What and Who Is Really Behind the Smearing of Philip Anschutz and AEG Live?
The misplaced political anger that has sent entertainment media scurrying to find anyone they can tie to the “alt-right” and then character assassinate for the benefit of their web traffic has claimed yet another victim in the music realm. This time it is Philip Anschutz, the billionaire owner of AEG Live—the second-largest concert promoter in the United States and the owner of the massive Stagecoach and Coachella Festivals in Indio, California. Anschutz has come under fire after some enterprising journalists unearthed that a foundation in his name at one point gave contributions to Christian organizations that some on the left consider to be anti-LGBT.
However according to Anschutz, contributions to those organizations have stopped, they were never politically-motivated to begin with, and were just a few of dozens of organizations that benefited from the billionaire’s non-partisan philanthropy.
The rancor can be traced back to a Washington Post article from July 7th, 2016 that tied Anschutz’s charitable contributions to organizations such as Focus on the Family, and the National Christian Foundation. According to the information attributed to the Freedom For All Americans (FFAA), which calls itself a bipartisan group seeking protection against individuals from discrimination, Anschutz is part of the “enemies of equality,” and was lumped in with high-profile individuals such as Kentucky public worker Kim Davis who famously refused to marry gay couples in her county office, and Dr. James Dobson.
However at the time, the Washington Post information really didn’t resonate within the music community. It was only when Coachella recently announced their 2017 lineup that certain members of the media pounced, looking to paint Philip Anschutz as anti-gay and anti-environment, most notably in a story on Uproxx entitled, “Coachella Is Apparently Owned By An Anti-Gay, Climate Change Denier.”
For his part, Philip Anschutz has flatly denied the charges, and has called the accusations against him false. In a statement sent to the press last week, Anschutz said,
Recent claims published in the media that I am anti-LGBTQ are nothing more than fake news—it is all garbage. I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation. We are fortunate to employ a wealth of diverse individuals throughout our family of companies, all of whom are important to us – the only criteria on which they are judged is the quality of their job performance; we do not tolerate discrimination in any form.
Both the Anschutz Foundation and I contribute to numerous organizations that pursue a wide range of causes. Neither I nor the Foundation fund any organization with the purpose or expectation that it would finance anti-LGBTQ initiatives, and when it has come to my attention or the attention of the Anschutz Foundation that certain organizations either the Foundation or I have funded have been supporting such causes, we have immediately ceased all contributions to such groups.
Nonetheless, Philip Anschutz is a billionaire Republican, and the whole incident has inspired entertainment media to go scurrying to print smear pieces on Anschutz, exposing that much of his wealth comes from the oil business, how he’s hobnobbed with the Koch Brothers in the past, has sued the IRS to get out of paying his taxes, and supported Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in his recall fight. None of these things are particularly scandalous except from a political standpoint, but in the progressive environment of concert promotions in California, especially for the types of artists and fans AEG’s flagship festival Coachella looks to attract, it has caused many to ask if a boycott of Coachella and all AEG Live events and properties is in order, including multiple sports teams the company owns in California.
As the story continued to spin out of control last week, AEG CEO Dan Beckerman sent out a statement to all employees, saying in part,
As all of you already know both diversity and sustainability are two of the core values that we here at AEG live every day and are wholly committed to fostering in our workplace and throughout the world. Â We believe that employing people of diverse backgrounds with a variety of experiences is critical to our success. Our inclusive workforce not only makes us stronger by providing us with a diversity of thought and perspective, but also allows us to better understand the needs of the local communities where we operate.
Over the years, there have been numerous examples illustrating the company’s support of the LGBTQ community, including a very significant moment in 2013, when we and the L.A. Galaxy broke new ground by signing Robbie Rogers, the first openly gay professional athlete to play in any of the major sports leagues in the United States. We did it because he is a great player and that is all that mattered.
This year, AEG’s industry-leading environmental sustainability program, AEG 1EARTH, celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Over the last decade, we have established an undisputed reputation for leadership on sustainability in sports and entertainment.
At the moment, the damage to AEG Live has been minimal except the manpower expended to attempt to stay ahead of this story. Coachella sold out within hours of posting its 2017 lineup and putting tickets up for sale, and so far none of the performers have pulled out of their obligations, including headliners such as Beyoncé, Radiohead, Kendrick Lamar—all known for championing social causes, which underscores that if Philip Anschutz was some type of hardcore zealot, he probably wouldn’t be promoting a festival like Coachella that is full of progressive performers in the first place.
But that still has not stopped some from probing the idea of declaring a boycott against the company, and if one big artist decides to pull out of the Coachella lineup, it could possibly cause a peer pressure domino effect that could see the whole lineup of one of the nation’s biggest and most established festivals implode.
