of its most important funds dependent on oil and gas profits from Alaska's North Slope.  So yes, boys and girls, raising the price of gasoline is not in their economic self-interest.

The federal government grants for-profit corporations a monopoly on the use of a certain frequency provided that they abide by a very few rules and regulations.  One is that they should at least try to be honest.  The FCC website states:

"As public trustees, broadcasters may not intentionally distort the news. The FCC has stated publicly that 'rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest'."

What this means is that a radio station shouldn't out and out lie just to inflame public opinion in an effort to jazz up the ratings in order to sell more advertising and reap a windfall in corporate profits.  But this is exactly what the corporation that owns NJ 101.5 has allowed Bill Spadea to do for months.  Now it has stepped that up and launched a political action campaign against Republican legislators.

Townsquare Media/ Oaktree Capital Management's choice of Senator Kip Bateman to play the hero is hilarious.  We will have more on that later.   

Rutgers SuperPAC supports Media Violence

According to sworn statements she made to the federal government, Rutgers Governor Sue McCue did political consulting work for such decidedly un-progressive corporations as Walmart and the American Gaming Association, a national lobby group for the casino gambling industry.  McCue provided "consulting services" for Walmart and "public relations and policy consulting" for the gambling industry.  Both are described as ongoing "clients" of "Message Global" which is, according to McCue's sworn statement, a company formed in 2009 that she owns in its entirety.

McCue also pocketed consulting fees from the notorious lobby group that advocates for continued and unrestrained violence in entertainment, the Motion Picture Association of America.  McCue provides "consulting services" to this ongoing client of Message Global.

McCue also runs the Rutgers SuperPAC (AKA General Majority PAC) that inflicted serious damage on Republican legislators in Monmouth, Somerset, and Cape May counties.  One attack leveled at these legislators was their position on the Second Amendment.  It is deeply dishonest to not address the issue of gun control in its context of violence in our culture.

Think about it.  France passed legislation a few years ago that bans overly thin models from the fashion industry because studies show that young women are influenced by the sight of these models to develop eating disorders.  Britain is looking to ban the consumption of alcohol on broadcasts because government studies show that it leads to alcohol-related disorders.  Here in America, we have long banned tobacco commercials for the same reason.  But DC party gal McCue and her Rutgers SuperPAC would have us believe that subjecting an average child to 8,000 murders on TV before finishing elementary school and, by age eighteen, 200,000 acts of violence on TV, including 40,000 murders, has no effect on his or her development at all.

We've known that violent-content acts like a drug on childhood development since President Bill Clinton first highlighted the problem in the aftermath of the Columbine shootings.  He pointed to study after study and the marketing documents of the entertainment industry itself.  All the evidence was there.  Then he went further and ordered a study by the Federal Trade Commission.  The study, released on September 11, 2000, can be accessed below:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2000/09/ftc-releases-report-marketing-violent-entertainment-children

In response, the entertainment industry increased its campaign contributions by 1,000 percent and spent hundreds of millions on lobbying and soft money to convince Congress to forget every study it had read.  Then September 11, 2001, occurred and concerns over media violence were ignored in the run-up to war.

We are sick of watching self-righteous drug and violence advocates like Senator Loretta "Mother Roach" Weinberg (D-Corzine) happily allow grandchildren to watch a Tarantino bloodbath on TV, while they strip single moms of the right to defend themselves and their children.  "Rely on the police," they are told when -- because of the economy people like the Senator has bestowed on them -- they must live and work in dangerous areas and police response times are simply too long.  You and your children can not hide for that long a time and expect to survive. 

Of course, the Senator and her colleagues have money and live in low crime areas with good police protection.  And although they work in Trenton, they work in buildings protected by dozens and dozens of men with guns.  Thick, burly, well-trained men who know how to kill if the need arises.  Politicians value their lives, even as they devalue the lives of everyone else.  As do the rich "activists" like the billionaire Bloomberg and all those Hollywood people and New York celebrities from the ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY.

In 2017, Sue McCue and the Rutgers SuperPAC will again want to make a fashion statement that overturns the Bill of Rights and leaves the poor, working, and middle classes defenseless -- while she lobbies for an industry that makes wheelbarrows full of money feeding the culture of violence.  We need to be ready for her -- and make sure that she gags on her own attacks.