This week’s revelation that a Comcast-controlled enterprise deliberately and consciously removed news content critical of Comcast and its public policy lobbying practices speaks to the impact media concentration has on news dissemination.

It also exposes the close relationship Comcast maintains with non-profit groups it financially supports, encouraging the kinds of positive letters about its operations the New York Public Service Commission can now find on file in this case.[1]

The group involved in the current controversy reportedly received $350,000 from Comcast and promptly began a vocal opposition campaign against Net Neutrality, an open Internet policy Comcast still opposes being enacted as official FCC policy.[2]

Professor Todd Gitlin of Columbia University called Comcast’s close relationship with the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) the “closest thing I can imagine to a political quid pro quo. The fact NewsOne saw fit to delete a report that they previously posted without any claim that anything was mistaken in the report tells you something about their commitment to open discourse.”

Jeff Cohen, an associate professor of journalism at Ithaca College, also commented on the NewsOne decision. “Just as corporate cash can corrupt civil rights groups, this incident shows how corporate power can corrupt and censor the news.”[3]

Time Warner Cable operates local news channels in most of the major New York cities it serves. These channels will also come under the umbrella of Comcast, giving it an even greater news voice through its NBC and Telemundo networks, MSNBC, local cable news operations, and owned and operated local broadcast affiliate stations in New York City.

In closing, as a reminder to the Commission, Comcast’s list of broadcast, cable and digital media assets is already enormous and will grow even larger if a merger with Time Warner Cable is approved.[4]

Comcast-NBCUniversal

Broadcast Television
NBC Television Network
NBC Entertainment
NBC News
NBC Sport Group
Universal Television (UTV)
Universal Cable Productions
NBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution
NBCUniversal International Television Distribution

NBC Local Media Division
NBC New York (WNBC)
NBC Los Angeles (KNBC)
NBC Chicago (WMAQ)
NBC Philadelphia (WCAU)
NBC Bay Area (KNTV)
NBC Dallas/Fort Worth (KXAS)
NBC Washington (WRC)
NBC Miami (WTVJ)
NBC San Diego (KNSD)
NBC Connecticut (WVIT)
NBC Everywhere
LX TV
Skycastle Entertainment

Telemundo
KVEA (Los Angeles)
WNJU (New York)
WSCV (Miami)
KTMD (Houston)
WSNS (Chicago)
KXTX (Dallas/Fort Worth)
KVDA (San Antonio)
KSTS (San Francisco/San Jose)
KTAZ (Phoenix)
KNSO (Fresno)
KDEN (Denver)
KBLR (Las Vegas)
WNEU (Boston/Merrimack)
KHRR (Tucson)
WKAQ (Puerto Rico)
KWHY (Los Angeles) (Independent)

Television Channels
Bravo
Chiller
CNBC
CNBC World
Comcast Charter Sports Southeast
Comcast Sports Group
Comcast SportsNet Bay Area
Comcast SportsNet California
Comcast SportsNet Chicago
Comcast SportsNet Houston
Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic
Comcast SportsNet New England
Comcast SportsNet Northwest
Comcast SportsNet Philadelhpia
SNY
The Mtn.-Mountain West Sports Network
CSS
Comcast Sports Southwest
New England Cable News (Manages)
NBC Sports Network
The Comcast Network
E! Entertainment Television
G4
Golf Channel
MSNBC
mun2
Oxygen Media
Cloo
Sprout
The Style Network
Syfy
Universal HD
USA Network
The Weather Channel Companies
Syfy Universal (Universal Networks International)
Diva Universal (Universal Networks International)
Studio Universal (Universal Networks International)
Universal Channel (Universal Networks International)
13th Street Universal (Universal Networks International)
Movies 24 (Universal Networks International)
Hallmark Channel (non-U.S.) (Universal Networks International)
KidsCo (Interest) (Universal Networks International)

Film
Universal Pictures
Focus Features
Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Parks and Resorts
Universal Parks and Resorts

Digital Media
DailyCandy
Fandango
Hulu (32%)
iVillage
NBC.com
CNBC Digital
Plaxo

Communications
XFINITY TV
XFINITY Internet
XFINITY Voice

Sports Management
Comcast-Spectator
Philadelphia Flyers
Wells Fargo Center
Global Spectrum (Public Assembly Management)
Ovations Food Services
Front Row Marketing Services
Paciolan
New Era Tickets (ComcastTIX)
Flyers Skate Zone

Other
Comcast Ventures, which is invested in numerous companies.

