March 2, 2016

MSNBC Super Tuesday Coverage Unexpectedly Terminated

I’ll admit, I’m a night owl, so yes, I was still up shortly before 1:30am on the Wednesday after Super Tuesday when MSNBC decided to abruptly pull the plug on its live Super Tuesday coverage. Okay, I admit, I’m still up writing this damn article. So, MSNBC had their usual coverage team this election season with Brian Williams and Rachel Maddow at the helm. They were on the air all night, announcing poll closures and projected winners. I thought for sure they would end their live coverage at 1AM, which is when I planned to go to bed. But, shock and surprise, they continued their live coverage beyond 1am Eastern. So, being the fool that I am, I stayed up to continue watching. Then at around 1:20ish Brian Williams dispatched us to a commercial break, and when coverage returned, the graphic on the bottom right changed from “Live” to “Earlier,” but otherwise no mention of the end of live coverage. Would it have been so hard for MSNBC to announce that they were ending their live Super Tuesday coverage for the night? I mean, why not just end it at 1AM? Now, this would be totally bizarre, except here’s one small problem, they’ve done this before. If MSNBC is trying to compete with other cable news networks, maybe they need to try to show less contempt for their audience. I mean seriously, as if we wouldn’t notice?

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February 15, 2014

Mergers Like Comcast-Time Warner Are NEVER Good For Customers

When one massive corporation merges with another massive corporation, the result is never good for customers. The spinmeisters can say what they will, but these mergers are not done to benefit customers, instead they are done to service greed. This is the capitalist formula: Grow, and grow some more, and then when it seems there’s no more growth potential, do whatever you can to grow yet again. And for many very large companies, it is the merger that has allowed them to continue to appease those shareholders. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts calls this a “pro-consumer” merger. “The combination of Time Warner Cable and Comcast creates an exciting opportunity for our company, for our customers and for our shareholders,” said Roberts in a media conference call. But that is a lie, as mergers like Comcast-Time Warner do not lead to lower prices and higher competition, they lead to the exact opposite, and that is hardly “exciting” for customers. But he is right about one thing, this is exactly what the shareholders want. These mergers are not about doing right by the customer, they are about doing right by the shareholders, and that includes top executive compensation.

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June 20, 2013

FCC Indecency Standards: Conservative Sponsored Government Censorship

The only people hanging on to antiquated FCC indecency regulations are conservatives and their various “family” groups. The rest of us recognize this for what it is, government censorship. Everyone could point to something they dislike when it comes to big media companies, but that is not a reason to violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Government can regulate industries, but it should never stifle free speech.

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