Free Republic

A top White House official who has been with President Barack Obama since he first became a senator nine years ago is resigning. Alyssa Mastromonaco is Obama’s deputy chief of staff for operations and often described as the most influential person inside the White House who isn't well known outside of it. …

s Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. roll out a massive lobbying effort to win regulatory approval for the merger of the nation’s two largest cable companies, one key step for the companies will be garnering the support of prominent civil rights and minority groups. Comcast has already shown it can pull support from key minority groups — dozens sent letters of support to the Federal Communications Commission, which must approve the buyout, while it was considering Comcast’s last mega-deal — its 2011 purchase of NBC/Universal. As tax data analyzed as part of a collaboration between the Center for...

Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, will buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion in stock, combining America's two biggest cable operators, The Wall Street Journal reported late Wednesday. Under the deal expected to be announced Thursday morning, Time Warner Cable shareholders will receive $158.82 per share in stock for their shares, roughly $23 a share above where Time Warner has been trading, people familiar with the situation told the newspaper. The deal is expected to end a takeover battle for Time Warner by Charter Communications, the nation's fourth biggest cable operator, and its biggest shareholder, Liberty Media, The Journal...

Earlier today, Comcast Cable announced that it agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable in a $45 billion mega-deal. What's in it for Comcast Cable shareholders? "This combination creates a company that delivers maximum value for our shareholders," said Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. How are they going to do that? The company explains in one sentence that probably has every Comcast and Time Warner Cable employee nervous. "The transaction will generate approximately $1.5 billion in operating efficiencies and will be accretive to Comcast’s free cash flow per share while preserving balance sheet strength." "Operating efficiencies" usually means the closing and combining...

The two biggest US cable companies are joining forces in a $45bn (£27bn) deal, creating an entertainment giant with some 32 million TV subscribers. Comcast's merger with Time Warner Cable was confirmed at the start of trading on Thursday. Its offer, which is subject to regulatory approval, is about 17% higher than the company's closing share price on Wednesday. The takeover bid trumps an earlier $38bn (£23bn) offer from Charter Communications, which appeared to concede defeat by announcing: "We've always maintained our greatest opportunity to create value for shareholders is by executing our current business plan. "We'll continue to be...

Comcast will announce a deal to acquire Time Warner Cable in an all-stock deal worth more than $45 billion that will unite the biggest and second largest cable television operators in the country, according to people briefed on the matter. . The surprise merger — expected to be announced on Thursday — is likely to bring to an end a protracted takeover battle that a smaller cable rival, Charter Communications, has been waging for Time Warner Cable, and will be the second major deal for Comcast in recent years to radically reshape the American media landscape.

Are you a Comcast customer? Please change your password. On February 6, NullCrew FTS hacked into at least 34 of Comcast's servers and published a list of the company's mail servers and a link to the root file with the vulnerability it used to penetrate the system on Pastebin.

How did Jay Leno really feel in 2009, when NBC revealed its master plan to hand The Tonight Show over to Conan O’Brien? The comedian doesn’t mince words in an upcoming interview with 60 Minutes, telling Steve Kroft that the decision took him completely by surprise. “I was blindsided,” he says, according to CBS News.

Excerpted from "Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA" Imagine a world without the New York Times, Fox News, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and countless other tools used by the 1 percent to rule and fool. In a socialist society run by and for the working people it represents, the mega-monopolies like Walmart, Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil, and the corporations that run the tightly controlled “mainstream media” will be a thing of the past. It’s not news that the major US media are run by and for big business, or that the major media companies are themselves big businesses. Twenty years ago,...

What the net-neut obsessives refuse to recognize is that anticompetitive intent isn't worth worrying about if an anticompetitive result isn't possible. If AT&T were "double-dipping," or charging sender and recipient for the same data, as some allege, its rivals would quickly copy its innovation and compete away any excess revenues. If AT&T were to degrade websites that don't pay up, its rivals would pounce and steal AT&T's dissatisfied customers.