Which leads us back to the question of why it took information published by The Washington Post over six months ago to finally surface in a controversy at the same exact time the Coachella lineup was released? It could be that the Coachella announcement made the story of Philip Anschutz’s political dealings topical. But according to Billboard‘s Dan Rys, he thinks it’s possibly part of what he calls “The Trump Effect”—something we’ve seen in country music where even progressive alt-country and Americana musicians are being attacked for being “alt-right,” even though nothing could be further from the truth. As Dan Rys says in Billboard,
That it’s taken six months, a festival lineup announcement and rapidly-replicated headlines about Anschutz’s donations (which stretch back to at least 1998, though likely further) to cause a backlash among music fans — many of whom may have unwittingly contributed to Anschutz’s coffers by attending Coachella or any of the thousands of concerts AEG Live has promoted over the years — might be a symptom of The Trump Effect.
In the Post-Trump Internet, any tweet or headline is liable to cause an explosion of echo-chamber coverage, which often diminishes in quality the further it is removed from the source — if the source itself is accurate. The number of music blogs and millennial-focused web sites that have posted breathless stories in the past day hours about Anschutz’s donations are just the latest example.
But perhaps the reason for the timing is a bit more sinister. As all of these stories on Philip Anschutz have been underscoring, AEG Live is the second-largest concert promoter in the country. The largest is the behemoth Live Nation, who has been spending the last few years gobbling up every single festival and local/regional concert promoter they can purchase—including Coachella rivals Bonnaroo, and ACL Fest / Lollapaloosa owned by C3 Presents (recently purchased by Live Nation at 51%)—and pulling out all the stops to dominate the entire world of the popular live music space. About the only thing standing in Live Nation’s way from total world domination of live music is AEG Live, who instead of trying to match Live Nation in an arms race, seems perfectly happy expanding in a more sustainable manner, focusing mostly on their home market of Southern California, and diversifying by investing smartly in sports and other live events.
In his letter to AEG employees about the Philip Anschutz controversy, AEG CEO Dan Beckerman says point blank, “These attempts to perpetuate and spread false news are part of a long running and coordinated attempt by our competitors to smear AEG and our many businesses, including our live music and facilities divisions.”
Of course, this is AEG’s take on the matter, and even though Philip Anschutz’s dealings with charity groups may be getting overblown by “millennial-foucused websites” posting “breathless stories” as Billboard characterized, it might be a similar stretch to call the stories “false news.” Donations were made to charities that do take anti-LGBT stances, even if it’s a small part of their platform, and even if the donations were small themselves, and stopped previous to the controversy.
Nonetheless, the timing does call into serious question the motive of who is behind the smearing of Philip Anschutz. There was nothing holding left-leaning media from going after Anschutz when the information first surfaced in July of 2016. Why didn’t they attack AEG Live and Anschutz when the lineup for the country version of Coachella called Stagecoach was released? Instead, they waited until there was the possibility of inflicting the most damage, not against Anschutz personally, but against the Coachella festival specifically, which as direct competition with other destination festivals such as Bonnaroo and ACL Fest, these festival would hypothetically see a boon in the face of a Coachella implosion.
Of course, some of this is conspiracy theory. But it underscores the importance of a healthy and vibrant AEG Live and Coachella to the live music environment in North America. If AEG Live were to implode from an open boycott of their events by both artists and fans, it would almost immediately grant Live Nation an undisputed monopoly in popular live music promotion. That is why the people plotting the destruction of Philip Anschutz and AEG Live should think beyond the political page, and understand the importance of healthy competition, or at least any competition at all in the face of the already scary prospect of what live music in North America could look like as Live Nation continues it’s campaign to control as many festivals, venues, and major tours as possible.
January 9, 2017 @ 9:06 am
Man, Trigger, every time I come to this site nowadays I see stories attacking the “alt-left” and their desire to smear, and yet not one on the numerous (totally false) stories that organizations like Brietbart publish regularly. Now is country more likely to get “attacked” by the left? Yes, because most of the people in country are on the right (Americana is of course a different story). But it’s starting to feel like an agenda, and an extension of your enmity towards Beyonce/her fans.
If you want to associate with Trump (or any other politician) or orginizations that are pushing a political agenda, you should expect and be willing to answer questions about it, and people have the right to give you their money (or not). I don’t spend money at Walmart because I don’t like their hiring practices (though they’ve now gotten better), but my money is a way to express my opinion.
As an aside, while this article focuses on the LGBT question, the vast majority (of the very scant) uproar over Coachella that I’ve seen has actually focused on the climate change denier allegations.
