May, 02 2011, 09:59am EDT
Free Press: Comcast Must Do Better on Local News to Meet Merger Promises
Spanish-language Telemundo stations lag far behind NBC affiliates when it comes to local coverage
WASHINGTON
A new Free Press report released Monday reveals deep disparities between the amount of local news offered on Comcast's English- and Spanish-language stations.
To justify its takeover of NBC Universal, Comcast committed to increasing local programming across its newly acquired NBC and Telemundo stations for a period of five years. The Federal Communications Commission requires Comcast to file quarterly localism reports for each of the 25 stations to ensure that the company follows through on its promise.
"No News Is Bad News: An Analysis of Comcast-NBC Universal Compliance with FCC Localism Conditions" examines the first filings submitted since the cable giant took over NBC in January. It offers the first glimpse of Comcast's compliance with a merger condition required by the FCC that seeks to increase local news programming at Telemundo and NBC stations owned and operated by Comcast. Read the full report here: https://www.freepress.net/files/No_News_Is_Bad_News.pdf
"The report shows how media consolidation and empty commitments hurt local communities," said Free Press Policy Counsel Corie Wright. "NBC Universal bought Telemundo back in 2002, pledging to increase local news for Spanish-speaking audiences. But it did just the opposite and cut local jobs and journalism. The current local news numbers for Telemundo stations reflect those broken NBC Universal promises.
"Comcast has an opportunity to compensate Telemundo audiences for years of diminished service - but it has a long way to go. We intend to hold Comcast accountable for its local news commitment and make sure that history isn't repeated this time around."
Key findings of the Free Press report:
* Comcast has committed to increasing local news production in only six of the 15 communities served by its Telemundo owned-and-operated stations (O&Os).
* While local news and public affairs programming represents less than 20 percent of weekly programming time for NBC O&Os, it represents less than 3 percent of weekly programming time for most Telemundo O&Os.
* NBC stations average about four hours and 42 minutes per day of local news. Telemundo stations on average air only 48 minutes per day of local news.
* In Los Angeles, the NBC station provides nearly four hours per day of local news. The local Telemundo station serving Los Angeles provided less than one hour.
* In New York, the NBC station provided close to six hours per day of local programming. The local Telemundo station only provided an average of 30 minutes per day.
* Telemundo stations in Boston and Denver aired no local news or information programming between January and April 2011.
The report also finds that Comcast failed to properly report to the FCC on its programming, obscuring the true nature and amount of programming being claimed as local news.
* Comcast failed to include any descriptions of the programs listed in its localism filings. Without these descriptions, it is difficult for the public and the FCC to determine with any accuracy whether the programming listed actually meets the merger commitment.
* More than 1,000 hours that Comcast claimed as local news programming were actually commercials aired during broadcasts.
On Monday, Comcast announced plans to increase local programming for its NBC stations in Dallas, Miami and California. No local programming increases have been announced yet for Telemundo stations. Free Press is calling on Comcast to commit to significantly improving local news production and distribution across all Telemundo stations that it controls.
"All communities deserve better local news programming," Wright said. "We challenge Comcast to go above and beyond its merger commitment and provide Spanish-speaking audiences with the local news programming they need and deserve."
Free Press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what's actually happening in their communities.
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Asked If He Must Uphold the US Constitution, Trump Says: 'I Don't Know'
"I'm not a lawyer," the president said in a newly aired interview.
May 04, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump refused in an interview released Sunday to affirm that the nation's Constitution affords due process to citizens and noncitizens alike and that he, as president, must uphold that fundamental right.
"I don't know, I'm not a lawyer," Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker, who asked if the president agrees with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statement that everyone on U.S. soil is entitled to due process.
When Welker pointed to the Fifth Amendment—which states that "no person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law"—Trump again replied that he's unsure and suggested granting due process to the undocumented immigrants he wants to deport would be too burdensome.
"We'd have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials," Trump said, echoing a sentiment that his vice president expressed last month.
Asked whether he needs to "uphold the Constitution of the United States as president," Trump replied, "I don't know."
Watch:
WELKER: The 5th Amendment says everyone deserves due process
TRUMP: It might say that, but if you're talking about that, then we'd have to have a million or two million or three million trials pic.twitter.com/FMZQ7O9mTP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 4, 2025
Trump, who similarly deferred to "the lawyers" when asked recently about his refusal to bring home wrongly deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, has unlawfully cited the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly remove undocumented immigrants from the U.S. without due process. Federal agents have also arrested and detained students, academics, and a current and former judge in recent weeks, heightening alarm over the administration's authoritarian tactics.
