Don’t Feed A Stray Dog Unless You Want a Pet
Sony BMG and Warner Music threw Eliot Spitzer some scraps a few months ago, and now he’s pawing at the screen door again.
Mr. Spitzer’s Payola investigation of the recording industry pried open the honeypot; now he’s after the airwaves, lobbing subpoenae at nine radio conglomerates, including Clear Channel, CBS, and ABC. Of course, his “case” appears all the easier because of the earlier settlements.
AG Watch sk-sk-skips like a broken record regarding General Spitzer’s disregard for the basic contours of jurisdiction. Clear Channel et al. play nationally. If they have broken national laws, the US Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission are more than qualified to investigate them. But, however distasteful the concept of Payola—though we argue that it is efficient—national companies cannot be held at the mercy of mercenary states, parochial laws, or tinpot dictators.
Mr. Spitzer has been trained to subpoena, sue, and settle. He fetches cash money for New York out of the pockets of the citizens of the other 49. A leash law! A leash law! Our nation for a leash law!