January 9, 2017 @ 9:10 am
(also can we stop with the blanket use of the word media? Brietbar and WSJ aren’t the same thing, neither is Uproxx and the Washington Post)
January 9, 2017 @ 9:47 am
First off, don’t put “alt-left” in quotations because I’ve never used that term.
I am not attacking anyone. All these stories about the media that I have been reporting on are posted in DEFENSE of artists and entities that are being unilaterally attacked by media outlets looking to exploited the anger over the results of the Presidential election. Not really sure what any of this has to do with Beyonce, but she is one of the headliners of Coachella, which again underlines that if AEG Live was just a front for an Anti-LGBT, pro-Trump movement, they probably wouldn’t be mailing over her a $1 million-plus guarantee for her performance.
It has always been the stance of Saving Country Music that politics should be left out of the music space, and these stories are being posted along that recurring theme. It’s also worth pointing out that I recently defended Carrie Underwood from attacks from right-leaning media, so this is not just SCM vs. left-leaning media.
Of course Brietbart posts garbage, but that’s an entirely other issue that is not relevant for me to borach here. They generally leave their nose out of music. However the one time they didn’t, when they attacked Tim McGraw over a Sandy Hook benefit concert, once again I defended Tim McGraw in that matter under the principle that political polarization should be kept out of music. You can read the story here:
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/tim-mcgraw-and-billy-currington-stir-gun-debate-over-sandy-hook-charity-appearance/
I understand some folks may be frustrated seeing what seems like one post after another on this subject, but as I have stated in the past, I think this issue of politics being used to attack music is the biggest threat country music and music in general faces at the moment, especially when it intersects with the continued monopolization of the live music space by Live Nation. I feel an obligation to continue reporting on these stories until the media once again respects the right for music to be autonomous from political vitriol.
January 9, 2017 @ 10:18 am
I’m currently listening to Run the Jewels 3 (beyond excellent if you like hiphop). It is smart, and has lyrics that have meaning. Many would also say it has a political/social message. Music has had a long and fruitful relationship with politics. When we seek to divorce the two, inevitably we will get more songs about driving around in trucks.
In the case of Anschutz his history is beyond shady (on a number of fronts, not just LGBT), and asking questions is legitimate. If you don’t want to answer questions, don’t hang out with the Koch brothers. We then have the right to evaluate the evidence & his answers. Most people are willing to be flexible about their morals though in search for dollar bills.
January 9, 2017 @ 10:41 am
There is a difference between broaching political subjects in music created by artists, and the political headhunting of music artists and entities due to hatred like we’ve seen recently with Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw, alt-countrty, Americana, and scores of others.
I agree Anschultz should have to answer publicly for his actions, and he has at least to some extent. He stopped the donations. If people want to boycott AEG, that’s their right, and I can even understand their logic. I just think the nature of the accusations against him have been a bit overblown, and folks should consider what the music world looks like if AEG implodes like they wish.
January 9, 2017 @ 9:09 am
I’m not sure about a couple of points. I know the different festivals are in competition with each other, but the live nation and the aeg festivals take place far enough apart in regards to date and location to not really effect each other too much. Really Coachella and stagecoach would kinda be in competition with each other because they are so close together.
I also think this does fall into the category of fake news. It doesn’t seem like this was done by aeg with malicious intent, and even it was they can support whatever causes they want. If an artist backed out to show they were socially conscious it would just convey to me they are easily misled and controlled (if it is smear campaign as you say, or fake news).
The one thing that doesn’t jive with me, that makes me think anything ill is the association with the Koch bros. I do consider them power hungry, possibly evil, profiteers who have little regard for justice, equality, or the enviroment. Financially the politics of a conservative aren’t crazy, well not the original basis of such: limit government spending, power, and taxes. But this basis and the rest is manipulated to gain money and power. It’s odd that conservatives very often will make money off of liberals. Fox has some of the most liberal programming on (excluding fox news), Phillip A. Makes money from liberal arts festivals. I think their principals are flexible when it comes to the almighty dollar.
January 9, 2017 @ 9:56 am
Coachella sold out in three hours. Bonnaroo—it’s biggest competition owned by Live Nation—sold 28,000 fewer tickets in 2016 than the previous year, and had its lowest attendance numbers in history. The two festivals compete with each other because they’re known as “destination festivals,” meaning people fly in from around the country, use their vacation time, etc. to attend, and can only choose one, maybe two of these such festivals to go to each year.
I agree the idea that somehow Live Nation stimulated to political attacks against AEG Live is conspiracy theory, and it should be taken as such. But according to AEG LIve, this is the direct work of its competitors, and whether Live Nation is behind it or not, they’re the ones who would benefit the most from a boycott on AEG.
