Sanders tells FCC to block NBC-Comcast merger

Bernie Sanders: Block the Comcast Takeover of NBC Universal, Would Create Anti-Competitive Media Monopoly
Warning that a huge media monopoly would drive up Cable Television prices and stifle the free flow of information, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today urged the Department of Justice to block Comcast's planned takeover of NBC Universal.   The senator's concerns about the Comcast-NBC deal were detailed in a letter that he sent to Christine Varney, the assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust division at the Department of Justice. "Especially in an age of entrenched corporate power...

Upton Wants FCC to Expedite Review of Comcast, NBC Merger
In a letter to Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski dated December 10, U.S. Representative Fred Upton (R-MI) inquired into the FCC’s commitment to a fair, fact-driven review of the Comcast-NBC Universal Merger. The merger would call for the transfer of assets to a new Joint Venture for NBC Universal.  The Joint Venture combines NBC and Telemundu as well as 26 NBC television stations and national Cable Networks with Comcast’s regional sports networks and ...

Comcast, the biggest cable company in Bay Area and nation, looks to get bigger
WASHINGTON -- Comcast is by far the biggest pay-TV provider in the Bay Area. It controls TV rights to Giants, A's, Sharks and Warriors games. Many of its customers also sign up for high-speed Internet service. And the company, if it has its way, is about to get a whole lot bigger. In a deal valued at $30 billion that was announced a year ago but has received scant attention outside the nation's capital, Comcast is attempting to buy a majority share of NBC Universal. The Merger would give the nat...

Comcast, the biggest cable company in Bay Area and nation, looks to get bigger
WASHINGTON -- Comcast is by far the biggest pay-TV provider in the Bay Area. It controls TV rights to Giants, A's, Sharks and Warriors games. Many of its customers also sign up for high-speed Internet service. And the company, if it has its way, is about to get a whole lot bigger. In a deal valued at $30 billion that was announced a year ago but has received scant attention outside the nation's capital, Comcast is attempting to buy a majority share of NBC Universal. The Merger would give the nat...

A look at possible conditions in Comcast, NBC deal
Federal Regulators are considering a number of conditions to ensure that Comcast Corp. cannot use its control over NBC’s vast media empire to stifle the growth of online video. Their key concerns: — The darkest fear of companies in the Internet video market is that Comcast could withhold or ratchet up prices for popular NBC Universal programming, including hit shows such as “30 Rock” and “The Office.” So Regulators may force Comcast to abide by the Federal Com...

Level 3 Feigns Net Neutrality Violation in Contract Dispute
Internet company Level 3 recently claimed that Comcast, in violation of Net Neutrality principles, was attempting to impose a new “toll” against Level 3 to deliver online movies on behalf of its client, Netflix.  This dispute comes at a time when the Federal Communications Commission is currently in process of codifying its ‘net neutrality’ principles into law. After undergoing a competitive bid process, Level 3 was selected to house and distribute the majority of Ne...

SavetheInternet.com 'Can-You-Hear-Us-Now-a-Thon' Delivers 2 Million Petitions to FCC
Source: freepress.net/press-release SavetheInternet.com ‘Can-You-Hear-Us-Now-a-Thon’ Delivers 2 Million Petitions to FCC FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: December 13, 2010 Contact: Craig Aaron 202-265-1490 x 25 Jenn Ettinger 202-265-1490 x 35 WASHINGTON -- SavetheInternet.com Coalition allies and Activists kicked off a marathon of petition deliveries at the Federal Communications Commission on Monday morning — with plans to drop off 50,000 signatures every hour until the public comment period cl

Experts Gather to Discuss Mobile Healthcare for Disadvantaged Communities
Last week, during a round-table summit in Washington, D.C., the nation’s premier healthcare practitioners, policy makers, industry executives and government health officials gathered to discuss the ways that mobile Broadband can be used to help people with chronic diseases in rural and underserved areas better manage their conditions. The summit was organized by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Media and Technology Institute, a D.C.-based policy Think Tank and research i...

Colo.'s new state Supreme Court justice sworn in
DENVER—Telling her colleagues that her allegiance is to the law, not any special interest group, Deputy Attorney General Monica Marquez was sworn in Friday as Colorado's new Supreme Court justice. Marquez is the first Latina and the first Openly Gay jurist on the state's High Court. "On the bench, of course, my allegiance is to the law, not to any particular constituency," she said after she was sworn in by her father, retired Judge Jose D.L. Marquez, who was the first Latino appointed t...

White House insists health law rollout unaffected
WASHINGTON — The White House insisted Tuesday that the implementation of President Barack Obama’s landmark Health Care law will not be affected by a negative Federal Court ruling, and the Justice Department said it would appeal. "There’s no practical impact at all as states move forward in implementing ... the law that Congress passed and the president signed," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said that, as ...

U.S. sues BP, nine others over Gulf oil spill
WASHINGTON -- The United States filed suit Wednesday against BP and nine other companies for damages stemming from this year's Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst in U.S. history. The complaint was filed by the Justice Department with a Federal Court in New Orleans, where thousands of individuals and small businesses have already filed suit against the oil giant. Attorney General Eric Holder said the complaint alleges that "violations of safety and operational regulations" caused the Apri...

DOJ Files Suit on Deepwater Horizon Spill
— Image by USDAgov, via Flickr. The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it is filing suit against BP and eight other companies for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. The DOJ is seeking civil penalties under the Clean Water Act—which could add up to as much as $21 billion—and wants to declare eight of those companies "liable without limitation" for the costs of clean up and damage caused by the disaster. The DOJ filed suit in the US District Court in New Orle...

