Apparently, media giant Clear Channel thinks its a-okay to use its billboards to intimidate voters in an effort to keep people of color from voting.
Last week, an anonymous group started plastering Black and Latino neighborhoods in Ohio and Wisconsin with billboards implying that people can be prosecuted for trying to vote. Despite widespread protests, Clear Channel has refused to take the billboards down, claiming that they aren’t responsible for the content.
Of course, Clear Channel has refused to put up political billboards before -- in fact, just a few months ago, they refused to let us put a billboard denouncing the climate change-denying Heartland Institute, with the reasoning “you can’t criticize a corporation.”
Tell Clear Channel to stop profiting from voter intimidation -- take the billboards down NOW!
We’ve seen unprecedented attempts to suppress voting in communities of color over the last year. State governments have tried to purge voter rolls, made registering to vote more difficult, and curbed early and absentee voting -- often at the behest of corporate-friendly lobbying groups like ALEC. Rightwing politicians say that these measures are meant to curb voter fraud, but so far, no one has found a single instance of voter fraud that these policies would have stopped. The real point of these laws is to make voting harder for poor people, students, and people of color.
Now Clear Channel -- which, surprise, surprise, is owned by Bain Capital -- is getting in on the action. We might not have much influence over the state governments of Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Wisconin, but Clear Channel, which is also the U.S.’s largest radio company, had better listen to us.
If Clear Channel is going to stop SumOfUs.org members from denounce big corporations for financing climate deniers, you can bet we’re not going to let them tell people not to vote.
Tell Clear Channel to take down these intimidating billboards.
**************************************************************************************
Further reading:
"Ohio voter fraud billboard accused of intimidating black voters" The Grio, 10-05-12
" Does Romney's Bain Capital Support Voter Suppression," Daily Kos, 10-10-12:
" The Myth of Voter Fraud, " Washington Post, 03-29-07: