Comment: OK, now we know for sure, everything is a special interest … even some do-gooders.
There are some strange bedfellows in the StopMEGA-Comcast Coalition, sort of the resurrection of the late ComcastMustDie.com. (Thanks for the reminder from CableFAX.) I mean DISH and 14 other entities have created this coalition of unequals to lobby against the Comcast takeover of Time Warner Cable because, you know, DISH is interested in the public interest. The others: BlazeTV (Glenn Beck is having trouble being heard), Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Future of Music Coalition, Fair Point Communications, The Greenlining Institute, Hargray, ITTA – The Independent Telephone & Telecommunications Association, NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association (not NCTA), The Parents Television Council, Public Knowledge, SportsFans.org, WeatherNation and the Writer’s Guild of America, West (no word on East). Check it out yourself at stopmegacomcast.com.
The Coalition has a handy list of crimes committed by Comcast (a long list, of course) featuring The Consumerist naming the company “Worst Company in the World” in 2010 and 2014. The list does not include the 2012 and 2013 naming of DISH “the worst company to work for” by 24/7 Wall Street.
I do understand that the Department of Justice and the Federal Confusion Commission have to weigh in on the proposed merger, otherwise known as the “Keep Lobbyists Healthy” coalition. And, I do understand that some folks in the National Zoo, oops, I mean Congress, have weighed in on both sides of the issue with banal pros and/or cons. And, I understand that since former President Ronald Reagan intoned, “The government isn’t the solution, the government is the problem,” that it’s all a big joke anyway. Or not, it’s never about a joke; it’s always about the dollars. Always love it when so many decry that the government picking winners is horrible … except when one might be the winner. Which means the loser cries foul and begs the government for a closer look.
• Gee, thanks to Congress and the President for actually accomplishing something … STELAR got signed and I can continue to watch network TV on DirecTV. (I live just over the Continental Divide from Denver signals.)
• Fortune thinks YouTube! stars will dominate TV by the end of the decade. So?
• Speed Alarm! Next Congress’ chair of the House Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Internet, Courts and Intellectual Property will be Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).
• FCC Chair Tom Wheeler’s smartphone has a case claiming, “I am not a dingo.” If you don’t know why, ask HBO’s John Oliver.
“The Revolutionary Evolution of the Media” Continues
This is a book in progress … how a changing world has made media what it is today … Or, from a grunt to too much connectivity. Read Chapter 3 here. Go here to read it from the beginning.
In an almost 50-year career writing and reporting on media, Paul S. Maxwell started and/or ran some 45-plus publications ranging from CATV Newsweekly to Colorado Magazine to CableVision to Multichannel News to CableFAX and The BRIDGE Suite of daily newsletters and research publications. In between publishing stints, Maxwell served as an advisor and/or consultant to a number of major media companies and media start-ups including running a unit of MCI and managing a partnership of TCI and McGraw-Hill.
Send any and all criticisms, suggestions, rants, threats, corrections, etc. to him at: cablemax@mac.com. He has a new Web site coming soon!
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