To rally political support for the merger, Comcast’s political-action committee handed out campaign cash, and Cohen worked to head off the concerns over diversity. Between 2008 and 2010, Comcast’s corporate foundation donated more than $3 million to 39 minority groups that wrote letters to federal regulators in support of the NBC deal. Comcast and NBC Universal also worked out an agreement with advocacy groups guaranteeing increased “minority participation in news and public affairs programming”—so long as the deal went through. And in 2009 and 2010, Comcast gave $155,000 to an organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton, who ended up endorsing the merger.

The campaign paid off. In January 2011, Washington approved the deal. One week later, NBC signed Cohen’s old boss, Ed Rendell, to an on-air contract. At MSNBC, which Comcast also owns, Sharpton landed a talk show. A spokeswoman for Comcast says the company is a “long-standing supporter” of minority groups and had nothing to do with Sharpton’s hiring. She also says Cohen played “little to no role” in securing Rendell’s contract.

http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/how-david-gregory-lost-his-job/

The lawsuit, seeking $20 billion, was filed in Los Angeles federal court Friday by Entertainment Studios, a television company founded by black producer and comedian Byron Allen and the National Association of African-American Owned Media (NAAAOM). The complaint, which comes as regulators mull a $45-billion merger between Comcast and TWC, alleges that Comcast has refused to do business with Allen and other black media executives.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/02/24/lawsuit-accuses-comcast-al-sharpton-of-discriminating-against-black-owned-media/

I'm betting that "at least one" is the company owned by Byron Allen. Wouldn't surprise me if Allen wasn't the founder of the AAOM.

or history: http://www.naaaom.com/

I now have to search Byron Allen to get some perspective on this huge deal that will make media ownership even a smaller group .

Courthouse News Service, Dec 5, 2014, 8:26 AM EST

A black-owned media company sued AT&T for $10 billion this week, claiming AT&T shut it out from co-defendant DirecTV, for racial reasons, after buying the satellite company for $67 billion. The National Association of African-American Owned Media claims in its Dec. 2 federal complaint that it represents "at least one" African American-owned media company. It does not identify that company, but says it owns seven channels that produce original content, 32 television series, and a library of thousands of hours of programming. LINK

###

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/tag/national-association-of-african-american-owned-media

And the Urban League and the NAACP? Wow, some of these organizations need to clean up their act.

The Rev seems to care more for green than any other color. :/