LATINOS OPPOSE COMCAST-NBC UNIVERSAL MERGER

On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee held a rare field hearing in Los Angeles to consider testimony about the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger. Spearheaded by Congresswoman Maxine Waters and chaired by Congressman John Conyers, these hearings provided a forum largely for critics of and for Paula Madison of NBC Universal and others to explain the benefits of this proposed merger. Alex Nogales of the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and Kathryn F. Galan of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) provided testimony on behalf of the Latino community.

 

This merger proposal, since it involves so many media properties, has generated much debate. Within the Latino community, a small group of organizations have been meeting with Comcast and NBC Universal to work out a memorandum of understanding that would formally outline the benefits to the Latino community of this merger (these include the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the National Council of La Raza, the Cuban American National Council, the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, and the Hispanic Association for Corporate Responsibility).

 

 As Nogales of the NHMC points out in his testimony, this is a process that is still in negotiation. He testified that the NHMC will oppose the merger unless "strong, verifiable and enforceable conditions are imposed and agreed to by Comcast," including conditions aimed at increasing diversity in employment, governance, procurement, programming, media ownership and philanthropy.  

 

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists has already publicly opposed the merger, referring to it as a "massive media consolidation [that] will lead to fewer journalism jobs, less coverage of the Latino community, less diversity of voices, and excessive control for one company over the country's media." Comcast spokesperson Susan Gonzalez challenges the characterization of the merger as a media consolidation, seeing it as merger of a content provider with a media distributor.

 

Given the scale of this proposed merger and its important implications for the Latino community, we urge you to study this testimony and this issue closely as it develops.

 

Below are the links to the testimony that was available today. Check back to the House Judiciary Committee website for updates of the other testimony.

 

---Angelo Falcón

 

The Proposed Combination of Comcast and NBC Universal
A Field Hearing by the

Judiciary Committee

 

Monday, June 7, 2010

 9:00 a.m.
The California Science Center
The Donald P. Loker Conference Center
700 Exposition Park Drive
Los Angeles, CA

 

Witness List

 

Panel I

 

Will Griffin

Hip Hop On Demand

Round Rock, TX

 

Alex Nogales

National Hispanic Media Coalition

Pasadena, CA

 

Samuel Kang

The Greenlining Institute

Berkeley, CA

 

Allen Hammond

Santa Clara University School of Law

Santa Clara, CA

 

Alfred C. Liggins, III

Radio One, Inc.

Lanham, MD

 

Stanley E. Washington

Chairman and CEO

Tower of Babel, LLC

Sacramento, CA

 

* Testimony not yet received on June 7, 2010; click here for updates