Ticketmaster Hot and Bothered About ALEC

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Association with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is becoming so toxic that even being listed on ALEC Exposed as a former supporter of the organization is rattling corporate cages. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has received a letter from the online ticket sales company Ticketmaster referring to the list of "ALEC Corporations" on our site Sourcewatch.org.

Ticketmaster's letter does not directly deny any current or former involvement with ALEC, but "advises" CMD to "cease and desist from including Ticketmaster on your site," objecting to "the suggestion that Ticketmaster is somehow affiliated with ALEC" and threatening to sue CMD for libel and defamation.

The issue seems to be that Ticketmaster is on the "ALEC Corporations" list on SourceWatch as a company that is "known to be, or have been" an ALEC "supporter." The list makes clear that "those groups known to be currently involved with ALEC, as of July 2011, appear in BOLD." Ticketmaster is one of dozens of corporations that appear un-bolded and have a clearly demarcated and linked footnote to a list of ALEC "funders" from the year 2000 published by the Clearinghouse on Environmental Advocacy and Research (CLEAR).

Mars, Arizona Public Service Company, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft Foods, Intuit, McDonald's and Wendy's have all publicly distanced themselves from ALEC's extreme agenda in the last two weeks.

At the time of publication, Ticketmaster has not responded to attempts by CMD to reach out to them regarding clarification of its involvement with ALEC, past or present.