Archive | November, 2002

FCC Approves Big Ass Cable Merger

As expected, the FCC said “yeah, baby” to a deal between Comcast and AT&T Broadband, wherein the former will acquire the latter. This creates the largest cable company in the US, with twice as many customers as the #2 company, Time-Warner cable. Any cable subscriber with a brain (and who isn’t a major stockholder) has feared that this merger will cause rates to spike, and possibly limiting the variety of content available over cable TV and over broadband Internet services. …

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NBC TV Reporter Says Remain Critical of Media

I guess mainstream TV news journalists are sometimes allowed to speak their mind. The Daily Northwestern reports on an appearance by Dateline NBC correspondent John Hockenberry at the McCormick Tribune Forum:

He said viewers should be particularly critical of broadcast media after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“In light of the paralysis of the government and the media, you have to keep your critical thinking without them giving it to you,” Hockenberry said. “Civic change lies in the citizens of America.”

Of course, I’m thinking, “no shit, Sherlock.” Nevertheless, it’s important for impressionable and thoughtful undergrads to hear this message straight from someone knee deep in the mainstream rather than just from critics.

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TelCos Lie

MediaSavvy notes a new report that enumerates the many ways that our local telephone companies (or “Regional Bell Operating Companies” aka RBOCs) are lying to us and picking our pockets. And my local telco, SBC/Ameritech, has got to be one of the worst. I’m still reeling from the fact that the Illinois regulators approved the […]

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