M Jackson’s Final Tour/Christian Conservative Billionaire

[seemslikeadream]

The Christian Conservative Billionaire Behind Michael Jackson’s Final Tour
Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 2:08pm.

BILL BERKOWITZ FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

Jackson is dead; Dr. Conrad Murray has been convicted of manslaughter; Philip Anschutz has walked away with millions

In case you've been on another planet, holed up in an Occupy tent somewhere, or just plain too stubborn to care, Dr. Conrad Murray has been found guilty of manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson.

And one of the more interesting pieces of information that surfaced during the trial was the role played by Philip Anschutz, the head of the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), the company that was chiefly responsible for setting up Jackson's comeback tour.

In less than two days, the 12-person jury reached its verdict. Murray was found guilty and carted off to the Los Angeles County jail where he was placed on suicide watch.

Later this month Murray, who could receive probation or as much as four years in prison, will be sentenced.

Jackson's death came while the mega-pop star was preparing for "This Is It," the comeback of all comeback tours; a series of concerts at London's O2 arena. Millions and millions of dollars were at stake. Postponement or cancellation of the tour wasn't an option.

Working extremely long hours and exceedingly hard to get back into shape for the arduous tour, Jackson was unable to sleep. Murray gave Jackson the drug propofol. According to drugs.com, propofol "reduces anxiety and tension, and promotes relaxation and sleep or loss of consciousness." The powerful drug "provides loss of awareness for short diagnostic tests and surgical procedures, sleep at the beginning of surgery, and supplements other types of general anesthetics."

In its post-trial report, foxnews.com pointed out that, "The pop star had plucked the little-known cardiologist from Houston to be his personal physician."

But had Jackson really "plucked" Murray or had Murray been "plucked" for him by executives at AEG?

According to Portfolio.com's Matt Haber, "AEG was so committed to keeping the event on track, it paid ... Murray to act as the singer's personal physician."

Therefore, one of the most interesting aspects of the trial was the testimony of Randy Phillips, the chief executive of AEG Live, the company promoting Jackson's tour. According to the Los Angeles Times, "Phillips was called to the stand by lawyers for ... Murray, who had hoped his account would bolster their claim that an anxiety-ridden Jackson gave himself a lethal dose of propofol in a desperate attempt to sleep before critical rehearsals."

The Times reported that "For two hours, Phillips walked jurors through "This Is It," ... from its genesis in a Bel-Air hotel suite to a final rehearsal at Staples Center that left a normally cynical music executive with goose bumps and his star performer with a great confidence.

"'He put his hands on my shoulders as we were walking out and he said to me, 'You got me here, now I'm ready. I can take it from here.' And that's the last I saw him,' Phillips recalled."

Phillips also said that the concert tour "grew out of a 2008 phone call from Philip Anschutz, the billionaire head of AEG Live's parent company. Anschutz asked him to meet with Century City financier Tom Barrack, whose company had recently purchased a note on Jackson's Neverland ranch."

Philip Anschutz is a billionaire several times over. Philip Anschutz is not a household name. He prefers it that way. In September, Forbes magazine listed Anschutz as tied for the #39th spot on its Forbes 400: The Richest People in America. He owns an assortment of enterprises ("Phillip Anschutz: The Most Powerful Billionaire You Have Never Heard Of," -- http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12976) including the concert division that was promoting the Jackson tour, as well as London's O2 arena.

In his late-September report on the trial, Westword.com's Michael Roberts wondered whether "the case's revelations [would] splash back on Denver's ... Anschutz, who stood to profit handsomely had Jackson been able to headline the tour he was financing?" Roberts also speculated as to whether Anschutz would take a financial bath because of Jackson's death.

Roberts reported that, "Anschutz was able to turn these fiscal minuses into a plusses. By late October, he'd reportedly made back the $36 million the non-tour cost him by selling "This Is It" rehearsal footage to Sony for over $60 million. And he also had a sizable piece of the This Is It movie, which proved to be a cash cow as well."

AEG Live partnered with Jackson's estate to release the This is It movie. Since its release, This Is It has become the highest grossing concert film in history, with over $260 million in domestic and foreign sales and nearly $45 million in US DVD sales.

Westword.com's Roberts reported that, "Anschutz wasn't pilloried for profiting from Jackson's demise, in part because he's so adept at manipulating the press. He's in the process of purchasing the Oklahoman newspaper -- the deal also includes Colorado Springs Broadmoor Hotel -- and a recent profile of him by the paper couldn't have been puffier if it'd been printed on a cotton ball.

