Comcast Merger: Corporate Fascism? (Yes!)

In recent weeks Boston Mayor Tom Menino correctly went after Comcast for raising its basic cable rate from $9.05 to $15.80.

(Full disclosure, I serve as the Mayor’s Charlestown Liaison for a couple more weeks, so it is possible to look at this as article as nothing more than a defense of my current boss, but it is not.)

Comcast for far too long has been able to dictate prices and services for many people and the company has made steps to ensure a monopoly at the federal level. In a recent 4-1 decision by the FCC, Comcast merged with NBC Universal, therefore ensuring less accountability and higher prices without any recourse of the public.

The lone dissenting opinion on the FCC was from Commissioner Michael Copps, expressing concern that the merger will limit communications choices and drive up costs to consumers. "At the end of the day, the public interest requires more -- much more -- than it is receiving," he said. 

Unfortunately, the whole system is corrupt as an FCC member has already signed on to lobby for Comcast, or wait is it NBC? Not really sure, but whatever.

So who benefits from this? Us, the public, me or you? How about none of the above. 

This Comcast merger signifies everything wrong with this country where an elite group of people continue to benefit from laws that they help circumvent for their own personal interests. This merger will hurt free enterprise and continue to erode the internet freedoms smaller companies have had the creativity to enjoy. 

Some, examples where this merger will suffocate the entrepreneurial spirit of many creative thinkers of this country: Let’s suppose an individual creates a website attacking a specific NBC program such as the show “The Voice."  (Side note - That person could be me because this singing reality craze really needs to stop, where people such as Christina Agularia and Steven Tyler have used legitimate talents to be superficial TV judges. End rant.)

OK, so if this person developed a site called “the.T.V.show.thevoice.sucks.almost.as.bad.as.the.song.genie.in.a.bottle.by.ChristinaAgularia.com” and it started to develop a following, that could hurt the ratings of “The Voice.” In turn, that could kill ad revenue and then indirectly hurting the stock price of the whole company, which Comcast now owns in conjunction with NBC. What would stop Comcast from creating firewalls to this particular internet site in areas (like Boston) where they have most of the internet bandwidth? The quick answer is nothing! 

Comcast could, in essence, directly control messaging to help or prevent someone from hurting a show that will hurt their overall bottom line. Some people could argue this nothing more than corporate fascism and they may have a case. 

Although defenders of such a deal will simply say that the “free market” dictates such deals and that the "market" will correct those negatives I pointed out. However, I say that nothing about this deal is about the free market, it is corporate welfare, or elitists’ socialism. In fact, a deal such as this decimates the free market and hurts competition, which is why at one point in this country we had strong laws to protect against such a merger. 

Furthermore, anyone who is willing to defend Comcast as a company should simply follow their own experiences with them. Comcast has recently introduced “XFINITY,” which does nothing but add some more money to your bill without actually giving you anything in return. 

Try calling them with legitimate complaints and they simply give you company talking points about how they are not legally at fault for anything happening with you internet or cable TV.  Also, ever book an appointment with a tech?  Where they say we will have somebody there from anywhere from 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and then when they show, they don’t leave a message if you happen not to answer the phone and leave for the next appointment.  That is such awesome customer service, for which they now have another campaign, “The Comcast Customer Guarantee,” which anticipates bad customer service and when you call they give you an uplifting $25 off your next bill.

This deal at the federal level is bad and will hurt small and yet-to-emerge internet business owners. Many on the right complain about government interference, but what would one call a monopoly and who or what should protect us from that? One could correctly argue if you do not like it, just get rid of Comcast or get Satellite, which I might. But that simplistic argument does not protect against our rights to be free from government or corporate interference for fear of redemption. 

Also, what would stop Comcast from simply buying Direct TV once too many unsatisfied customers went there?  This is a cycle that will never end if it is allowed to go forward in the first place, which thanks to the corrupt FCC, it has been.  

I give up. I am trying out for “The Voice” next week and I will be performing Genie in a bottle. Wish me luck!