Latino News and Opinion

A select group of national Latino leaders met privately March 1 in Philadelphia with the top brass at Comcast and NBC Universal.

They're being sold on why the merger of the biggest cable TV and residential broadband company in our country with one of the largest television networks and programmers allegedly would be good for the Latino community and the public interest.

The merger would give Comcast unprecedented control over the commanding heights of our nation's media system. If allowed to go forward, Comcast would own the broadcast networks of NBC and Telemundo, part of at least 30 cable networks, eight regional sports networks, more than two dozen local NBC and Telemundo TV stations and a movie studio.

If this takeover goes through, the control that Comcast would exert over our TV and Internet experiences will be considerable. We can expect cable rates - which already have increased three times the rate of inflation since 1996 - to spike even higher. We can be sure it will be even harder for independent and diverse programming to find a spot in the cable lineup. And we know mergers almost always mean job cuts.

And let's not kid ourselves. If this merger is rubber-stamped, it won't be long before we see another wave of mergers among companies like Verizon, AT&T, CBS and Disney. That's what always happens, even though these deals historically have been disastrous for consumers - and especially for people of color.

Historically, that's why leading Latino organizations have been very skeptical of runaway media consolidation. When NBC announced its plan to buy Telemundo in 2001, many of our nation's leading Latino groups opposed the transaction. They urged the FCC to reject the deal, claiming it wouldn't serve the public interest or promote diversity.                       

But now that Comcast wants to buy NBC - which includes the Telemundo network -  it will make this deal one of the most consequential media mergers in our nation's history. But Latino civil rights groups have been strangely silent.                              

A decade ago, NBC made all sorts of promises about how the Telemundo deal would benefit local communities - and then it reneged on them. For starters, it cut the local Telemundo newscast in 2006 in major cities like Dallas, Houston, San Jose and San Antonio after promising to compete against Univision.

It also stated that the deal would "benefit NBC's English-only audience by creating new possibilities for the cross-fertilization of ideas and viewpoints." But those benefits never materialized.

Comcast, too, has a long record of making promises it doesn't keep. For example, after promising to respect collective bargaining deals, it has turned around and busted the unions of companies it has taken over. That's cold comfort for the union workers at NBC and Telemundo.

And we can't overlook the programming. During a congressional hearing on Feb. 24, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) lambasted NBC for the misogynistic and homophobic programming that airs on Telemundo, and he criticized Comcast for not having a single Latino board member.

In that same hearing, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) ripped Comcast for only having one African-American on its board, and took NBC to task for having only one African American and no Latinos among its top executives. Maybe that's why there's no black- or Latino-oriented programming on the network.

Comcast wants Congress to believe its' bad actions are all in the past. But even in sworn testimony to Congress, the company is talking out of both sides of its mouth.

Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts promised Congress his company would abide by a series of self-imposed "public interest" concessions. But the list of promises they've offered is just a bunch of things they're already doing, things they were already planning to do, or things they're required to do by law.

It should be noted that Comcast has given generously to support the work of many leading Latino groups. But this does not justify or rectify the damage this merger would cause for consumers, for the public and for our community.

Comcast wants help from Latino groups to push through this mega-deal. But before offering their stamp of approval, we hope Latino leaders will ask some important questions: Will the merger increase cable prices? Will Comcast try to reject labor agreements? Will the merger increase the representation of Latinos on network and cable programming? Will it result in greater Latino ownership of broadcast stations and cable networks? Or will it increase the barriers to ownership?

Will Comcast make sure the open Internet stays that way so that small business can prosper and independent voices can be heard, even though it is in court trying to strip the FCC of its authority to protect an open Internet? Will we be better able to speak for ourselves or will this deal just create an even bigger gatekeeper?

Comcast and NBC Universal will undoubtedly make all sorts of promises about how Latinos would benefit from this massive merger. But they don't have a believable answer for how this merger will actually benefit our community.

That's because it won't.

Felix Sanchez is the chairman of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts and Chief Executive Officer of TerraCom, a government and public relations firm. Sanchez does not represent nor is receiving direct or indirect compensation to take a position on the merger.

Joseph Torres is the government relations manager for Free Press and former deputy director of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Free Press is a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that does not accept money from businesses, the government or political parties.