"Indeed, the Columbia Journalism Review's Ryan Chittum made the article the centerpiece of his new column 'How Not to Cover Your Paper's New Owner.' After quoting a reference to Anschutz's belief in family values, Chittum writes, 'Is 'family values' code for 'finances anti-gay issues' and misinformation about evolution? That certainly doesn't put him out of line with political thought in my home state, of course, or with the paper's editorial history, but it's a disservice to readers not to report it. Let's face it: Anschutz is probably not buying a newspaper in 2011 to make money.'"

According to the Los Angeles Times, "AEG was paying for everything in his [Jackson's] life - from his rented Holmby Hills mansion to the personal chef who prepared him organic juices - as well as the huge expense of mounting a high-tech show that included multiple sets, Jackson catapulting over the crowd and 3-D elements. If he failed to perform, Jackson would have to reimburse AEG more than $30 million, according to the defense."

Philip Anschutz is a devoted Christian. Over the years, he has supported a number of causes, candidates and institutions embraced by the religious right, including anti-gay initiatives and the Intelligent Design espousing Discovery Institute in Seattle, Washington. He also owns The Examiner chain of conservative newspapers, and The Weekly Standard - an influential conservative magazine - that he bought last year from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Given his business dealings in Los Angeles, his standing in the Denver community, his hammerlock on key aspects of the entertainment industry, and his status as one of the richest men in America, Anschutz is basically untouchable. But the question remains: In the name of profit, did AEG push an unprepared, out-of-shape, drug-taking Jackson to the brink?

[Plutonia]

Did you notice? The tour was announced by look-a-like:



Seems most likely to me that the tour proceeded, and ended, as planned.

[Allegro]

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Phillip Anschutz: The Most Powerful Billionaire You Have Never Heard Of
— Bill Berkowitz | Talk to Action | Wed Aug 31, 2011

He’s been dubbed the “stealth media mogul,” labeled “America’s greediest executive,” by Fortune magazine, and was added to “The 12 Most Powerful Christians in Hollywood” list on Beliefnet. He has also been described as “secretive” and “reclusive,” given that he reportedly hasn’t spoken on the record to the press since 1974. Nevertheless, he is identified as an active supporter of Christian and conservative causes.

He may not be directly tied to the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), but he appears to be single-handedly accomplishing at least one of the goals of NAR’s “Seven Mountains Mandate”: taking control of the “mountain” of entertainment.

He’s Phillip Anschutz, one of the wealthiest men in America that most Americans have never heard of, and he clearly desires it that way.

Denver, Colorado-based devout Christian billionaire

A devout Christian, Anschutz, a Denver, Colorado-based billionaire who has made a chunk of his fortune in railroads, telecommunications, and the oil and gas businesses, has, through his Anschutz Entertainment Group, taken the entertainment industry by storm.

Anschutz owns the Regal Entertainment theater chain; movie making enterprises such as Walden Media, which co-produced The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe,”(that grossed more than 1 billion in ticket and DVD sales); arenas, such as Los Angeles’s Staples Center; a number of sports teams, including one-third of the LA Lakers basketball team, and stakes in the LA Kings hockey team and the LA Galaxy soccer team; and, Anschutz Entertainment Group’s (AEG) concerts division promotes tours for pop stars like Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Jon Bon Jovi.

Anschutz also owns, The Examiner chain of conservative newspapers, and last year, Anschutz added The Weekly Standard (bought for a reported $1 million from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation), an influential conservative magazine, to his ever-expanding quiver.

Anschutzing Los Angeles

For nearly 16 years, from the time that both the Raiders and Rams left Los Angeles, the city has been without a National Football League team. Now, thanks to Anschutz, within the next few years that could change.

Earlier this month, the Los Angeles city council, “unanimously approved tentative plans by AEG to build a new NFL-quality stadium on the site of the outdated and underused LA Convention Center,” Forbes magazine’s Christopher Helman recently reported. “The deal still requires a raft of further approvals before construction can begin, but it shows that Anschutz is moving assuredly towards the goal of bringing pro football back to LA. And what Anschutz (net worth: $7.5 billion or so) wants, Anschutz usually gets.” (Anschutz comes in at #34 on Forbes’ list of “The Richest People in America.”)

