handgun2-8282

“Beginning Tuesday, Stop Handgun Violence will be ‘saturating’ highway signs [in Massachusetts] at three-dozen locations across the state,” bostonglobe.com reports . . . The new highway signs being installed this week will read, ‘We’re Not Anti-Gun. We’re Pro-Life. Massachusetts Gun Laws Save Lives,’ and feature a Bushmaster XM-15 assault rifle, with a white surrender flag poking out from the barrel. Billboard space was donated by Clear Channel, Logan Communications, Total Outdoor, and Outfront Media.” Clear Channel eh? wikipedia.org tells us . . .

Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CCO), is a public subsidiary of iHeartMedia, Inc. (formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc.), and is one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising corporations. The company is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas.

Now you’d think that Clear Channel and its parent company iHeartMedia, Inc. – the nation’s largest owner of radio stations with a big footprint on Sirius XM satellite radio – would eschew supporting civilian disarmament with free advertising. Heck, you might even want to contact them via email (as I did) to find out why they’d alienate the American heartland. You could even call their Boston office on (781) 438 8880 if you were so inclined. (I left a message.)

This much we know: the state-wide civilian disarmament campaign is the brainchild of John Rosenthal, co-founder of Stop Handgun Violence [above]. For years, Rosenthal had a gi-normous anti-gun billboard on one of his buildings off the highway near Fenway Park. He sold the building. The new owners want the anti-gun agitprop gone.

Learning of the displaced anti-gun message, Clear Channel’s Boston operation reached out to Rosenthal. Seriously.

“When we realized he would no longer have his . . . billboard to get out the message about gun control, we offered to utilize some of our space,” said Stephen Ross, president of the Boston division of Clear Channel Outdoor.

“It was easy for us to make a huge impact on such an important message.”

Now that the gun rights community knows about Clear Channel’s active support for gun control, it might not be as easy as they think. Just sayin’ . . .

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87 COMMENTS

  1. I’ll be interested to hear the discussion on the NRA’s “CAM & Company” regarding this.

  5. So why is “Stop _Handgun_ Violence” targeting AR-15 rifles? And why are they “saturating” Massachusetts, of all places, with anti-gun propaganda? What’s the point?

    • They’re getting the crap kicked out them from the middle of America outward, time to strengthen their strongholds.

  6. Who can stand to listen to anything the media is selling? Who could be influenced by his billboards? Weak minded, ignorant people who are hopeless. Unless maybe you took them shooting and got them hooked.

    • The relentless march to make the idea of gun ownership repugnant. Say it enough, say it often, engrain into the minds of citizens they’ll believe. Then legislators step in and pave the road to hell with good intentions.

      • … an issue that needs to be corrected. It’s time we started restricting the franchise to people who actually have some idea how our Constitution works.

  7. “We’re Not Anti-Gun. We’re Pro-Life. Massachusetts ……” at least where guns are concerned but we will kill babies up to the point that they can walk out of their host’s uterus.

    • Well, if they’re like CA’s Sen. Feinstein in MA, even AFTER they walk out of the uterus. She famously answered a reporter’s question about the point at which abortion would be murder in her view, and said something like, “Well, I think once you take your baby home…”

  8. Follow the money.

    Thanks to this “act of generosity”, ClearChannel is going to get piles of free advertising courtesy every pro and anti gun media outlet and blog-including this one.

    Heck, a boycott and public notoriety is exactly what they’re shooting for. While we gun owners gnash our teeth, they’ll be laughing to the bank.

    • Notably, it’s these same ‘devoted’ anti-gun ‘businessmen’ who will be the first to accuse the NRA of being money grubbing lobbyists supporting the gun industry.

      I suppose we 5 million dues paying grass roots little people members must be a…mirage.

    • They have many advertisers who are gun stores. There are three that advertise locally here in Phoenix. Guns Etc. Pistol Parlor, and Tombstone Tactical. There were a couple others, but I wonder how happy they are that Clearchannel has decided to charge them for what they give away to the anti-gun knuckleheads.

  9. Rosenthal along with Sugarman are Boston Globe go to anti-gun guys. The Boston Globe has invested a lot of time and space heralding Rosenthal’s ridiculous billboard over the years. I wonder if Clear Channel will donate space to the TTAG or NRA, probably not.

  10. Clear Channel, Channel 93.3 in San Diego, is out of my presets as of today.

    I avoid media that promotes misinformation. Deleting this one is a no brainer.

