Comcast Calls Amended Racism Complaint Baseless Rehash
The latest claims that Comcast racially discriminates in the content it carries are "the same insufficient allegations" Entertainment Studios Networks and the National Association of African American Owned Media (ESN/NAAAOM) made in their original and amended complaint, Comcast said in…
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support of its motion to dismiss the second amended complaint. In the reply memorandum (in Pacer) filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Comcast said ESN/NAAAOM's second amended complaint (SAC) "rehash[es] argument and contentions this Court has already considered and rejected." The memorandum itself gives an alternate explanation for Comcast's not carrying ESN programming: lack of consumer demand, coupled with Comcast's bandwidth restraints. "When the SAC is stripped away of speculation and supposition, there are no facts that show race played any role ... in the carriage decision," Comcast said. ESN/NAAAOM are pursuing similar litigation against Charter Communications, with that company earlier this month opposing the filing of an amended complaint (see 1608120028). "The complaint is more than adequately pleaded and should go forward," plaintiffs' counsel Skip Miller of Miller Barondess told us Wednesday.