January 9, 2017 @ 9:24 am
But he doesn’t deny contributing money to Focus on the Family in the past, so he has to accept the consequences of doing that. He can donate money to any damn organization he wants to, but we can also infer that he is a bad person because he donated to Focus on the Family. That’s how it works.
January 9, 2017 @ 10:02 am
Sure. It’s Anschutz’s right to donate to whomever he chooses, and it’s the right of the public to react however they wish. But I think context is also important. If Anschutz or AEG Live had made other public moves to show clear discrimination against the LGBT community, then you could mark it as a pattern of behavior. What we have here is a series of donations from a foundation to dozens of different charities that do a multitude of different work, and a few of which have been labeled as anti-LGBT. According to Anshutz, as soon as he found out, he stopped donating. I’m not say the man is without fault from the perspective of the LGBT community. But to act like he’s the spearhead and underwriter of anti-LGBT activity in the United States seems a bit reactionary, or at least outdated.
I think we all deserve to see just how much money was given to what entities and when he stopped before passing final judgement.
January 9, 2017 @ 9:39 am
To say Philip Anschutz is not politically scandalous could be nothing further from the truth, including the small list of controversies you listed. Research into this individual is nothing but politically scandalous, and as mentioned above the environmental issues alone swept up into this person (from drilling on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation next to Glacier National Park and his owning Xanterra, a monopoly driven concessionaire of National Parks throughout the American West), is pure denial. You do not become a billionaire in this country without being politically scandalous at some point, including trying to evade taxes legally or not (see President-Elect Trump tax issues and I recommend reading further into Anshutz’s own case in New York State and the political ramifications of this). This does not even include his oil business interests (and the oil business in itself is politically scandalous) and ties with the Koch Brothers who are politically scandalous. Bottom line, this is individual is nothing but shady. I usually expect better from this site.
January 9, 2017 @ 10:30 am
Of course Philip Anschutz is scandalous from a left perspective. But from a non-partisan perspective, has he or AEG ever been accused of discriminating against anyone in their company due to sexual orientation in a way that is against Federal discrimination laws? Have they ever broken environmental regulations? Have they even not paid their taxes or participated in white collar crime? So far, I am not seeing any of these things. It doesn’t mean they aren’t lurking out there, but there is a difference between controversial and scandalous. I totally agree that Philip Anschutz has done many things that who put him out of favor with the political left. And if that results in a boycott of AEG, then it is the right of the boycotters to speak with their voices and dollars. But as a music fan, and a reporter trying to completely eliminate bias from my perspective, I just don’t want to see the law of unintended consequences get out of hand here, and we inadvertently crown Live Nation the king of all live music just because some rich guy gave some money to some organizations that may fund anti-LGBT activities, and stooped as soon as he was alerted to it.
There are people out there in the world that we disagree with politically. But that doesn’t immediately make them scandalous or evil people. No doubt Anshutz, like all of us, has skeletons in the closet. But I think painting him as some staunch, alt-right anti-LGBT zealot is a little bit unfair. At the same time, he’s rubbed elbows with that crowd, and it is fair to question his motivations and actions, which I tried to do in this article. This is a complicated issue. I just wanted to lend my perspective on the importance of AEG in keeping Live Nation in check.
January 9, 2017 @ 10:39 am
White collar crime might be “legal” or cheeks of power and justice turning a blind eye in this country but that in no way makes it “right.” And these concerns and issues don’t have to be from a left perspective, they can be from a moral and ethical perspective, from a human perspective. The tax issue in New York State where the state attorney general wanted to file suit against him was pardoned by then president George Bush. The BP Oil Spill in the Gulf led to no convictions of manslaughter, but anyone with any sense knows how scandalous that incident was, it has nothing to do with left or right politics. Political scandals don’t have to evolve into convictions and jail times or right versus left, but they raise concerns of who these people are, their character, their goals, and their motivations. Thanks for the reply.
January 9, 2017 @ 11:14 am
I totally agree Aerrio, and I’m not trying to defend any the actions of Philip Anschutz. On the surface, he’s the kind of fat cat I would probably be diametrically opposed to regardless of political affiliations. And I’m not even saying that he hasn’t engaged illegal or scandalous stuff in the past, and it’s the job of the media to look into such things. But all I can do is take him at his word when he says he respects all people, he stopped his donations as soon as he figured out where they were going, and he’s committed to running businesses where inclusion and diversity are important parts of their culture. We should check and verify all of this stuff and hold his feet to the fire. But just because they guy may be on the opposite side of me politically shouldn’t mean I shouldn’t enjoy Coachella, or root for his soccer team, if those were things I was inclined to do anyway. At some point, we have to deal with people on the other side of the political aisle, and look beyond those differences as long as they don’t run afoul of universally-recognized statutes on discrimination and illegal activity, just as we all should come together if someone is being discriminatory, even if they happen to be on our side of the aisle.
