Comcast Hoping for Sept. 12 Hearing on 'Scam' Discrimination Complaint
Comcast's attempt to have the second amended complaint of racially motivated carriage discrimination brought by Entertainment Studios Networks (ESN) and the National Association of African American Owned Media (NAAAOM) tossed is tentatively set for a hearing Sept. 12 in U.S.…
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District Court in Los Angeles, the cable operator said in a filing (in Pacer) Monday. The filing came with Comcast's memorandum in support of its motion to dismiss. The complaint -- which alleges racial discrimination by Comcast in its decision not to carry ESN channels (see 1606100017) -- "is a scam" and "extortion by litigation," Comcast said in its memorandum. Despite this being the third complaint, Comcast said, "they still have nothing but conclusory assertions of race discrimination and conspiracy theories [and the complaint] utterly fails to plead facts" that would rule out the argument Comcast decided not to carry ESN content for business reasons. ESN/NAAAOM also have petitioned the FCC for an investigation of the operator (see 1603280030), and are pursuing similar litigation against Charter Communications and the agency (see 1606170001). ESN/NAAAOM "more than adequately" made a valid claim under Section 1981, covering discrimination in contracts, plaintiffs' counsel Skip Miller of Miller Barondess told us Tuesday. "All the name calling in the world isn't the issue. We more than satisfied the law."