Re: "Station owners' ties affect war coverage," (March 25 letter). The New York Times recently ran an editorial on Clear Channel Communications and its role in shaping attitudes toward the war. It turns out that the vice chairman of Clear Channel is Tom Hicks, who purchased the Texas Rangers in 1998 and made Bush millions.

Clear Channel has now apparently entered the political foray by promoting pro-war rallies. Clear Channel owns over 1,200 stations in the United States including Power 99 and WDAS in Philadelphia and WDVE and WXDX in Pittsburgh among several others. They also promote many tours for artists and are trying to break into television.

How does this affect what you hear? Well, ever since Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks spoke her mind about our president at a concert, Dixie Chicks songs have been banned from radio stations across the country -- not by independent radio stations, but by politically connected corporate big-wigs who act like censors to push their political agenda, or perhaps to appease a certain political party It is widely believed that the media is "liberal," but as these facets of the media industry are revealed, it is becoming quite clear that the big media is more of a censor for a certain point-of-view, and certainly not one that is pro-free speech. The moral should be to form your own opinions and judge everything you hear from supposedly "reliable" sources very carefully, lest you become brainwashed like those we are trying to liberate.