  11. I just saw one of these this morning. My immediate reaction was ‘WTF is this?’

    What I thought was most interesting is the phrase ‘We’re Pro-Life’ on it. Coupled with the SHV logo thats too small to make out (I didnt know who it was until I read it here), and the black rifle on a black background (seriously, have none of these guys taken a photography class?), and I thought it actually sent mixed messages about what the issue at hand was.

    Hopefully these billboards are just as forgettable as that old eyesore by Fenway is.

  12. They work both sides of the street. In the Denver market, their flagship station is KOA AM, which is all talk and sports. Daytime prime is Rush, followed by a popular local conservative host who doesn’t shy away from pro-2A discussions.

    It’s all about the Benjamins.

    • aha–and that, I guess, is “the point” I was looking for. I shoulda figured that out for myself, thanks for pointing it out.

    • How’s about when we sees pro 2a biz on a clear channel sign, let them know they are supporting bad guys.

    • Based in the blue “sanctuary city” that is San Antonio, not exactly a very pro 2A area of the state.

  16. The thing about billboards are they are easily accessed from the ground. With a little imagination and a few rattle cans they can be great source of family fun!

  17. 6792 kids killed by guns since the 2010 elections

    What is this nonsense?

    Oh, right: that number includes all of those gang-banger “kids” who are 15-24 years old.

    http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf

    In 2013, A total of 409 children (14 and under) were killed as a result of all types of firearms discharge. Of those, 138 were suicides, 142 were homicides, and 69 were accidental discharge.

    I don’t have all numbers for 2011 to present, but if you approximate using 2013 numbers, you get well fewer than 2,000 kids killed by firearms since the 2010 elections – and well fewer than 1,500 non-suicide firearms-related deaths.

    The overall rate of mortality due to firearms (suicide, homicide, accident), is nil for infants, 0.4 per 100,000 for children aged 1-4, and 0.8 for children aged 5-14.

    By comparison, “kids” (as the Bloomberg types are wont to call them) who are 15-24 had a total of 6,181 firearms-related deaths in 2013, and a rate of 14.1 per 100,000.

    Typical Bloomberg-type lying.

    • “. . . who are BLACK MALE 15-24 . . . ”
      There; fixed it for you.
      It’s all about race and gender.
      Black males don’t need guns to protect their mothers and sisters. If they can join the military or the police they will be taught all they need to know about guns. Otherwise, guns are for the squires of noblemen to protect their upper-class property and persons.

        • But, if it’s good enough for Bloomersbooger, it’s good enough for Dirk’s squeeze, maybe we should get on board! Hey, I know! How about if you commit a felony, regardless of your race (yeah, right!), we don’t let you have a gun again!? What an idea! Why is it not being done?

  18. Parent company iHeartRadio is the distributor (through the Premier radio Network) of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck as well as the distributor (through an agreement with Fox News Channel) of Fox News Radio.

    I think we should contact Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck and alert them of the duplicity of their distributor.

  19. I may be mistaken, but isn’t Clear Channel the home of right wing radio blowhards? I think they are in my area.

    • Playing both sides of a war = profit. Just ask the Rockefellers.
      If you come out rich enough it doesnt matter what liberty is lost because you can afford your own liberty.

  20. That’s it! I’m not listening to any radio stations anymore! Just like I have been since… ever?

    • Actually, it would be nice to spread the word that literally everyone is pro-life, always have been. Certain groups have, for some reason, been allowed to pretend they have an ownership of the term, maybe they should find a different term!? Like, for one, “anti-choice”?! Here’s another you may like, how about “anti-murder”, that would really set you apart. Try to come up with something more real than “pro-life”, while you are at it.

      Opening our eyes should (hopefully) involve more freedoms than guns.

      • Used to be simply “anti-abortion”, they could have just as well stuck with that. At that time, most everybody was “personally opposed” to abortion, or at the very least, made noises to the effect that it was not a good thing, more like a necessary evil. It was the “pro abortion” crowd that started the euphemism derby, they decided at that point that “pro abortion” didn’t sound good, so they came up with “pro choice”. “Pro life” followed as a response.

  22. I can’t wait for that ugly eyesore POS billboard to be gone! I don’t even live in MA anymore but it needs to go.

    If I were a company, I wouldn’t donate billboard space to anyone. Pay up!

  23. Gee it was only ten years ago that Mr. Sarandon (Tim Robbins) was caterwauling about the “chilling effect” of Clear Channel on political discourse.

  24. Maybe the signs will say something truthful:

    We’ll take your guns

    And make you poor

    Then jackboot thugs

    Will kick in your door

    Burma Shave

  25. So all these people leaving Clear Channel stations…where should you go to…

    May I suggest…. http://www.dennisprager.com/
    I pay ~5$/month to get 24/7 access to his 3 hour per day show and archive.

