VS.
It’s always fun when musicians and activist groups take each other on—even when I agree with one side more than the other. This case seems pretty innocuous though. Some country performer, Blake Shelton (whom I’ve never heard of, but I confess to not being up to date with the latest sounds coming from Las Vegas Nashville), has been making sarcastic comments about PETA’s tweets. The only problem is that the way the story is written, the author seems to implicitly endorse Shelton’s position over PETA’s. Granted the story come from AOL’s country music page “The Boot,” so we can’t expect much journalist integrity. Let’s do the math (so to speak): AOL is owned by mega-corporation Time Warner. Time Warner owns Time magazine (surprise), Warner Bros. (among other things (and it’s a long list of things) Warner Bros. Records (surprise), CNN, HBO, The CW Television Network, and on and on and on ad nauseam.
Add that to PETA getting a Time Warner Cable store to get rid of an animal display by Paw Prints a company that has repeatedly come under censure from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
So, this isn’t adding up yet, you’re saying.
Well the biggest variable to be added to the equation is that Blake Shelton is on Warner Bros. Records! Warner Bros. won’t be making their artist look like anything but a hero.
So next time you see what appears to be a funny back and forth between two opposing forces, check to see if there’s a conflict of interest in the reporting and whether or not what you are reading is news or public relations.
The Boot story:
[http://www.theboot.com/2009/09/01/blake-shelton-taunts-peta-with-tweets/]
The PETA vs. Time Warner story:
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