Comcast Carriage Dismissal 'Erroneously Imposed,' Says Appeal
A U.S. District judge's dismissal of a complaint alleging racism in Comcast's carriage decisions (see 1610060002) "erroneously imposed a heightened pleading standard" and wrongly drew inferences favoring Comcast's alternative explanations. That was the major thrust of the Entertainment Studios Networks…
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(ESN) and the National Association of African American Owned Media (NAAAOM) opening brief (in Pacer) filed Friday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. ESN/NAAAOM said their allegations showed plenty of evidence that undermined Comcast explanations, such as the numerous, obscure white-owned networks Comcast added to its lineup since 2010 while claiming bandwidth restrictions kept it from adding popular ESN networks. ESN/NAAAOM also said Comcast's claim of benign motive isn't presumed true at the pleading stage, meaning the plaintiff isn't required to present compelling evidence to rebut it. And ESN/NAAAOM also said Comcast violated Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act, which governs equality in contractual relationships, if it was motivated by race as well as by business when not contracting for ESN content, and its racial discrimination claim and Comcast's arguments about viewer demand and bandwidth restrictions "do not present mutually exclusive explanations." Comcast didn't comment Monday.