According to Helman, Anschutz’s AEG, “would put up all the expected $1.2 billion to build the stadium, to be called Farmers Field. It would seat 72,000 and could be completed as soon as 2016. The only cost to LA taxpayers would be some $275 million in tax breaks.”

Anschutz’s stadium plan was aided by the California legislature. As the Los Angeles Times reported in September 2007, “One of the last things lawmakers did before they adjourned … was to pass a measure that would make Anschutz Entertainment Group, owner of Staples Center, eligible for millions of dollars in state funds to improve the downtown area around its arena.”

Last year, in a Forbes article titled “The Man Behind the Curtain” Helman pointed out that Anschutz has treasured his anonymity, which has earned, “him a reputation as one of the most secretive moguls in America.” Helman described Anschutz as “Thin, fit, about 5 foot 8 inches, [and] not easy to pick out of a group.”

Helman reported that the Kansas-born Anschutz’s, “holding company has just sold its oil and gas fields in the Marcellus Shale of Pennsylvania and the Bakken Shale of North Dakota for roughly $3 billion--the biggest payday of his life.”

Now, his “chief theater of operations is [the] privately held Anschutz Entertainment Group, with estimated revenue of $2 billion. Through AEG he controls 120 entertainment venues around the world, including Staples Center in L.A.--part of his just-completed $2.5 billion L.A. Live complex, which includes the Nokia Theater and a 1,101-room hotel tower.”

According to Helman, “AEG, in partnership with Ryan Seacrest, soon plans to launch a new music-and-lifestyle-themed TV network that will bring viewers into the likes of LA Live, Shanghai’s new Mercedes-Benz Arena and [England’s] O2 [arena].”

The Odd Couple: Michael Jackson and Anschutz

Perhaps the strangest of Anschutz’s business relationships revolves around the late Michael Jackson. Anschutz’s AEG was the prime promoter of what was to be the “King of Pop’s” spectacular comeback tour.

According to Portfolio.com’s Matt Haber, the deal was, “potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars,” as Anschutz’s AEG Live, “would promote the 45 London Jackson events, ... at London’s O2 arena, which ... [is] owned by AEG Worldwide. AEG was so committed to keeping the event on track, it paid Dr. Conrad Murray to act as the singer’s personal physician. Dr. Murray is ... at the center of a police investigation into Jackson’s overdose from the anesthetic Propofol.”

AEG Live also partnered with Jackson’s estate to release This is It, a movie put together from “more than 100 hours of footage of Jackson preparing for the concerts.” Since its release, This Is It has become the highest grossing concert film in history, with over $250 million in worldwide sales and nearly $45 million in US DVD sales.

Political Activism

Anschutz’s voice of choice appears to be The Examiner chain of free newspapers. According to The Examiner’s Karen Holt, “His instructions to the editorial staff was simple - the editorial page would be composed only of conservative columns by conservative op-ed writers.” Amongst the regular contributors are “Byron York (National Review) - chief political correspondent; David Freddoso (author of The Case Against Barack Obama) - investigative reporter; and Michael Barone (Fox News) - senior political analyst.” Anschutz “also owns Examiner.com - which offers hundreds of journalists the opportunity to create hyperlocal dispatches from the comfort of their homes.”

According to newsmeat.com, Anschutz has donated nearly $550,000 to political candidates and causes, including $301,000 to special interest groups and $223,000 to Republican Party candidates and committees.

As I reported in a November 2007 story, Anschutz supported Colorado’s anti-gay Amendment 2, a ballot initiative designed to overturn a state law giving equal rights to gays and lesbians. He helped fund the Discovery Institute, a conservative philanthropy-supported “think tank” based in Seattle, Washington that promotes intelligent design and critiques some theories of evolution.

He has also contributed to Brent Bozell’s Media Research Center, the New York-based Institute for American Values, another conservative philanthropy-supported organization that campaigns for marriage and against single parenting, Enough is Enough, whose President and Chair of its Board of Directors is Donna Rice Hughes (the major figure in the sex scandal that ended the 1987 campaign of Gary Hart, in the Democratic presidential primary), and which claims to be “Lighting the way to protect children and families from the dangers of illegal Internet pornography and sexual predators,” and Morality in the Media, established in 1962 “to combat obscenity and uphold decency standards in the media.”