CNNreported Friday that the administration has "been examining whether it can label some suspected cartel and gang members inside the U.S. as 'enemy combatants' as a possible way to detain them more easily and limit their ability to challenge their imprisonment."
"Trump has expressed extreme frustration with federal courts halting many of those migrants' deportations, amid legal challenges questioning whether they were being afforded due process," the outlet added. "By labeling the migrants as enemy combatants, they would have fewer rights, the thinking goes."
Some top administration officials have publicly expressed disdain for the constitutional right to due process. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, wrote in a social media post last month that "the judicial process is for Americans" and "immediate deportation" is for undocumented immigrants.
The New Republic's Greg Sargent wrote in a column Saturday that "Miller appears to want Trump to have the power to declare undocumented immigrants to be terrorists and gang members by fiat; to have the power to absurdly decree them members of a hostile nation's invading army, again by fiat; and then to have quasi-unlimited power to remove them, unconstrained by any court."
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"I am fundamentally a DOGE person," Frank Bisignano told CNBC in March, amplifying concerns that he would take his experience in the financial technology industry—where he was notorious for inflicting mass layoffs while raking in a huge compensation package—to SSA, which is already facing large-scale staffing cuts that threaten the delivery of benefits for millions of Americans.
In an email on Saturday, the progressive advocacy group Social Security Works warned that Bisignano "is not the cure to the DOGE-manufactured chaos at the Social Security Administration."
"In fact, he is part of it, and, if confirmed, would make it even worse," the group added. "We're not going down without a fight. Republicans may have a majority in the Senate, but we're going to rally to send a message: A vote for Trump's Social Security Commissioner is a vote to destroy Social Security!"
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Bisignano, the CEO of payment processing giant Fiserv, has been accused during his confirmation process of lying under oath about his ties to DOGE, which has worked to seize control of Social Security data as part of a purported effort to root out "fraud" that advocates say is virtually nonexistent.
As The Washington Post reported in March, Bisignano testified to the Senate Finance Committee that "he has had no contact" with DOGE.
"But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the claim is 'not true,' citing an account the senator said he received from a senior Social Security official who recently left the agency," the Post noted. "The former official... described 'numerous contacts Mr. Bisignano made with the agency since his nomination,' including 'frequent' conversations with senior executives."
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The Oregon Democrat said Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee refused his request for a bipartisan meeting with the whistleblower to evaluate their accusations unless "we agreed to hand over any information received from the whistleblower directly to the nominee and the Trump administration."
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"We must not allow intimidation and authoritarian tactics to take root in our political system."
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The groups—including All Voting Is Local and the ACLU of Wisconsin—said in a joint statement that Evers' guidance to state officials on how to handle being confronted by federal agents was "a prudent measure aimed at ensuring compliance with state and federal laws while protecting the rights of state employees."
The suggestion by Tom Homan, a leader of President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, that Evers could be arrested for issuing such guidance undermines "the foundational principles of our democracy, including the separation of powers, the rule of law, and the right of state governments to operate without undue federal interference," the groups said Saturday.
"To threaten our governor over his legal directive is gross overreach by our federal government, and it is not occurring in a vacuum," they continued, warning that the administration's rhetoric and actions represent a "chilling attempt to normalize fascism."
"Similar occurrences are happening across the nation, including within our academic systems," the groups added. "If we do not reject these actions now, states and other institutions will only lose more and more of their autonomy and power. This is exactly why we underscore Gov. Evers' claim that this event is 'chilling.'"
The threats against Gov. Evers in Wisconsin undermine the foundational principles of our democracy: the separation of powers, the rule of law, and the right of state governments to operate without undue federal interference. We must reject this overreach. allvotingislocal.org/statements/w...
[image or embed]
— All Voting is Local (@allvotingislocal.bsky.social) May 3, 2025 at 9:58 AM
Trump administration officials and the president himself have repeatedly threatened state and local officials as the White House rushes ahead with its lawless mass deportation campaign, which has ensnared tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants and at least over a dozen U.S. citizens—including children.
In an executive order signed late last month, Trump accused "some state and local officials" of engaging in a "lawless insurrection" against the federal government by refusing to cooperate with the administration's deportation efforts.
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