Time Warner Cable

Local channels`
Time Warner Cable News[5]
NY1: Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island
NY1 Noticias: Spanish language news for New York City
NY State of Politics Blog
TWC News Capital Region (Albany, Amsterdam, Saratoga and Berkshire counties)
TWC News Central NY (Syracuse, Ithaca/Cortland, Utica/Rome)
TWC News Hudson Valley
TWC News Northern NY (Watertown/Ft. Drum)
TWC News Southern Tier (Elmira/Corning, Binghamton/Oneonta)
TWC News Western NY (Buffalo, Finger Lakes Region, Jamestown, Rochester, and Batavia)

Regional Sports Networks
Metro Sports
Time Warner Cable Sports
Time Warner Cable SportsNet
Time Warner Cable Deportes
TWC Sports 32
SNY

Other Holdings
Adelphia — former cable television company in PA
NaviSite — cloud and hosting services company
Insight Communications — cable operator
DukeNet Communications — Fiber optic network
Time Warner Cable Internet
Time Warner Cable Media (advertising)

—

[1]http://documents.dps.ny.gov/public/MatterManagement/CaseMaster.aspx?MatterCaseNo=14-m-0183

[2]http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/06/06/12769/civil-rights-groups-fcc-positions-reflect-industry-funding-critics-say

[3]http://www.republicreport.org/2014/comcast-affiliated-newsite-censored-my-article-about-net-neutrality-lobbying/

[4]https://archives.cjr.org/resources/index.php

[5]http://spectrumlocalnews.com/

When the community of Batavia, Ill., a distant suburb of Chicago, decided they wanted something better than the poor broadband offered by Comcast and what is today AT&T, it decided to hold a public referendum on whether the town should construct and run its own fiber to the home network for the benefit of area residents and businesses. A local community group, Fiber for Our Future, put up $4,325 to promote the initiative back in 2004, if only because the town obviously couldn’t spend tax dollars to advertise or promote the idea itself.

Within weeks of the announced proposal, both Comcast and SBC Communications (which later acquired AT&T) launched an all-out war on the idea of fiber to the home service, mass mailing flyers attacking the proposal to area residents and paying for push polling operations that asked area residents questions like, “should tax money be allowed to provide pornographic movies for residents?” The predictable opposition measured in response to questions like that later appeared in mysterious opinion pieces published in area newspapers submitted by the incumbent companies and their allies.

Comcast spent $89,740 trying to defeat the measure in a community of just 26,000 people. SBC spent $192,324 — almost $3.50 per resident by Comcast and just shy of $7.50 per resident by SBC. Much the same happened in the neighboring communities of St. Charles and Geneva. 

According to Motherboard, the scare tactics worked, cutting support for the fiber network from over 72 percent to its eventual defeat in two separate referendums, leaving most of Batavia with 3Mbps DSL from SBC or an average of 6Mbps from Comcast.

Much of the blizzard of mailers and brochures Comcast and SBC mailed out were part of a coordinated disinformation campaign. Both companies also knew their claims would go largely unchallenged because Fiber for Our Future and other fiber proponents lacked the funding to respond with fact check pieces of their own mailed to residents to expose the distortions.

When it was all over, it was back to business as usual with Comcast and SBC. The latter defended its reputation after complaints soared about its inadequate broadband speeds.

Kirk Brannock, then midwest networking president for SBC, told city council members in the area that “fiber is an unproven technology.”

“What are you going to do with 20Mbps? It’s like having an Indy race car and you don’t have the racetrack to drive it on. We are going to be offering 3Mbps. Most users won’t use that,” he said.

“All the subscribers got these extraordinary fliers. Ghosts, goblins, witches. I mean, this is about a broadband utility. Very scary stuff. This is real. This is comical, but this is very real,” Catharine Rice of the Coalition for Local Internet Choice said of the fliers at an event discussing municipal fiber earlier this year. “They have this amazing picture, and then they lie about what happened. They’re piling in facts that aren’t true.”

In communities that won approval for construction of publicly-owned fiber networks, the battle wasn’t over. Tennessee’s large state cable lobbying group unsuccessfully sued EPB to keep it out of the fiber business. In North Carolina, Time Warner Cable effectively wrote legislation introduced and passed by the Republican-dominated General Assembly that forbade community broadband expansion and made constructing new networks nearly impossible. In Ohio, another cable industry-sponsored piece of legislation destroyed the business plan of Lebanon’s fiber network, forcing the community to eventually sell the network at a loss to Cincinnati Bell.

