Comcast "is becoming television's dominant newscaster, with enormous influence on civic life"

[highplainsdem]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2011-01-27-Comcastnews27_cv_N.htm

Very long article on just how much influence Comcast could have in the near future. Lots here that I'd like to quote, but since only four paragraphs are allowed:

-snip-

Comcast will control the No. 1 evening newscast (The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams), morning newscast (The Today Show), and Sunday talk show (Meet the Press). On cable, CNBC is the leading source of business news, while MSNBC focuses on politics.

NBC's national news operations generated about $1.8 billion in revenue in 2009, with 60% coming from cable, estimates the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism.

NBC also is a power in local news. It owns 25 NBC and Telemundo stations, which collectively reach 36% of all households. Other companies own 234 NBC affiliates. (Gannett, parent of USA TODAY, is a major owner of NBC affiliates.) Newscasts generate nearly 45% of the ad sales at a typical TV station.

-snip-

Roberts or Burke "will have the ability to raise an eyebrow and change the nature of news," says Susan Crawford, a professor at Yeshiva University's Cardozo Law School who's writing a book, The Big Squeeze, about Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal. "The risk is that, without our even noticing it, discourse in America will become blander and more polarized than it is now."

-snip-

[sasha031]

1. K/R

MSNBC is a huge money maker for them, the question is how much will they interfere.

what will happen if we get a repug pres. how many changes will happen then...

wish this didn't happen and I miss Keith.

[Selatius]

2. If the federal government actually enforced anti-trust laws, this wouldn't be a problem. nt

[Odin2005]

3. ComPravda.