Who's In Charge Here?

 Found at Breitbart, this story about Clear Channel, the billboard division, who sold a billboard to Urban CURE, a group that promotes self help. Click the link to see the board.

Useful stuff, no? I suppose if I was a hard-core Karen, I could complain that it was cultural appropriation, with U.C. encouraging blacks to appropriate culture from whites, and maybe that's what's going on here.

Parker said the Milwaukee chapter of Black Lives Matter “didn’t like it” and “went after our boards,” alleging they were racist and sexist.

“They told Clear Channel Outdoor,” the company that approved and posted the billboards, “that they will control messaging, that they will control narrative,” she alleged.

Now when someone buys a billboard, who's in charge of the message? Would that be the buyer of the board, the seller of the board space, or any hobo walking down the street that disapproves of the message? I suppose it depends. If Al-Quaida bought one that said "Kill All Jews" there would be grounds to object coming from several sources. If the Republicans bought one that said "Vote For Trump" would a democrat have grounds to demand it be taken down? If this idea is taken to its last logical extreme, no billboard would exist anywhere. 

Superficially this is a good idea as it reduces visual clutter, OTOH a working capitalist economy demands that products be bought and sold, and advertising greases the skids. Conversely, silencing your opponents reduces the competition which goes against the 1st amendment.

Clear Channel Outdoor told the news station that the ad “did not receive proper approvals” and “lacked appropriate attribution.”

Which sounds like Clear Channel is turning an editorial function over to an outside 3rd party, BLM in this case.