The larger Comcast grows, the more financial resources it can bring to bare against any would-be competitors. Even in 2004, the company was large enough to force would-be community competitors to steer clear and stay out of its territory.

Another corporate tax cut

Wall Street rallied around big telecommunications company stocks this week as news spread that Windstream has found a way to avoid paying federal income tax by converting its copper and fiber networks and other property assets into a tax-exempt trust. An experienced Chicago accountant can help businesses understand the implications of such tax strategies and ensure compliance with federal regulations. Their expertise is invaluable in navigating complex tax laws and identifying opportunities for legitimate tax savings.

For expert advice on managing complex tax strategies and compliance, a good place like taxpros.online/ can offer valuable insights. Their professionals can help you navigate intricate tax issues and ensure your strategies align with current regulations, minimizing risks and optimizing your financial outcomes.

Windstream says it has already won Internal Revenue Service approval to convert all of its network assets into a publicly traded “real estate investment trust.” REIT’s pay no federal income taxes, and if other large telecom companies follow Windstream’s lead, taxpayers will have to make up the estimated $12 billion in lost tax revenue annually.

Investors are excited by the prospect of a major reduction in tax exposure for some of America’s richest telecommunications companies. Windstream was rewarded the most with a 12 percent boost in its share price – a two-year high for the largely rural phone company. But AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision also saw stock prices rising over the possibility of major increases in dividend payouts to shareholders from the proceeds of the tax savings. To navigate into the intricacies of taxes, one can put their trust on services like the Salt Lake City tax resolution.

REIT conversions are just the latest trick in the book corporations have used to cut, if not eliminate most of their tax liabilities. REITs are exempt from federal taxes as long as they distribute 90 percent of taxable earnings back to shareholders. Democrats in Congress have been busy fighting their Republican colleagues offer efforts to drop the practice of inversion — allowing companies to cut taxes by relocating offshore. Robert Williams, an independent corporate tax consultant, told Bloomberg News the Democrats have their hands full with that this year and are unlikely to be able to also devote resources to closing the REIT tax loophole.

“Management teams will surely look closely at emulating Windstream because the tax savings are potentially so significant,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson LLC, in a note. “For a company like AT&T, where free cash flow has been under pressure and management has been willing to push hard to save on taxes, the appeal must surely be great.”

If a high-profile phone or cable company moves to enact an REIT, that might be enough to provoke Congress to act, warned Moffett.

“The biggest hurdle in this process is getting the private letter ruling from the IRS, and we’ve got that,” David Avery, a spokesman for Windstream, told Bloomberg. The deal doesn’t need the consent of the Federal Communications Commission, Avery added.

Windstream’s tax savings, which could definitely be one of the best Tax Strategies out there, will cut company debt by around $3.2 billion and produce about $115 million annually in free cash flow. Although Windstream chief financial officer Tony Thomas vaguely promised to use some of the money to invest in broadband upgrades, he was more specific about the benefits Windstream’s REIT will have on the company’s growth agenda. It can use the savings to “acquire other network assets to grow,” — business jargon meaning more merger and acquisition deals, this time fueled by Windstream’s slashed tax bill.

Wall Street investment banks paid to advise on Windstream’s REIT conversion are promoting the concept to other telecom companies as easy to replicate and profoundly profitable. But who should share in the new found wealth?

“People are asking the question if these tax benefits should be passed on to the end user — you and I when we pay our phone or cable bill — versus going to the corporation,” said Phil Owens, vice president at Green Street Advisors, a real estate research firm in Newport Beach, California, that has counseled companies like Equinix on REIT conversions.

Don’t count on it.

If your non-profit or civil rights group feels that part of its core mission is writing letters in favor of a giant cable company’s plans to upsize, we’d like to welcome you to Stop the Cap’s new Alert Your Donor Base program, a free public service from a group that does not accept contributions from corporate donors, big or small. All too often, your love letters have gone unnoticed by your contributors who believed their money was being used to help the needy and downtrodden, not rich corporate executives, shareholders and Wall Street investment banks.

No worries, those days are over. We’re thrilled to share your all-too-often unpublicized excitement for all-things-Comcast with your donors and supporters on your group’s social media pages, discussion forums, and even with the local media in your area.

