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THR, Esq

Charter Communications Loses Court Appeal, So Byron Allen’s $10 Billion Racial Discrimination Suit Moves Toward Trial

Nov 20, 2018  •  Post A Comment

“Charter Communications can’t escape a lawsuit alleging it discriminates against African-American-owned media companies, as a 9th Circuit panel on Monday affirmed a California federal judge’s denial of its motion to dismiss the matter,” reports THR, Esq.

The story continues, “Byron Allen in January 2016 sued Charter, on behalf of his Entertainment Studios Networks and other African-American-owned media companies, for alleged discrimination in contracting in violation of section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act. Allen claims Charter refused to license channels, rejecting offers much lower than what it pays white-owned programmers, and that its executives made racist comments.”

The lawsuit, as originally filed, claimed that Entertainment Studios Networks would be worth $10 billion if it had a deal with Charter, and thus Allen is suing for at least that amount.

The THR, Esq. article adds “The cable giant moved to dismiss the claim, arguing, among other things, that it has a First Amendment right to editorial discretion. U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu denied that motion, finding the combination of the ‘arguably-racist statements’ and ‘continued stonewalling and provision of excuses that do not match up with Defendant’s practices with non-African-American-owned companies’ and that the First Amendment doesn’t preclude the claim.”

On Monday the 9th Circuit agreed with Wu.

To read a lot more details about this case, including the 9th Circuit’s actual opinion, please click here, which will take you to THR, Esq.

4 Comments

  1. Byron Allen does not represent people of color … this lawsuit … like others is just
    a tactic to get unfair advantage over cable and satellite operators who do not
    care for his roster of “C-Grade” channels like Comedy.tv — other than his
    recent purchase of the Weather Channel, everything else seems to be
    a bunch of mundane, low end programming services …

  2. Agreed. Byron Allen is a race playing scum bag.

  3. Met Byron once. Seemed nice. But his programming STINKS!

  4. Regardless of the facts, I’m pretty sure that you guys are white who are saying this and have NEVER lived as a person of color or other nationalities. It’s a given fact that ALL PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THIS NATION IS TREATED UNFAIRLY and have to ALWAYS STAY IN A GUARDED MODE while you get to walk around safely knowing that EVERYTHING WAS MADE IN PARTICULAR FOR YOU! We have to fight harder, stronger, and longer to get what we desire based upon the fact that it will never be given justly and equally by the white demographic that doesn’t believe in equality. If Mr. Allen has to do this to make a point that we as a people, businesswise or any other way need to do something like this in the public eye, AND have the proof to provide, then why shouldn’t he set out to prove and conquer? Instead of standing in the way with negative comments, or false bravado, maybe you should look at how to create a common solution that ALL OF US can achieve and be happy about. While you are walking around wearing your MAGA hats, remember something… America was never great to begin with since it was TAKEN in BLOOD.

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