Free Republic

If you’re the customer of a major American internet provider, you might have been noticing it’s not very reliable lately. If so, there’s a pretty good chance that a graph like this is the reason:These graphs comes from Level 3, one of the world’s largest providers of “transit,” or long-distance internet connectivity. The graph on the left shows the level of congestion between Level 3 and a large American ISP in the Dallas area. In the middle of the night, the connection is less than half-full and everything works fine. But during peak hours, the connection is saturated. That produces...

NEW YORK (AP) — MSNBC is apologizing for a Cinco de Mayo segment that featured a staff member onscreen wearing a sombrero, shaking maracas and taking a swig from a bottle of tequila.

As the person at Netflix responsible for content delivery, I spend a lot of time thinking about Netflix’s Open Connect CDN and its interconnection with ISPs. We are proud of the performance we’ve achieved through our hundreds of Open Connect partners around the globe. In fact, Netflix has a mutually beneficial relationship with nearly every ISP in every market where we provide service. But this is less the case for the largest ISP in the U.S., Comcast, which is trying to become even larger by acquiring Time Warner Cable. Netflix agreed to pay Comcast for direct interconnection to reverse an...

I’ve always thought entrenched left-wing journalists in Washington needed their heads examined. Much to my satisfaction, it appears the corporate media bosses of at least one Beltway anchor now agree. -snip- His boorish behavior around DC is legendary, from his juvenile tantrums with the Bush press staff to his drunken radio appearances to his diva snit fits with innocent bystanders while filming news segments. One of the most telling and notorious anecdotes involves Russert himself, who reportedly reprimanded Gregory in 2008 for going ballistic on a poor waitress while the two TV stars dined at a DC restaurant. But “Gregory...

Like all mergers, the proposed $45.2 billion Comcast CMCSA +1.67% merger with Time Warner Cable TWC +1.3%—the largest and second largest cable providers in the nation—has its advocates and critics. There are certainly important questions about what impact the merger would have on consumers—but there are equally significant issues associated with the highly politicized approval process. The Obama Department of Justice, led by Eric Holder, must review the merger and decide whether to approve or block it. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration and Justice Department have a long track record of pushing the rule of law aside and making decisions based...

The Rev. Al Sharpton may claim he wore a wire for the feds because he had been threatened by the mob — but a new report says he turned rat to save himself after a federal drug sting. The FBI “flipped” the bombastic reverend after agents confronted him with a surveillance video showing him discussing cocaine with an ­undercover agent, The Smoking Gun Web site said Wednesday. During that March 1983 conversation, Sharpton wore a cowboy-like hat that was garish by even the rabble-rousing preacher’s 1980s standards. He later showed up at a Manhattan apartment for another meeting that June...

Heavyweight conservatives and banterweight conservatives are lining up on both sides the Comcast/Time Warner merger. The heavyweights, which include Grover Norquist at Americans for Tax Reform, Wayne Crews at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Duane Parde at the National Taxpayers Union, have penned a letter to influential Senators including Mike Lee, Chuck Grassley and Ted Cruz, urging them to look past the politics and approve the merger between the two cable giants on traditional grounds—you know, the grounds under which the anti-trust laws were written and passed in the first place? “As advocates for a free market,” the heavyweights write,...

Comcast has been named the worst company in America. The largest US cable provider "won" Consumerist's annual poll on the very same day it tried to convince the FCC that a proposed Time Warner Cable acquisition is in everyone's best interest. It's the second time Comcast has been awarded the unwanted label by Consumerist voters. Video game publisher Electronic Arts earned the "worst company" designation in 2012 and 2013 but lost out early this year when it was knocked out of the running by Time Warner Cable. Comcast was pitted against Monsanto, the oft-criticized chemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation, in...

APRIL 7--When friends and family members gathered recently at the White House for a private celebration of Michelle Obama’s 50th birthday, one of the invited partygoers was a former paid FBI Mafia informant. That same man attended February’s state dinner in honor of French President Francois Hollande. He was seated with his girlfriend at a table adjacent to President Barack Obama, who is likely unaware that, according to federal agents, his guest once interacted with members of four of New York City’s five organized crime families. He even secretly taped some of those wiseguys using a briefcase that FBI technicians...

Amid assurances from some republicans, conservatives, and libertarians in Washington that the $45 billion Comcast - Time Warner merger is nothing to fear, The Washington Free Beacon's Michael Continetti reveals the deep ties Comcast CEO Brian Roberts as well as Time Warner has with the Democratic Party:

Democratic members of Congress and the Obama administration have extensive ties to Comcast and Time-Warner, the two cable giants currently awaiting approval from the Federal Communications Commission on a $45 billion merger. One that has gone mostly overlooked: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D., Nev.) chief of staff, David Krone, is Comcast’s former senior vice president for corporate affairs. Krone moved from Comcast to Reid’s office in 2011 under ethically questionable circumstances,

Comcast, which employs more than 100 lobbyists, spent almost $19 million last year on lobbying activities. Its president and CEO, Brian L. Roberts, is a golf buddy of President Obama’s, and a Democratic donor who has contributed thousands of dollars not only to the president’s campaigns, but also to the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the DNC Services Corporation, and to Steny Hoyer, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Bob Casey. Roberts’ executive vice president, David Cohen, is a former aide to Democratic bigwig Ed Rendell. Cohen skirts lobbying regulations through loopholes, has raised more than $2 million for...

In response to Comcast’s (CMCSA) $45 billion buyout of Time Warner Cable (TWC), Dish Network (DISH) has reportedly sent feelers out to rival DirecTV (DTV) about a possible combination of the two satellite television companies. The potential tie-up would marry the two largest U.S. satellite TV operators, creating a juggernaut with about 34 million subscribers. According to Bloomberg News, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen recently approached DirecTV CEO Mike White about a merger. White is reluctant to go ahead with formal talks due to concerns about opposition from antitrust regulators, the news service said.

Yesterday... Comcast cable...my internet service provider...for the TIME BEING....had a Planned Outage,...in order to upgrade equipment that services this area. No Prior Notice was given to paying customers, During my call to :customer service" Yesterday...no mention was made of that fact that this WAS a planned outage. This Morning I experienced another Outage. Today's call to comcast customer service was Unbearably frustrating. The representative told me...that this was a planned outage...and an unplanned outage. AGAIN no announcement was made PRIOR to the outage. They do have an EMAIL SERVER dont they? Would it have taken a tremendous effort and great...

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.