Comcast Plays Censor, Again
Comcast is already infamous for playing favorites with Internet content, but the multimedia giant’s discriminatory practices extend to far more than the Web.
Comcast’s holdings are vast, and include broadcast cable and radio stations across the country. While the corporation is constantly in the limelight for its crimes against Internet users, Comcast also rejects advertisers and news anchors who don’t reflect their views.
This week, Comcast refused to air ads that criticize Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa) for supporting a bill that increases President Bush’s warrantless wiretapping powers on the American public, and grants amnesty to the communications companies who bowed to the administration. The ads were created by the Blue America PAC, who submitted the ads to media outlets in Carney’s district; other outlets accepted the advertisement.
So just why would Comcast, always eager for advertising dollars, reject this ad? Perhaps you remember that Comcast – also a phone company — played a role in the Bush administration’s illegal spying program. And the ads also emphasize that Comcast was a major donor to Carney in a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” fashion so typical of Big Media largesse in Washington.
What’s most disconcerting about Comcast’s ad blackout is that it underscores the behemoth’s wide reaching power to determine what Americans read, watch, and see. Media consolidation has become so extreme, a company can now have its fingers in every cookie jar – TV, radio, Internet, telecommunications – and no one is shutting the lid. The repercussions of such extensive media ownership are incredibly dangerous — Comcast can literally stifle dissent and political discourse.
And just as Comcast ignores finger-pointing ads, it also snubs journalists who fall out of step with the company’s lax expectations of its reporters – which of course means asking tough questions and adhering to high standards of journalism. Last month, longtime TV newsman Barry Nolan was fired by Comcast after he objected publicly to a journalism award handed to Bill O’Reilly. “I got fired from my job on a news and information network for reporting demonstrably true things in a room full of news people,” Nolan wrote in a ThinkProgress blog post.
