Robert Johnson Is a Telecommunications Mogul Doing a Hit Job For Lucrative Favors

[DrFunkenstein]

Its no secret that the Clintons have been kind to the moguls of the telecommunications industry in the 90's, to put it EXTREMELY mildly. The 1996 Telecommunications Act was a warm election year embrace for the top magnates of the media world, and the FCC has been in a long slide ever since.

That's not kid ourselves, this was quid pro quo. What he was doing is not in question, and why he was doing it was very clear. His job was to take the luster off of Obama's candidacy and drag it through the mud of racial politics in order to scare black voters from making their own choice and to get white voters to start rolling their eyes at the Jesse Jackson 2.0 candidacy.

As CEO of BET Entertainment, Robert Johnson has been served very well by the Clinton dynasty and I am sure that the Clintons have spoken with the media giant about what regulatory wonders await him if he would be willing to act as the bloody gloves to keep their hands clean.

Once MAY have been an aberration, but when you get two major campaign figures to go before the media and start winking about how awful it was that Obama took drugs (as a kid before he cleaned himself up, a model of hope for confused kids across the country), you can bet that the campaign masters sat around a long table and thought hard about how best to do the job and who should be the surrogate.

While I primarily oppose Clinton because of her need for militarism to act "tough," this is a fairly sickening display of the worst kind of politics. The kind that makes people want to do their own thing and forget about the government cesspool. Unfortunately, liberalism requires a healthy, positive relationship between citizens and their government, so this doubly hurts all liberal candidates in the long run.

Clinton wants to make her bid an historic one - about herself as a woman, rather than bringing citizens into vigorous activity like Obama's call to service. But she clearly has no interest in changing the history of cynical politicians and the you-scratch-my-back politics with the elite and their ever-ready lobbyists waiting for election day returns.

[IndianaGreen]

1. Same reason why Murdoch held a fundraiser for Hillary

They all expect favours to be returned.

[babylonsister]

2. I agree, and would just love to know what 'favors' he's been promised

in return.

[Mutineer]

3. He's a billionaire or damn close isn't he?

'nuff said. He's their henchman. If you want Corporate America to rule, vote for HRC.

[DrFunkenstein]

6. Worth $1.1 Billion

Compared to about $200 million before the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

[onenote]

4. looking for an example of how the 1996 Telecom Act helped Bob Johnson

The 1996 Telecom Act has a lot of bad things in it that should be repealed. But there isn't anything in it that benefitted Bob Johnson. The guy started out as a trade association employee with the idea of starting the first channel aimed at an African American audience and eventually turned himself into a billionaire. BUt the 1996 Act had zip to do with it.

[DrFunkenstein]

8. Title III ("Cable Services")

Title III featured the Cable Act reform to deregulate cable rates, allowing Johnson and other cable network executives to more freely manipulate their prices.

"The movement of unregulated Cable TV rates stands in stark contrast to the movement in regulated telephone rates (see Exhibit 4). Cable TV rates have increased at just under three times the rate of inflation. The only significant consumer commodity that has come close to this rate of increase since the passage of the Act--a period of low inflation and high productivity growth throughout the U.S. economy--is oil prices, driven by the monopolistic pricing practices of OPEC.

Basic and extended basic service rates are up even more. Price increases for basic/and extended cable service have higher than for other cable services and revenues from basic monthly subscriptions have grown about twice as fast as pay and pay-per-view revenues.(4) This is a classic monopolist pricing strategy, which raises prices the most for popular services that consumers have no other way of obtaining. Cable companies sustain this pricing policy by refusing to offer a la carte service. Consumers are forced to pay for an ever expanding and more expensive basic service package and denied the choice of choosing specific programs or channels."

http://www.consumersunion.org/telecom/lessondc201.htm

[onenote]

10. nope. Title III didn't impact Bob Johnson

Under the 1996 Act, the price that cable operators charged consumers for optional tiers of service above the basic tier was deregulated effective april 1, 1999. The price that cable networks, such as Johnson's BET, charged cable operators, was never regulated. And under the rules that existed pre-deregulation of the expanded tier rates per the 1996 Act, any increase in the amount that a cable program network charged a cable operator could be passed through to the consumer, with a guaranteed rate of return.

So, no, cable tier rate deregulation didn't appreciably change things for BET.

By the way, the chart comparing the rate for cable rates to the CPI leaves out one salient bit of information: the number of services that one gets for the price. That's been increasing too.

[Adelante]

5. Johnson lobbied to protect hedge fund tax avoidance loopholes

He really is a creep.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. He no longer owns

or is in charge of BET.

So what is he expecting to get in return?

[Jack Rabbit]

9. Robert Johnson was a famous blues musician

He was also a lothario. He was murdered by a jealous husband in 1938.