White House insists health law rollout unaffected
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House insisted Tuesday that the implementation of President Barack Obama's landmark Health Care law will not be affected by a negative Federal Court ruling, and the Justice Department said it would appeal. "There's no practical impact at all as states move forward in implementing ... the law that Congress passed and the president signed," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said that, as expected, t...

Report: DOJ to Join Civil Suits From BP Oil Spill
The Justice Department is expected to announce on Wednesday that it is joining several civil Lawsuits against Oil giant BP as a way of gaining access to legal documents that could be used in the government’s ongoing investigation into the Gulf Coast Oil Spill earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of Oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, prompting the suits. Eleven people were killed in the incident. The Journal reported, “By joining the ...

Berzerkely City Council votes tonight on WikiLeaker honors
Photo credit: Brad Froehle Last week, I flagged the latest stunt by city government officials in the People’s Republic of Berkeley — a resolution honoring Wiki-leaking saboteur Bradley Manning. Tonight’s the night the City Council will vote. The meeting is underway and is livestreaming on the Berzerkely website here. According to the council’s notes, the meeting may stretch into the 11pm Pacific hour, with the Manning “hero” resolution not scheduled until it...

The Obama Administration Fights For Sharia Law At The Expense of Public School Students
The ‘Is it Legal?’ segment of The O’Reilly Factor last night dealt with a disturbing decision by the  Obama Justice Department that has received very little publicity.  It is yet another example of the Obama Administration’s policy of accommodation to Islamic Sharia law, irrespective of its impact on our own society. Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to sue a suburban Chicago School District for denying a Muslim middle school female teacher three weeks of unpa

Government sues BP, 8 others in Gulf oil spill
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday sued BP Exploration and Production Inc. and eight other companies in the Gulf Oil Spill disaster in an effort to recover billions of dollars from the largest offshore spill in U.S. history. The Obama Administration's Lawsuit asks that the companies be held liable without limitation under the Oil Pollution Act for all removal costs and damages caused by the oil spill, including damages to natural resources. The Lawsuit also seeks civil ...

Reid Pushes for Deputy Attorney General Vote
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday said he would like the Senate to vote on Deputy Attorney General nominee James Cole before the Senate adjourns this year. James Cole (photo by Channing Turner / Main Justice). Reid said a senator is holding up the nomination for the No. 2 position at the Justice Department. The Democrat didn’t name the senator who is preventing the full Senate from considering the nominee. Read our previous reports on the stalled nomination here and here and h...

Peering problems: digging into the Comcast/Level 3 grudgematch
Is Comcast really trying to wreck the open Internet with a set of new tollbooths? Is Level 3 really trying to browbeat its way to a good deal? Ever since the Comcast/Level 3 interconnection dispute broke wide open into public view last week, the accusations from both sides have been flying. Sorting out those accusations has been difficult, in part because it was just so hard to know, on a technical level, what exactly has been going on. Peering and transit issues can be notoriously complex but ...

Universal creating Syfy film label
Looking to create some corporate synergy and expand its successful TV brand, Universal Pictures is teaming with its sibling Cable Network, Syfy, to launch a new movie-production unit. Beginning in 2012, Syfy Films, a joint venture of the two NBC Universal-owned companies, is to produce one to two Science Fiction, fantasy, supernatural or Horror Movies a year that will be released by Universal Pictures. Its focus is somewhat similar to Rogue Pictures, the horror, thriller and comedy...

It's A What Kind of Story?
OK, folks, I need your help on this one. There needs to be a name for the kind of story which has no substantive importance at all, but nevertheless one hopes is covered by the press because it's fascinating, or fun, or just hilarious. Just as, for example, the re-election campaign of Michael Steele for RNC Chair. I'll be reading every nutty thing that Steele says, and hope for equally goofy quotes from the other Candidates -- but anyone who looks at it and tries to tell us it means something a...

History Channel has year to remember
There's an old saying that those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. Fortunately for the History Channel, that's a good thing. The Cable Network saw its prime-time audience grow by 35% this year, according to Nielsen. History Channel, which is co-owned by Walt Disney Co., NBC Universal and Hearst Corp., averaged 1.6 million viewers in Prime Time. Its audience among adults 18-49 was up by 34%, to 754,000. Both were the biggest gains of any top 10 cable network. Of course, ...

Bernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame
Not long ago I was sitting at home writing something for publication – I won’t say what, except that it was a passage about a certain politician on the Hill. Out of habit I launched into a description that was full of nasty and personal language, and I was about to press on to the next part of the piece when suddenly I hit a mental speed bump. A voice in my head whispered – this really happened – “If you write that shit and Bernie Sanders sees it, he’s going t...

Bernie Sanders Quotes Jeff Immelt: I Am a Nut on China
This was, IMO, the highlight of Bernie Sanders’ non-filibuster on Friday: GE is of course one of our major corporations, and in fact this recent disclosure pointed out the Taxpayers of this country, through the Fed, provided $16 billion in Bailout to General Electric during the recent crisis. This is what the head, CEO, of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, said in 2002, December 6. Quote, Jeff Immelt, head of CEO [sic]. “When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China, China, China,...

Best of Bernie Sanders: The Disease of Greed
All of us at ColoLines were glued to our computers Friday as we watched Sen. Bernie Sanders’ incredible, eight-hour truth telling session on the Senate floor. He was nominally taking on the Obama-McConnell Tax Cut deal. But Sanders’ Speech was actually an essential, clear-eyed dissection of the remarkably unjust—and thus unsustainable—economy we have built over the past two decades. Josh Harkinson at Mother Jones offered some of his own greatest excerpts this weekend. But...