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Thank You Spitzer, May I Have Another?
from the pay-up-for-payola dept
Among the various populist campaigns that New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has taken on over the years, perhaps his longest running one is his effort in cracking down on radio payola scams. Of course, payola has basically been around since the beginning of radio, and despite a crackdown every few years, it doesn't seem like it's ever going to go away. The way it's described may change, but the idea is still the same: music labels and promoters paying radio stations to play their songs. That's why it's not at all surprising to see that CBS Radio has agreed to pony up $2 million to settle payola charges against it, though, it seems unlikely to stop anyone from continuing the practice. What is more amusing, though, is the way that CBS described the settlement. They seemed almost happy about it: "CBS Radio is pleased to end this two-year music investigation without litigation." The station then goes on to talk about how they're paying $2 million without admitting guilt, and then says it was really all the fault of two employees and how this settlement is such a great thing since it was worked out in "the spirit of mutual cooperation." It would appear that Eliot Spitzer has accomplished his goal of scaring the litigious spirit out of just about any company who he stops by to visit so much so that they're positively giddy to just pay a few million dollar fine and move on. You'd have to think that there are plenty of companies who, as much as they might dislike him, will be thrilled when he's governor instead of attorney general, since he's likely to be less of a nuisance in that role.
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Governor? Not yet.
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I sure hope he isn't elected.
ARGGHHH!!!
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Payola Should Be Legal
Payola shouldn't be a crime.
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Re: Payola Should Be Legal
It's acutally more like a bribe than product-placement.
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It's illegal to lie about pay for play
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2 million
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He's already driven enough business from NYS.
If a company is afraid to conduct their business in the presence of an Attorney General like Eliot Spitzer, why would you want that company in your state?
I don't believe he's been found wrong yet. In fact, having uncovered all sorts of crimes, he strives to change corporate behavior for the better rather than trying to rack up convictions.
For example, several executives at Merrill Lynch could have gone to jail, but didn't.
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Crook
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Re: Crook
There are a LOT of companies out there, and it seems fairly natural that the subset of companies Spitzer hasn't gone after and the subset that contribute to random charity would have quite a lot of overlap.
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