As we see it, non-profits and civil rights groups serve important functions in society and we encourage all to redouble those efforts and get out of the corporate shill business. Comcast really doesn’t need your help to consummate their $45 billion dollar deal. But if you insist, we think it’s only fair the public understands where their contributions are going.

Dear Boys and Girls Club of Cape Cod,

We’re excited to learn that the challenges faced by the youth of Cape Cod have evidently been entirely resolved, freeing up your organization’s valuable time and resources to promote a $45 billion dollar merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable on your group’s letterhead.

Your Massachusetts donors must share my excitement, knowing your organization now has an enormous surplus of resources in the bank. Why else would the Boys and Girls Club spend valuable time and money churning out letters for a multi-billion dollar corporation that customers across Massachusetts know and loathe.

We were especially impressed with how far your group was willing to reach beyond its core service area — sending letters gushing about Comcast to state regulators (excerpt below) like the New York State Public Service Commission:

Again and again over the past 17 years, Comcast has proven itself to be a good ¿corporate citizen¿ by providing numerous services to the Boys & Girls Club free of charge and always with a friendly helping hand. 

I do know that Comcast has also partnered with our national organization, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, since 2000, providing more than $68 million in cash and in-kind contributions and that they sponsor of Club Tech, a digital literacy initiative dedicated to providing youth with computer skills needed to success in the 21st century. 

The Boys & Girls Club of Cape Cod serves 823 children on an annual basis providing individualized supplementary education at the elementary, middle and high school levels.  It is no exaggeration to say we would not be where we are today without the assistance of good neighbors like Comcast and I have every reason to believe that a stronger Comcast will only strengthen their ability to serve the community.

The Boys & Girls Club of Cape Cod is grateful to Comcast for their support of our kids and families and fully expect that the same kind of “good neighbor attitude” will continue in support nonprofit organizations in NY and elsewhere.

68 million dollars. We let that dollar amount sit with us for a moment. $68,000,000. That sure is a lot of incentive to spread good cheer on behalf of a company that ordinary consumers voted (again), The Worst Company in America. And look at you — you want them to grow even larger!

We have no doubt that the Boys and Girls Club is indeed grateful to Comcast for numerous checks handed out to your organization. Unfortunately, this only convinces us of two things:

1. The Boys and Girls Club has too much free time on its hands, becoming intimately involved in giant corporate business deals that help executives and shareholders, and not too many boys and girls who face Comcast’s notoriously high rates and bad service when they get a little older;
2. Your organization really doesn’t need contributions because Comcast is available to cut you checks at every opportunity.

Yours very truly,

Stop the Cap!

If your non-profit or civil rights group has or is thinking of writing a glowing letter in favor of the merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable, Stop the Cap! is delighted to announce our new Alert Your Donor Base service. Each time we discover a letter submitted to a state or federal regulator announcing your enthusiastic support for the Worst Company in America marrying the second worst, we’ll be sharing that exciting news, along with any contributions we discover Comcast has sent your way, to your members and supporters.

We were surprised to learn that so many non-profit and civil rights groups don’t seem to publicize their sudden fascination with Comcast’s growth agenda. Perhaps it is an oversight. But that’s no problem. We’ll make sure the news lands on your Facebook page, Twitter feed, and your local media outlets. You have nothing to be ashamed about, right?

If donors decide that Comcast has evidently given your group so much support you feel somehow obligated to divert your attention away from your core mission to write a Hallmark Card in favor of $45 billion corporate merger deals, that’s important news for them to know. Perhaps donors will decide it is safe to direct their contributions to the groups that are dedicated to helping real people, not multibillion dollar cable companies.

It’s the least we could do.

Here’s a sample:

Dear Carlisle Hope Station:

For the benefit of your donors, we’d like to share your exciting news that the Carlisle Hope Station of Carlisle, Pa. took valuable time out of its day to send a letter of support for Comcast’s $45 billion merger deal with Time Warner Cable. This merger will have no impact on your group or its constituency because Comcast is already your local cable company. You decided it was best for New Yorkers to also enjoy cable service from the 2014 winner of the Worst Company in America award.

We pondered why your charitable group would spend time, money, and resources on a letter writing campaign for multi-billion dollar corporation. Then we discovered Comcast is a Platinum Donor, contributing more than $10,000 in in-kind/real contributions to your organization. Since Comcast has so generously donated to your effort, perhaps there are other local needy organizations that could do with some donations — ones that don’t have time to write letters to out-of-state regulators about cable company mergers.

Yours very truly,

Stop the Cap!