Millionaire Factory Gobbles up Media, Toll Roads
February 1st, 2008 at 4:55 pm
The UK and Australian press have christened Macquarie, the Australian investment and banking group, the “Millionaire Factory” for the hefty bonuses it lavishes on its executives. Macquarie has several tentacles including the Macquarie Infrastructure Group which builds toll roads and the Macquarie Media Group.
It’s worth noting that the Macquarie Media Group has gobbled up more than 100 small town U.S. newspapers since last year, including the Dallas-based American Consolidated Media, which owns a number of small papers in Texas. Just this month it bought the Glen Rose Reporter in Glen Rose, south of Fort Worth. Its acquisitions make the Macquarie Media Group’s American Consolidated Media — the 5th largest regional newspaper publisher in the United States.
Why should we care? Because Macquarie Infrastructure Group has made several bids to build toll roads in Texas and across the United States. One of the Macquarie Media Group’s acquisitions is the Alice Echo-News, the homepage of which currently sports a web banner touting the I-69 Trans Texas Corridor public meetings. This is part of the same media campaign which angered legislators such as Senator John Carona (R-Dallas) chair of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Commission. The “Keep Texas Moving” media campaign is costing TxDOT up to $9 million. Meanwhile, TxDot says it will delay more than $1 billion worth of projects this year because it doesn’t have enough money, a claim that many legislators and citizens alike find laughable.
For more toll road fun, Carona, will hold a hearing February 5th, asking TxDot to explain where its money went, and why it didn’t mention this cash-flow crisis during last year’s legislative session.
Alex Doughty, a spokesperson for Macquarie Media Group said any link between Macquarie and an attempt to influence public opinion through their newly acquired newspapers was absurd. Doughty sent the following response in an email:
“The acquisition of American Consolidated Media by Macquarie Media Group has absolutely no connection with any other project that Macquarie is involved in in the state of Texas. To suggest that the acquisition was made to control public opinion in advance of building toll roads or for any other purpose is absurd and incorrect. The business continues to be run by the same management team, with the same editorial staff. No editorial influence has been exercised by MMG. This includes over [sic] advertising done through those publications.”
Macquarie has lost most of its toll road bids in Texas, so far, to the Cintra-Zachry consortium, who have been big political donors in Texas for many years. Lobbyist Dan Shelley — who wins the incredible revolving door award — worked for Cintra, and was then hired as the legislative director for Governor Perry during the legislative session that passed the Trans Texas Corridor legislation. After the legislative session ended, Shelley quit and took a nice lobbying contract from Cintra for himself and his daughter Jennifer Shelley-Rodriguez. See this Texas Observer story for more in depth coverage on the rush to highway privatization in Texas.
While Mr. Doughty may call the Macquarie media/toll road connection a conspiracy theory a comparison of the photos of Macquarie’s acquisitions and a map of the projected Trans Texas Corridor (seen below) underscores the concern. Regardless, as the push to privatize continues on a global scale, citizens need to watch who is manning the toll booth.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
SInce the acquisition of American Consolidated Media by Macquarie Media Group, have any of their Newspapers published editorials against The Trans Texas Corridor ?