Clear Channel to Rolling Stone: Get a Fact-Checker

Clear Channel was quick to respond to comments made about the company during Howard Stern’s appearance on Late Show With David Letterman. In questioning Stern, Letterman paraphrased a recent Rolling Stone article that essentially said Clear Channel is the reason station programming is bland and the company has a lock on the concert venue business, driving up concert ticket prices.
Clear Channel said it “does not blame David Letterman for being duped by poor journalism.”
The company released a letter it sent to Rolling Stone from president and chief executive officer Mark Mays about the article. The broadcaster said the publication has not published the document, but that it was exercising its choice to release the letter.
In the letter, Mays states the amount of errors in Damien Cave’s story is “overwhelming,” and calls “inexcusable” what is says was the lack of fact-checking “despite numerous interviews over the course of several months.”
“As the leader of a company that includes an award-winning news organization, I find that a particularly serious lack of journalistic responsibility,” states Mays.
Clear Channel does not set ticket prices, and, at 9% ownership of U.S. radio stations does not dominate the industry, he said. Mays denied the radio division “force-feeds audiences the same play lists no matter where they live.”