Here is the kind of newspaper article that you agree with, MSI.
Broadcasters Bank on a Combination of Interests
Parties Seeking FCC Approval of Hispanic Broadcasting Merger Are Big Donors to Bush Campaign
By Thomas B. Edsall and Sarah Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, August 10, 2003; Page A07
Executives and employees of companies seeking federal approval of a controversial merger that would create a Republican-controlled Hispanic media giant are pouring contributions into President Bush's reelection campaign.
If approved, the merger of Univision Communications Inc. and the Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. would give one firm as much as 80 percent of the Hispanic television and radio audience in many of the nation's large markets. Major participants in the proposed $2.8 billion merger -- pending before the Federal Communications Commission -- include individuals and corporations that have played central roles in Bush's business and political career.
The driving force behind the fundraising, A. Jerrold (Jerry) Perenchio, chairman and chief executive of Univision, has already qualified as a Bush "Pioneer" by raising at least $100,000 in donations of no more than $2,000 apiece, the legal maximum.
Officials of Univision and another Perenchio company, Chartwell Partners, and their spouses have given $51,230 to the Bush 2004 campaign. Officials and spouses of three other companies involved in the proposed merger have given another $18,000.
Some of these people and businesses have supported Bush for years. One of them is Thomas O. Hicks, whose purchase of the Texas Rangers baseball team helped Bush become wealthy. He and his investment company, Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, together hold 40.2 million shares of Clear Channel Communications Inc., according to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Clear Channel owns 26 percent of Hispanic Broadcasting, according to HBC's SEC filings. Hicks gave $70,000 to Bush's 1998 Texas gubernatorial campaign.
Another player is Radio Mambi-WAQI, the Miami radio station owned by HBC. The station helped encourage a crucial pro-Bush demonstration during the 2000 Florida presidential recount battle that halted a Miami election board meeting.
A third is Warren W. Tichenor, one of the top 10 donors to Bush's 1998 gubernatorial campaign, who owns 12.8 million shares (nearly 16 percent) of Hispanic Broadcasting. In 2000, the Bush presidential campaign reimbursed W.W. Tichenor & Co. $144,207 for the use of its jet.
On the five-member FCC, the three Republican appointees have voted in favor of the merger of Univision and Hispanic Broadcasting, while the two Democratic appointees have yet to decide, according to Bloomberg News and other publications. A public vote of the full commission is expected soon.
The proposed merger has provoked criticism from Democrats who fear new Republican leverage in the battle for Hispanic voters, one of the nation's fastest-growing demographic groups. Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.) and Bob Graham (Fla.) have written letters urging the FCC to reject the merger.
Stephanie Pillersdorf, of the New York public relations firm Citigate Sard Verbinnen, returned phone calls made to Perenchio. She said there is no connection between the campaign contributions and the merger. "One thing truthfully has nothing to do with the another," she said. "This is a Republican group; there is no shame in that." The donations are "absolutely unconnected with anything to do with the merger."
From 1999 to 2002, Perenchio gave more than $500,000 to the Republican Party, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Hicks, who did not respond to phone or e-mail inquiries, helped Bush before his political career. In 1990, Bush assembled a group of buyers of the Texas Rangers, and he paid $606,000 for a 1.8 percent share of the team. Eight years later, Hicks bought the team for $250 million, of which $14.9 million went to Bush.
Tichenor, who did not respond to phone and e-mail inquiries, owns about 4 percent of HBC. His brother, McHenry T. Tichenor Jr., said Warren Tichenor has been an active backer of the president over the years, but "his activities predate the merger, even discussions of the merger." Warren Tichenor's political contributions are done "on his own nickel," McHenry Tichenor said, and are not tied to HBC.
While a substantial shareholder, Warren Tichenor is neither an officer nor director of HBC, his brother noted.
According to many accounts of the post-election battle for Florida's electoral votes in 2000, HBC's Radio Mambi played a key role for Bush. On Nov. 22, 2000, the Miami-Dade County Canvassing Board was forced to shut down recount activities when a Republican demonstration turned violent. Several people were trampled and kicked outside the election supervisor's office, and the sheriff's office was forced to intervene.
The New York Times, among others, reported that Radio Mambi had "called on staunchly Republican Cuban-Americans to head downtown to demonstrate," and the station was widely credited with producing the turnout to make the demonstration effective. The demonstration succeeded in forcing canvassers to abandon a manual check of 10,750 ballots that backers of Democratic candidate Al Gore had been depending on to shift the statewide outcome.
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