January 9, 2017 @ 10:20 am
I don’t understand where the smear was? Smear (2.) damage the reputation of (someone) by false accusations; slander.
The story does seem sensationalized (and perhaps coordinated?). But isn’t this just a large % of all the writing on the internet? Like: ” x artist has just released the worst song ever!”
I’m not a big Live Nation guy, but are really shedding tears for a billionaire media mogul? And how exactly are regular people supposed to respond when they feel like their rights are being attacked by someone with so much power and influence?
January 9, 2017 @ 11:21 am
Man free thinking is dead… Facebook algorithm stole it. Both sides only see things from their perspective.
January 9, 2017 @ 11:44 am
I’m curious about something: so apparently some people don’t partake of any entertainment without doing deep research into the artists, venue owner, sponsors, janitors, etc. to verify that their political affiliations are perfectly aligned?
What an odd way to live. Virtually none of the musicians I follow or know share my politics; I’m a libertarian and the musicians are largely progressive, with some social conservatives in the mix. If I rejected musicians who don’t share my politics then the only way I would be able listen to music would be to sing to myself.
January 9, 2017 @ 12:16 pm
Agreed.
January 9, 2017 @ 12:53 pm
Fat Freddy, you are spot on, I cannot emphasize how good your comment is. Leave musician, artists, promotors politics alone, enjoy the music. It bonds and unites people in positive ways. This whole thing is garbage. What next, utopian progs? Perhaps all musicians, promoters should provide a resume for you listing all their affiliations, donor groups, special interests, political party of choice, religion, church, number of gays and minority in their organization etc etc??? Is that your ultimate goal with your entertainment? If so, you have truly lost your minds.
This may be utopian to some of you but think about it, you are categorizing and rejecting everyone who doesn’t agree with you. Sounds Marxian and bigoted to me. Entertainment is for entertainment only. Why are you looking to entertainers for direction in life anyway. They aren’t gods, just people like the rest of us. Instead of looking for people to destroy and villianize and boycott and ruin, look for something positive and kind to do with your time. Life is precious and can be short, focus on positives.
January 9, 2017 @ 5:26 pm
People on the left and right who play citizen against citizen ‘profit’ from it.
Citizens who ‘buy’ into it are fools.
There is NO difference (except rhetoric) between the left and right politicians and anyone who claims to be educated that can’t see that is not as educated as they claim to be, including allegedly educated reporters of the LSM (lame stream media) who intentionally foist their opinions on the masses of which WAPO is a leader in that regard and a “standard setter” that others follow like the blind sheep they are. Or, we’re to believe the leftist standard bearers (current democrat {and many previous} party LEADERS are saints and never committed any “scandalous” or controversial behavior.
Maybe they should listen to Cody Jinks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyot2S8yN7w
January 9, 2017 @ 5:34 pm
Cody Jinks “Cast No Stones” w/Lyrics
862,998 views
“A” definition of GREAT Country Music, with a political and religious bent.
January 9, 2017 @ 8:16 pm
Unless it’s definition has changed with the incoming administration, the WaPo report on Anschultz was NOT A ‘smear’. Can we now interrupt the Carrie/AEG spiels & get back to our regularly-scheduled Country & Western Music program?!
January 9, 2017 @ 9:10 pm
Actually, all the Washington Post did was post a graph provided by a 3rd party that included Anschultz. They didn’t do any smearing by anyone’s estimation. As Billboard explained, it was other sites that sat on that info for six months, and then sprang it on the public as soon as the Coachella lineup was announced.
January 11, 2017 @ 12:27 am
trigger i didnt know you were so down with unionbusters.
from shitkicker to bootlicker…….
January 11, 2017 @ 8:33 am
I don’t know what you’re talking about, but if you’re trying to assign me to any political alignment, you’re wrong.
January 13, 2017 @ 8:22 pm
“I wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.” – Groucho Marx
This is why I can never align with any group because every group has damn zealots and nutjobs and if they accept me I must either be a nutjob or be expected to tow the line line. I am even giving up friends because this election has shown them to be extremist loonies in one way or another.
If the man is tied to oil and denies climate change well… OK. But he is in the music he is not writing policy on the matter. I can’t tolerate people who think in B&W or paint things as B&W. And this is the world we are in largely with exception of people like Trigger and a few other journalists