In my internet perambulations, I found mention that Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey had publicly disparaged one of his more notable constituents. For some reason I followed the link. Everything looked mighty familiar, from the screen names to the abysmal level of debate.
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The phrase "shut up and sing" appeared every other comment or so. It's not clear why nancy8 would want to hear Springsteen sing if she dislikes him so much.
(This article currently has 137 comments; a piece about the Springsteen tribute band that played Christie's inauguration ball after the real Springsteen declined drew 54 comments.)
A bit of searching revealed that NJ.com and MLive.com have the same corporate overlord, per Wikipedia the 46th-largest company in the United States. Advance Publications also owns Conde Nast, which indirectly ties my New Yorker subscription to the rantings of semi-literate trolls in Hillsboro, Oregon. My neck feels funny now.
To sum up: every ominous factoid you've heard about media consolidation is likely true. Not only are there ignorant, bigoted people everywhere, wherever you go you'll find exactly the same ignorant, bigoted people, operating under different aliases. Back into the swamp!
Yes Advance is a huge monolith of a company & it's real scary how much they own. Springsteen is just carrying the great words of Woody Guthrie & Bob Dylan to another generation. If he didn't care about the poor & poverty why did he do an album called "The ghost of Tom Joad"?
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