Rochester Turning finds this disturbing nugget on the 2008 Presidential race:Clearchannel just recently went up for auction. Mitt Romney's Bain Capital bought it along with Thomas H Lee Partners, but I'm not sure who owns them. The rumor on the Street was that there might be regulatory problems because the firms own positions in other media companies, but I'm not sure which ones. Article is here and Wikipedia for Bain Capital is here. To prepare for their 2008 runs, most potential candidates stock up on staff, a Leadership PAC, and support from party leaders, advocacy organizations, and grassroots groups. Mitt Romney buys a media empire. I can't argue with what will probably be an effective strategy, but I can fear for American Democracy. Maybe Romney did this in order to match Giuliani's defacto news organization, Bloomberg. Maybe he did it to try and counter Rupert Murdoch's hold over the Bush administration via Tony Snow.

For a long time, many progressives have dismissed much established media as corporate and pro-right wing. However, with the difference between rulers of vast media empires and Republican Presidential candidates quickly disappearing, hopefully that will be a problem that the entire country will start to notice as well. While it may not be possible with Bush in the White House, we have to end media consolidtion and reinstate the fairness doctrine ASAP. Rochester Turning describes just how bad the situation is in the Flower City (that's Rochester, for you non-Upstaters):One of the most distressing political topics of the day is the state of our media. Did you know that of the four major television channels here, one is owned by Sinclair (FOX 31 WUHF, which comes in as Channel 7 on cable) and another (ABC 13 WHAM) is owned by Clear Channel? Sinclair, you may recall, was set to run an anti-John Kerry documentary a few days before the 2004 election until a sponsor boycott forced them to do otherwise, while Clear Channel reportedly led campaigns against the Dixie Chicks following their comments about George Bush a few years ago. Clear Channel also owns seven local radio stations I am sure that cities around the country are facing similar problems--posibly even worse. News Corps, Sinclair, Clear Channel, Bloomberg--tough times ahead for the So Called Liberal Media.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Bain-amp;-Company-Company-History.html
Excerpt:
In 1984, it created Bain Capital, a limited partnership headed by W. Mitt Romney, son of politician George Romney, which invested in start-up companies and buyouts that could be readily improved.

http://www.informationweek.com/747/hologix.htm
Excerpt:
Rajski says business-to-business online markets, such as MetalSite, E-Steel, PaperExchange and Chemdex, have raised E-commerce awareness in Hologix's target industries.

http://baincapitalprivateequity.com/Team/TeamMember.aspx?id=323&viewtype=byalpha
Excerpt:

Sandeep Acharya
Senior Associate

Experience:
Mr. Acharya joined Bain Capital in 2009.  Prior to joining Bain Capital, he was an associate at
 Insight Venture Partners and a consultant at Bain & Company. While at Bain & Company, Mr. Acharya focused on companies in financial services, consumer products, and healthcare.
Education:
Mr. Acharya received an MBA from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar.  He graduated magna cum laude with a BAS in Computer Science and a BS in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania.

http://www.sunmanagers.org/pipermail/sunmanagers/2001-February/001646.html
Excerpt:

Jim Musso                               Hologix Inc.
System Administrator                    4250 E. Camelback Suite K220
jam at hologix.com                         Phoenix, Az. 85018
jamusso at home.com                        602-718-3171 cell 602-684-7217

                     Developers of AttriCom(TM)
                "Where Attributes Come to Order"(TM)



http://pulse2.com/category/insight-venture-partners/
Excerpt:
Twitter will raised $50 million to receive the $1 billion valuation.  In the past Twitter had already raised $35 million from Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners.  The $35 million round gave them a valuation of $250 million.  Thus far Twitter has raised $55 million in funding.  That should keep them going for a while despite not having a revenue model.  The rumored investor in the upcoming round is expected to be New York based venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners.

http://www.enigma.com/about/sobiloff.cfm
Excerpt:

Peter Sobiloff, Managing Director, Insight Venture Partners

Peter Sobiloff
Peter Sobiloff is a Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners and is a software industry veteran with a career spanning more than 20 years. Peter actively assists portfolio companies with all aspects of sales, marketing, technology and consultative services. Prior to joining Insight, Peter was President of Think Systems, a supply-chain software company that was acquired by i2 Technologies (Nasdaq: ITWO). After the acquisition, Peter remained as a senior executive to help evolve i2's value-based selling methodology. Peter was also responsible for the planning and execution of several acquisition campaigns.
Prior to Think Systems, Peter was the President of Datalogix, where he led a financial turnaround that eventually resulted in its successful sale to Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL). Earlier in his career, Peter was EVP of Sales of Ross Systems (Nasdaq: ROSS), where he propelled the company to record growth.
Peter currently serves as a director of Xelus, Inc., DWL Incorporated and Nistevo Corporation and is Chairman of Greenfield Online.