One way that Anschutz expresses his political/Christian beliefs is through Walden Media films. According to the website Moria, “As with much of Walden Media’s films, The Dark is Rising [adapted from a popular series of young-adult fantasy books from British author Susan Cooper] comes with an underlying conservative Christian agenda -.... director David L. Cunningham, who previously made the heavily conservative-biased The Road to 9/11 (2006) mini-series, which tried to blame 9/11 on the Clinton administration, is an evangelical Christian - indeed, Cunningham’s father [Loren] is founder of the Christian youth organization YWAM [Youth With A Mission] and David has lectured on presenting a Christian message on film.

[Grizzly]

National Prayer Breakfast Draws Controversy
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/us/politics/04prayer.html

For more than 50 years, the National Prayer Breakfast has served as a prime networking event in Washington, bringing together the president, members of Congress, foreign diplomats and thousands of religious, business and military leaders for scrambled eggs and supplication.

Usually, the annual event passes with little notice. But this year, an ethics group in Washington has asked President Obama and Congressional leaders to stay away from the breakfast, on Thursday. Religious and gay rights groups have organized competing prayer events in 17 cities, and protesters are picketing in Washington and Boston.

The objections are focused on the sponsor of the breakfast, a secretive evangelical Christian network called The Fellowship, also known as The Family, and accusations that it has ties to legislation in Uganda that calls for the imprisonment and execution of homosexuals.

The Family has always stayed intentionally in the background, according to those who have written about it. In the last year, however, it was identified as the sponsor of a residence on Capitol Hill that has served as a dormitory and meeting place for a cluster of politicians who ran into ethics problems, including Senator John Ensign, Republican of Nevada, and Gov. Mark Sanford, Republican of South Carolina, both of whom have admitted to adultery.

More recently, it became public that the Family also has close ties to the Ugandan politician who has sponsored the proposed anti-gay legislation.
Continue reading the main story

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group, sent a letter this week to the president and Congressional leaders urging them to skip the prayer breakfast. They have also called on C-Span not to televise it this year.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of the ethics group, said: “It is a combination of the intolerance of the organization’s views, and the secrecy surrounding the organization. It doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to hold their breakfast; of course they should. The question is, Should American officials be lending legitimacy to it, giving their imprimatur by showing up.”

The Family has no identifiable Internet site, no office number and no official spokesman. J. Robert Hunter, a member who has spoken publicly about the group, said that it was unfair to blame the Family for the anti-gay legislation introduced by David Bahati. Mr. Hunter said that about 30 Family members, all Americans, active in Africa recently conveyed their dismay about the legislation to Ugandan politicians, including Mr. Bahati.
Photo
Protesters, on Wednesday at the Capitol Hill house of the Family, say the group is linked to anti-gay legislation in Uganda. Credit Luke Sharrett/The New York Times

Mr. Hunter said the recent controversies had prompted a debate within the group about its lack of transparency. “I and quite a few others are saying we should be much more open,” he said.

Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power” (Harper Perennial, 2009) said in a telephone interview, “Here’s an organization that, in the past, has not acknowledged its own existence.”

“It’s not a sinister plot. This is their theological stance,” said Mr. Sharlet, who infiltrated the group to do research for his book. “Their leader, Doug Coe, says that the more invisible you can make your organization, the more influence it will have.” A White House official said that Mr. Obama, like each president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, planned to attend the breakfast. Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and other cabinet members will also attend. The president will deliver remarks about “the importance of an openness to compromise,” the official said.

The official also said that the president and the State Department had spoken out strongly against the legislation in Uganda.

The breakfast, which usually features a prominent keynote speaker (past ones have included Bono, Mother Teresa and former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain), is only the most visible in several days of gatherings where the Family’s networking takes place in smaller groups. There are separate meetings for African politicians, military leaders, business people and media professionals, to name a few.

Many states also have prayer breakfasts this week, which may appear to be government-sponsored but are also mostly affiliated with the Family.

Liberal members of the clergy and gay rights leaders organized the alternative events in haste this year, calling theirs the American Prayer Hour. The will convene at places like Calvary Baptist Church in Washington; Glendale City Seventh-day Adventist Church in California; the bishop’s chapel of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, in Rochester; and Covenant Community Church in Center Point, Ala.

Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out, a gay rights group, said he initiated the prayer-hour idea because many religious Americans who attend the breakfasts have no idea about the connection to the Family and the anti-gay legislation.

“They have symbolically taken the mantle of religion,” Mr. Besen said, “and I think it’s time to take it back. And the American Prayer Hour is a step in that direction.”