    Here are a bunch of 5 minute courses at Prager University to get a sense of who he is and his style.
    http://www.prageruniversity.com/courses.php

    And yes, on multiple occasions he has announced his support for 2ndA and focuses on personal responsibility for ones actions (rather than blaming a gun).

  26. My message to the e-mail link:

    I was very disappointed to read:

    “. . . Stop Handgun Violence will be ‘saturating’ highway signs [in Massachusetts] . . . ,” bostonglobe.com reports . . .

    I take it you are OPPOSING an enumerated Constitutional right illuminated and confirmed by the Supreme Court in Heller and McDonald. I find your position APPALLING.

    I will look for a listing of advertisers patronizing your services so that I can write them and assure them that I will avoid purchasing their products and services.

  27. Simple billboards for simple minded people. Notice the time worn “assault rifle” nonsense again.

  28. I’ve never been much on right wing radio anyway. Not that I don’t agree with much of the message, I just think it needs to be argued with reason instead of bombast. On the other hand, I listen to liberal radio fairly often, because I am amused and amazed by the absurdity, and I like to yell at the radio and raise my blood pressure. Maybe that’s it, I want to be the one yelling at the radio, instead of the radio yelling at me.

    • I agree, but it is still astonishing that the people who sell us right-wing radio are using their profits to support far left wing politics. The only way I can read that is that they believe we are too stupid to notice.

  29. They’re based here in San Antonio, where we have plenty of Clear Channel billboards, but no gun control billboards.

    Quite the contrary, we have Clear Channel billboards that are rented by advertisers for gun ranges and CHL classes.

    I’m quite disappointed in a business like this based in my town.

    • The family who founded it are Republicans, but I don’t know how much control they still have in the company.

    • “They’re based here in San Antonio, where we have plenty of Clear Channel billboards, but no gun control billboards”

      I’m thinking you missed the point. In San Antonio, they are SELLING billboard space to the local IDIOTS, in order to fund FREE billboards for anti-freedom groups, at the moment elsewhere. Eventually, each billboard a San Antonio business buys will also pay for an anti-freedom billboard in San Antonio, as well.

  30. “With a white surrender flag poking out from the barrel.” Hmm. Wonder what that could be an allusion to.

  31. Well crap. I work for iHeartMedia, the parent company, in San Antonio. It’s sad to see that there is support from my company for this. Like Mmmtacos said, there are a lot of billboards for gun shops and ranges here in town but I guess that’s just the difference in culture between Texas and Massachusetts.

  32. I see a lot of people saying they are going to boycott the stations. A better move would be to keep listening and tell clear channel you are boycotting the businesses of anyone that advertises through them. Then, when you hear an ad, contact that company and advise them due to clear channels political posturing you are not going to give them any business.
    They’ll follow the money and backpedal quick if this is the generic response.

    • Duplicity! Isn’t this the most powerful way of attacking Clear Channel? Flood the Anti-gun sites with the insight that Clear Channel is profiting handsomely for selling billboard advertisements to gun shops?

      As I see it, there are some institutions that have a “common carrier” duty to the public to provide their services without discrimination. A public library is one such institution. Today, I regard Amazon.com in this category. I would argue that Amazon.com would be remiss in it’s duty if it refused to carry a book on any topic no matter how reprehensible its point-of-view were. Just as soon as we admit that such an institution as Amazon.com ought to be an arbiter of right vs. wrong we are in real trouble.

      Likewise, advertising media ought to play a common carrier role in accepting advertisements. As soon as we admit that a newspaper, broadcast station or billboard company uses its resources to promote one viewpoint over another we accept damage to the process of public discourse.

      I do not – here – argue that Clear Channel ought to be constrained LEGALLY from donating free advertising to support a politically contentious viewpoint. The billboards belong to them and they are free to do with them as they see fit. I object on grounds of a level playing field in political discourse. They ought to be held to account in the marketplace of ideas.

      Does the public approve of Clear Channel taking advertising revenue from one partisan while giving away advertising to an apposing partisan? The public will make their own judgement. Texas gun shops will decide where they will place their future advertising dollars.

  33. Did you notice they place number of children killed by guns since 2010 with the assault weapon message. It is an intentional ploy to make the casual observer believe that 6792 kids have been with an assault weapon. My guess is that 99% of those deaths were with other firearms, and they are probably using the various Bloomberg groups upper age limit of 21 to define a child.

