So........Bain Capital OWNS Clear Channel, Which Broadcasts Rush Limbaugh?And Romney is one of the bigger owners of Bain

I found the kicker at the end of this piece from Truthout to be fascinating.  It's too bad Granholm is Canadian born; if she were born in the U.S., she'd make a fascinating presidential candidate in her own right...against the right.

Fired Up! A Call to Boycott "Repulsive, Misogynistic" Limbaugh and His Sponsors
Friday 2 March 2012

by: Jennifer Granholm, Current TV
Op-Ed and Video


When Rush Limbaugh doubles down on Sandra Fluke, a law student who was to testify in front of Congress about contraception legislation, Jennifer Granholm fires back.

Rush Limbaugh is a repulsive misogynistic blowhard. By now, no one should expect more than neanderthal grunts from him.

But, his radio program is owned by a syndicator, premiere, which in turn is owned by – Clear Channel. Should we not expect more of these companies? And the sponsors of the Rush Limbaugh show. Do you really want to be associated with this horrible man?

And Republicans in Congress, will you not speak up? What if this was your daughter?

What about the Republicans who are running for president, are you men enough? Do you have a backbone to stand up to the spewing volcanic mouthpiece that is Rush Limbaugh? A man who calls a college student who comes before congress to testify a slut? Don’t any of you want to say, “No. This goes over the line.”

This is offensive to anyone with a shred of respect for women. Do you want young women to fear testifying before a government hearing, lest they be subject to slanderous statements broadcast to millions of Americans? Republicans, do you want women to think he represents conservatism? Good luck with that.

I don’t know anything about Sandra Fluke. But I do know this. Her parents ought to be very proud of her courage and grace under fire. If she were my daughter, I would be.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier of California says these are the supporters of Rush’s show: Quicken Loans, Century21, LegalZoom and Sleep Number. She is asking the public to contact these companies to stop supporting his radio program and to hit the parent company where it hurts. And if you are outraged too, then go online and sign this petition asking Republican leaders to denounce Rush Limbaugh’s comments.
And oh, did I forget to mention? Clear Channel is owned by … Wait for it … Bain Capital.

So out of curiosity to see what other companies Bain Capital owns, that might for example be sponsors of Clear Channel and Rush, I thought I'd begin by fact checking the claim about Bain Capital owning Clear Channel.  Here is what Wikipedia had on the topic:.

The firm was founded in 1984 by partners from the consulting firm Bain & Company. Since inception it has invested in or acquired hundreds of companies including such notable companies as AMC Entertainment, Aspen Education Group, Brookstone, Burger King, Burlington Coat Factory, Clear Channel Communications, Domino's Pizza, DoubleClick, Dunkin' Donuts, D&M Holdings, Guitar Center, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Sealy, The Sports Authority, Staples, Toys "R" Us, Warner Music Group and The Weather Channel.

So, I decided it would be a good idea to find out if Bain was the sole owner, or just an investor in Clear Channel, since these two concepts of 'ownership' are frequently confused.  Here is what Wikipedia had to say about Clear Channel and Bain:

Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.^[3] It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008.^[4]

Leveraged buy-outs - where have we heard about THOSE before from Romney?  But I have to wonder if this doesn't provide a potentially interesting insight into the politics of Rush on the radio, and of any spin we might see from Clear Channel programming for the 2012 election.

For those of you who haven't gotten taking some form of action in response to Rush out of your system, if you're still angry and horrified, here is another petition you can sign as well, although I doubt Limbaugh will have any other response than to enjoy the attention.

Maybe the person we should be petitioning is not the Republican member(s) of Congress, but Mitt Romney.  It was Mitt who bragged about how much he liked to fire people who gave bad service; this would seem to qualify, and Mitt would seem to be, if at a sort of remove, Rush's boss, in that Rush broadcasts on his network.  If Romney DOESN'T fire Rush, then it would certainly suggest his brag is nothing more than hot air, without substance, or.........that he approves of Rush's statements and agrees with them.

Romney can't simply claim that the relationship is purely a business one, where he owes his fellow owners/investors a duty to make them money.  Rush Limbaugh is losing sponsors hand over fist, not unlike weepy and hateful Glenn Beck who is now relegated to well-deserved obscurity.  Let's hope Rush joins him sooner than later in the radio living purgatory of no-one's-listening-ville.

The advertisers reported a deluge of complaining tweets, Huffington Post reported. Sleep Train, a mattress retailer based in the Sacramento area that has advertised on Limbaugh's show for a quarter-century, was the first to announce it was leaving Friday.

ProFlowers responded to tweets with a message that it is "re-evaluating" its marketing strategy. Quicken Loans, Sleep Number and Legal Zoom also announced they are considering leaving Limbaugh or planning to do so.
"We have listened to our customers & have decided to cease our advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show immediately," Citrix Systems Inc., a software development company, said.
The liberal Web site Talking Points memo reported the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers announced they were suspending " any and all on-air advertising with the Rush Limbaugh radio program, citing "inflammatory comments" coupled with valuable feedback from both clients and team employees."
Several other Limbaugh sponsors were looking into their advertising policies, businessinsider.com reported Friday.

Lets hope more of the sponsors come to their senses, and their dollars-and-cents, and leave as well.  Help make that happen by signing this petition to Limbaugh advertisers.