Subtitle: So much corporate censorship, so little time
Soon after Boston-area TV journalist Barry Nolan politely protested the presenting of a prestigious Governor’s Award to Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly at the 2008 New England Emmy Awards dinner, he was terminated by his corporate media employer, Comcast.
(Basically, Nolan had put leaflets at the event containing some of O’Reilly’s outrageous or inaccurate comments.)
Now comes a powerful and well-documented report in the Columbia Journalism Review – revealing that O’Reilly had personally complained to the chair and CEO of Comcast about Nolan’s protest, and that Comcast admitted in a wrongful termination suit filed by Nolan that it was concerned the protest had “jeopardized and harmed the business and economic interests of Comcast in connection with its contract with Fox News Channel, and its contract negotiations with Fox News that were ongoing at the time.”
An odd postscript to this incident of conglomerate Comcast putting its “economic interests” ahead of free speech: Terry Ann Knopf’s in-depth article that ended up in CJR was actually written for the Boston Globe Magazine. At the last minute, the Globe – which receives big advertising revenue from Comcast – spiked the story.
“In these difficult times, “ Nolan observed, “backbones seem to be in short supply.”
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