    • Additionally a sizable number of those death were probably negligence and suicides. I do not believe a ban on “assault weapons” would change those numbers at all.

      • The numbers are in the linked report.

        Among the 15-24 year-olds, about 2/3 of the firearms-related deaths were homicide, and about 1/3 were suicide. Accidental deaths were an almost negligible amount.

  34. I wonder how many people die every year in car accidents caused by people trying to read billboards while driving?

    • Gotcha. Just one time, propose a federal law outlawing billboards, and listen to the screams.

  36. I was born in Mass, but chose to live in Texas. Just a shame that the birth place of the American Revolution keeps getting closer to being a British colony!

  37. Does the Progressive’s hate for the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, and We The People ever take a rest! Geez!!

  38. Ya know, I’ll also bet those 6k some-odd deaths of “children” include lots of 17 year olds killed by a gun when they shot at a cop, were engaged in the classic “gun deal gone bad,” a home invasion or the like.

  40. This is why I listen to podcasts and internet radio. Terrestrial radio is dead. Iheartradio is garbage too btw.

  42. “We’re not anti-gun. We’re pro-fascism.”

    Fixed.

    Have fun wasting your money preaching this message in MA. It’s sort of like going to Detroit and trying to convince people to be on welfare.

  43. Not much I can do but delete WGST Atlanta from my presets and delete iHeart radio from my phone.
    Done and done

  44. Lol Someone should shoot this douche with a bow and arrow. Just call him up and say, “I’m really saddened by your lack of support of our 2nd amendment rights but at least your pro life you drunk, red socked, irish guinea.”

  46. Like any war against Freedom they will drop their propaganda closest to home first. wake up people no anti-gunner really cares about saving lives. thousands more are killed each year by drunk driving, rocks and sticks and hammers. who are they kidding!? Hundreds of thousands more are killed each year by malpractice. Guns keep us free, guns keep us safe. 50 Million legal gun owners in the US yet there are a few thousand deaths each year from criminals. That is statistically safer then walking outside your house. Most gun owners have to pass the same background criteria that police do. Who are you kidding! It is the Second most important right we have as a Free people. 1st is talking! without gun rights no other rights matter because we cannot defend them. This is a ploy, a scam. they are running out of time to disarm America and sell us out. Our Government needs to focus on getting out of debt instead of taking our Freedom. “We are never further than one generation away from losing our Freedom,” Ronald Reagan.

  47. Here’s the posting from the Gun Owner’s Action League (GOAL) here in Mass.

    Gun Owners’ Action League (GOAL) Asks Billboard Companies To Take Down Discriminatory Messaging or Provide Equal Space

    Northborough, MA. The Gun Owners’ Action League today wondered if Clear Channel and other local billboard companies are playing an April Fools joke as it was released that John Rosenthal of Stop Handgun Violence is receiving free advertising promoting a false and discriminatory message.

    The message being broadcast for Mr. Rosenthal, at no charge by the companies, provides inaccurate, discriminatory, and misleading information, which will do nothing to bolster firearms safety or prevent crime. “Our first thought was, is this a joke? Because the messaging certainly does not reflect reality.” said Jim Wallace, Executive Director of GOAL.

    Over the last two decades the restrictive gun laws of Massachusetts have been an abysmal failure, as demonstrated by the drastic increase in violent crime since the passage of these laws in 1998. The policies and messaging broadcast by Stop Handgun Violence have continually misled the public on the truth behind Massachusetts’ gun laws. This long-term ruse is simply an effort to convince the general public to discriminate against the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

    “If the billboard companies were really interested in saving lives they would grant space to GOAL. We have a proven record of providing gun safety and legislative solutions that work,” said Mr. Wallace. “Since 1998, firearm related homicides have doubled and firearm related assaults have tripled.”

    In the name of providing a true solution and accurate messaging GOAL is asking Clear Channel and the other billboard companies to either grant equal space to GOAL or take down the discriminatory, misleading messaging provided to Mr. Rosenthal at no charge.

    GOAL is asking our members to contact Clear Channel and ask that they grant this request including using #BillboardTruth in social media messaging.

    BTW – Clear Channel has locked down their Facebook page.

  48. Well, nuts. With all the conservative talk on WOAI (in San Antonio), I never would have guessed their owners (Clear Channel) were liberal collaborators and enablers. That’s disappointing.

  49. I have called their boston office and they say they have no control over the billboard content! I called the new york office and their phone lines are saturated, When I do get through they hang up on me as soon as I say I am calling about mass billboards. keep up the calls, when their phones are tied up, they can’t do business.

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