Solons Hammer Comcast On Diversity

Daily Variety
June 8, 2010

The conventional wisdom in Washington continues to be that Comcast's combination with NBC Universal will eventually get the greenlight, so the hearing before five members of the House Judiciary Committee was less about blocking the deal than making sure that it has adequate conditions placed upon it, underscored when one critic who testified cited the BP oil spill as an example of what happens with the safeguards are not stringent enough.

As such, Monday's marathon hearing was an opportunity for watchdog groups and public interest orgs to express complaints about the dearth of minority themed programming on Comcast's cable systems and NBC's primetime schedule, and to air frustration at the lack of opportunities for minorities in the media in general.

"If Comcast wants our support for the merger, it must agree to conditions," said Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. He added that the coalition is part of a team of six Latino orgs negotiating a memorandum of understanding with Comcast for diversity initiatives, and that they insist on having "verifiable, enforceable data" in a wide range of areas such as employment and corporate governance. .... Click here to read full article.