Sen. Franken the Stick in the Spokes for NBC-Comcast Merger?

Image from source, ARS Technica

Full disclosure: I'm a regular Franken Fan. I'm a big fan of Al Franken's books, his radio show, his writing on Saturday Night Live and his short-lived sitcom, LateLine (which really should have had a longer run). So I'm pretty happy that he's already becoming sort of an ass-kicker in the Senate. Oh, wait, Jon Stewart reminded me about over-exaggerated blogging. I just mean that for a comedian, he's really taking the job seriously, and is fairly vocal about it. And he drives right-wingers to distraction. Love that.

Trust-busting and monopoly prevention I always thought had their roots in conservatism. But I guess since Jimmy Carter busted up AT&T in the 70s (which seems today to be re-conglomerating like Terminator 2 into bigger clumps), conservatives don't really mind merger madness. That's the way it seems anyway, with major mergers becoming commonplace during the Bush era. Wait, you mean it's not a good idea to have nearly every major casino in Las Vegas owned by two companies? That circumstance (MGM/Mirage and Harrah's are the two) happened in recent years, seemingly with no resistance whatsoever. It seemed to happen a lot.

Now I'm just a humble home blogger, so these could just be my impressions. Maybe statistics don't show the issue to be partisan at all. But I'm still glad that Franken isn't letting the big NBCUniversal (already merged) marriage to Comcast occur without at least making them sweat a little.

[Excerpt]

Sen. Franken to Comcast, NBC execs: merger no laughing matter

Comcast and NBC Universal didn't get a whole lot of love at Thursday's emotional Senate and House hearings on their proposed merger. But company representatives did get plenty of questions. At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl cracked no smiles as he ran through four "principal areas of concern" about the deal: potential programming price hikes, loss of free over-the-air TV content, hobbling independent programmers, and weakening Internet TV. . .

Read more at: ARS Technica

Comcast Buys NBC-Universal

Image from source, New York Times

Aaaannnd media consolidation gets even more consolidated-ier. I guess "trust busting" just ain't gonna happen anymore? I'm sure 30 Rock will get some humor out of the situation, assuming of course that NBC gets to stay at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. I wonder if Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow will be allowed to opine about this on MSNBC? Or shoot, what'll even happen to MSNBC. Yikes.

[Excerpt]

Comcast Gets NBC From G.E. in Deal

After nearly nine months of negotiations, Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, announced an agreement on Thursday to acquire NBC Universal from the General Electric Company. . .

Read more at: New York Times

Comcast Plays Dirty at Net Neutrality Hearing

Photo from source, Boston Daily Blog

Net neutrality as an issue, if you're not aware, is an effort to prevent big telecom companies from dividing the internet into tiers. What would a tiered internet mean? It means that if you pay more, you get priority "first class" internet, and if you don't, you fly coach. Or something. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that whatever these companies do, it's probably not in the interest of the little guy. I'd say that's a pretty safe bet.

So is it really surprising that Comcast--one of the biggest of the big--stuffed a Congressional hearing on the matter with paid seat fillers, in order to prevent interested parties from getting a seat?

[Excerpt]

Reason 6,571 Why We Dislike Comcast

. . .Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said that the company paid some people to arrive early and hold places in the queue for local Comcast employees who wanted to attend the hearing.

Some of those placeholders, however, did more than wait in line: They filled many of the seats at the meeting, according to eyewitnesses. As a result, scores of Comcast critics and other members of the public were denied entry because the room filled up well before the beginning of the hearing. . .

Read more at: Boston Daily Blog

And another take here: Beta News

FCC Finally Cracks Down on "Fake News"

Photo from source, RawStory.com

I'm happy to see that we're finally seeing some action on this issue. Video News Releases (VNRs) are slickly produced videos that appear to be actual news. They are produced by corporations, political organizations, and yes the US Government. They are sent to news stations, and inserted into broadcasts, often without any sort of disclaimer that denotes their parentage.

The Bush Administration has been using VNRs (along with other propaganda methods) extensively. It's about time something was done about it. Now, if they'd only do something about FOX "News."

[Excerpt]

FCC fines Comcast for VNRs

Cable giant Comcast violated the law by broadcasting video news releases without identifying them as sponsored programming, the Federal Communications Commission announced today. The ruling came in response to a complaint from Free Press and the Center for Media and Democracy, a media watchdog group focusing on VNRs. . .

Read more at: RawStory.com