MSNBC weekend host Melissa Harris-Perry lined up a panel of alleged comedians to mock the Christmas picture Mitt Romney posted on Twitter. In a segment with the on-screen question "What's So Funny About 2013?" Harris-Perry announced: “This is the Romney family. And, of course, there on Governor Romney’s knee is his adopted grandson, who is an African-American, an adopted African-American child, Kieran Romney.” To which comedian and actress Pia Glenn sang the old Sesame Street ditty “One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn’t the same … “And that little baby, front and...

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry apologized Tuesday for openly mocking Mitt Romney's black adopted grandson, after Sarah Palin led the chorus of conservatives who criticized the cable news host. The Romney family Christmas card was among the items featured in the "2013: The year in political ridiculousness" segment on the cable news show Sunday.

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry offered an apology to the Romney family on Tuesday after a panel on her show mocked the fact that one of Mitt Romney's grandchildren is black. On Sunday's "Melissa Harris-Perry" show, Harris-Perry led a panel in discussing the "Photos of the Year," which included a Romney family Christmas photo. In the photo, Romney is seen holding his adopted grandchild, Kieran, who is black. During the segment, guest panelist Pia Glenn sang, "One of these things is not like the others! One of these things just isn't the same," a reference to Kieran. "And that little baby,...

A thought provoking Marketwatch article regarding the growing trend of cable "cord cutting" demonstrates the need for a shakeup in the cable television industry. The industry is being run into the ground by old guard gatekeepers. It is becoming a case study of what not to do when faced with competition from visionaries with new technologies and business models. Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts is best thing that ever happened to Netflix shareholders. Listen Comcast shareholders: Despite CMCSA sitting near 52 week highs, that is abysmal compared to what the market cap SHOULD be and WOULD be if the company...

You can fire 10 Martin Bashirs and it won't start to repair damage done to NBC News Martin Bashir, the embattled MSNBC show host who on Nov. 15 urged a crude and graphic form of punishment for Sarah Palin, resigned from the channel Wednesday. MSNBC could afford to do nothing less than force Bashir out in the wake of his hateful speech. Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, tried stonewalling the mounting criticism even after Bashir delivered an on-air apology, but the words and actions were too gross and hateful to allow Bashir to return. SNIP Under Griffin's leadership, MNSBC...

Just over two weeks ago, MSNBC host Martin Bashir delivered a harsh piece of commentary that culminated in the suggestion that someone should “s-h-i-t” in former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin‘s (R-AK) mouth. Bashir offered an abject apology on his next broadcast, but a chorus of critics continued to demand action against the host. After a reported “vacation” for the host earlier this week, Bashir announced, Wednesday afternoon, that MSNBC and Martin Bashir are parting ways.

Alec Baldwin has been fired by MSNBC, sources say. The rage-aholic’s weekly show, “Up Late With Alec Baldwin,” has been canceled because of the actor’s foul-mouthed rant at a photographer he called a nasty name.

A simple request: Please stop calling Sarah Palin names. If you find her politics repellant and her intellectual gifts lacking, fine. Just say so. But stop with the verbal abuse and the debased revenge fantasies. Palin has always had a gift for making her critics crazy. But it's been five years since she was sprung from Alaskan obscurity as kind of “Hail Mary pass” for John McCain’s faltering presidential dreams. Liberals: She can't hurt you anymore. It's time to get over her. Her career is about self-enrichment now, not politics. She's found a formula for financial success and continuing celebrity....

NBC News has completely censored any mention of the unfolding ObamaCare disaster for the last 72 hours. Not one word about the millions of Americans losing their health insurance nor the severe political damage that has been done to President Obama and the Democratic Party. So what has NBC covered instead? > In the 7 a.m. ET half hour of Thursday's Today, back-to-back stories were featured of baseball player Alex Rodriguez storming out of an MLB doping hearing and Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn suffering a recent injury. > The lead story on Wednesday's NBC Nightly News was about new regulations...

MARTIN BASHIR: Last Friday, on this broadcast, I made some comments which were deeply offensive and directed at Governor Sarah Palin. I wanted to take this opportunity to say sorry to Mrs. Palin and to also offer an unreserved apology to her friends and family, her supporters, our viewers, and anyone who may have heard what I said. My words were wholly unacceptable. They were neither accurate, nor fair. They were unworthy of anyone who would claim to have an interest in politics, and they have brought shame upon my friends and colleagues at this network, none of whom were...