Cárdenas Seeks Scrutiny of Comcast/TWC Programming

Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) has sent his letter to the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice asking them to vet the Comcast/Time Warner Cable for access to independent programming issues, but suggesting there might not be any safeguards that would protect unaffiliated content.

That is according to an aide to the congressman.

A copy of the letter shows that Cárdenas was able to get three other Democratic California colleagues and one Arizona representative to sign the letter: Reps. Sam Farr, Zoe Lofgren, and Janice Hahn (all California) and Raul Grijalva of Arizona.

Cárdenas announced Wednesday (Feb. 18) that he opposes the merger and wants the FCC and DOJ to oppose it, but the letter only asks them to look closely at the potential of the combined company to discriminate against unaffiliated content.

Comcast Wednesday strongly defended its deal and record on independent programming.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.