Judge rules Byron Allen’s studio Can Proceed w/ $10Bil Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

ColiBreh1 · Oct 25, 2016

http://shadowandact.com/2016/10/24/judge-rules-byron-allens-entertainment-studios-can-proceed-with-10b-racial-discrimination-lawsuit-against-charter-communications/

JUDGE RULES BYRON ALLEN’S ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS CAN PROCEED WITH $10B RACIAL DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT AGAINST CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS

Calling it an historic ruling, Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Networks, Inc. (ESN) announced today that Federal District Court Judge George H. Wu denied Charter Communications’ Motion to Dismiss ESN’s $10 billion lawsuit against Charter for racial discrimination in contracting, in violation of Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. §1981.

“Today was a huge victory for my client,” said attorney Skip Miller, Partner, Miller Barondess, LLP in Los Angeles and Plaintiff’s lead counsel. “The $10 billion racial discrimination lawsuit will move forward against Charter Communications. The judge addressed the complexities of this case and discovery will commence immediately. We have direct and circumstantial evidence that we put forth in our lawsuit. We have evidence of racial bias harbored by top level Charter executives with decision-making authority, and allege, in detail, the discriminatory treatment ESN suffered at the hands of these executives. These well-pleaded allegations, combined with Charter’s internal racial issues, lack of contracting and doing business with 100% African American-owned media, were sufficient to defeat Charter’s Motion to Dismiss and we look forward to trial by jury. Separately, we fully expect the dismissal of ESN’s $20 billion lawsuit against Comcast to be overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals where we are under appeal.”

“Everybody talks about diversity, and everybody complains about the lack of diversity and economic inclusion,” said Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Entertainment Studios. “Today, we made history by doing something about it. This lawsuit was filed to provide distribution and real economic inclusion for 100% African American-owned media. The cable industry spends $70 billion a year licensing cable networks and 100% African American-owned media receives ZERO. This is completely unacceptable. We will not stop until we achieve real economic inclusion for 100% African American-owned media.”

“Charter will now have to open up ALL their contracts which will show the world that they do not do business with 100% African American-owned media out of the billions of dollars they spend on programming every year,” said Mark DeVitre, President, National Association African American-Owned Media (NAAAOM). “Simply put, the contracts and the numbers do not lie, and they will show racial discrimination, lack of economic inclusion for African American-owned media, and blatant racism. In my opinion, Charter’s CEO, Tom Rutledge, has done his stockholders a huge disservice by not sitting down with us, but instead pretending Reverend Al Sharpton speaks for all African Americans which in itself is racist.”

This news comes after, less than a year ago, Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios seemingly scored a victory in a racial discrimination lawsuit filed against AT&T in 2014, who settled, leading to AT&T subsidiary DirecTV to pick up 7 ESN channels. At the time of the settlement, of the lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, reps for Entertainment Studios and AT&T would only say: “The matter has been resolved.” The AT&T deal greatly enhances the distribution base and value of the ESN channels, which are wholly owned by Allen. DirecTV and U-verse together reach nearly 26 million domestic subscribers, with U-verse accounting for about 6 million subscribers. Allen has a similar racial discrimination lawsuit pending against Comcast and Time Warner Cable. In the complaint against AT&T, the National Association of African-American Owned Media, an affiliate of Century City-based Entertainment Studios, claimed racial discrimination over the fact that Entertainment Studio had no luck securing a carriage deal with DirecTV after years of trying to engage executives in negotiations.

Click here to read the court’s opinion on the Charter Communications decision, which was issued as a tentative ruling at the beginning of the hearing, and was made final at the end of the hearing.
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Byron Allen is a real-ass dude after reading up on him & watching some YouTube videos this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoFOSe-RalI
[YOUTUBE]IoFOSe-RalI[/YOUTUBE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8qej3Cd7_A
[YOUTUBE]S8qej3Cd7_A[/YOUTUBE]

Was disappointed to see y'all shited on him in this thread from a year & half ago: http://www.whitewomenblackmen.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26996&h

goodlove8 · Oct 26, 2016

ColiBreh1 said: ↑

http://shadowandact.com/2016/10/24/judge-rules-byron-allens-entertainment-studios-can-proceed-with-10b-racial-discrimination-lawsuit-against-charter-communications/

Byron Allen is a real-ass dude after reading up on him & watching some YouTube videos this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoFOSe-RalI
[YOUTUBE]IoFOSe-RalI[/YOUTUBE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8qej3Cd7_A
[YOUTUBE]S8qej3Cd7_A[/YOUTUBE]

Was disappointed to see y'all shited on him in this thread from a year & half ago: http://www.whitewomenblackmen.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26996&h
Click to expand...

We shitted on him cause he shitted on Obama.

ColiBreh1 · Oct 27, 2016

goodlove8 said: ↑

We shitted on him cause he shitted on Obama.
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President Obama isn't above criticism from the black community though. I don't think Byron said anything crazy. His criticisms of Obama are legit.

flaminghetero · Oct 27, 2016

goodlove8 said: ↑

We shitted on him cause he shitted on Obama.
Click to expand...

Meanwhile Obama is shitting on you.

4north1side2 · Oct 27, 2016

flaminghetero said: ↑

Meanwhile Obama is shitting on you.
Click to expand...

Lol!

goodlove8 · Oct 27, 2016

ColiBreh1 said: ↑

President Obama isn't above criticism from the black community though. I don't think Byron said anything crazy. His criticisms of Obama are legit.
Click to expand...

Obama has nothing to do with him being allowed to sue or them discriminating against him.

If it rains on a parade is it his faultt?

He can't stop people from being racist. No one in that thread said (as far as I read ... So you have to show me) was against him suing.

If he's going to do that then he need to thank Obama for what the court did.

goodlove8 · Oct 27, 2016

flaminghetero said: ↑

Meanwhile Obama is shitting on you.
Click to expand...

Limbaugh and trump love you

ColiBreh1 · Nov 5, 2016

https://twitter.com/shadowandact/status/793959787398578177

http://shadowandact.com/2016/11/02/why-was-the-10-billion-civil-rights-lawsuit-that-could-lead-to-black-media-ownership-ignored/

Last week U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu allowed the $10 billion racial discrimination case being brought by Byron Allen, chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios (ESN) and the National Association of African American-Owned Media (NAAAOM) against Charter Communications to proceed. Yet despite the gravity of the litigation, the size of the parties, and the billions of dollars in damages being claimed in the suit, American media has given this pivotal decision relatively little coverage. As of this weekend no stories of the monumental Judge’s order appeared in the Wall Street Journal, no coverage by Fortune, and a slew of other outlets also failed to cover the groundbreaking suit being allowed to move forward. The media summarily ignored what is possibly one of the most monumental Civil Rights cases in a generation. Allen is bringing the litigation using Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It is quite a statement about our progress that a law enacted 150 years ago that was written to ensure slaves received fair treatment in creating contracts, is still relevant today. The case has implications that reach far beyond entertainment, and could open possibilities of litigation across the country as African Americans in other industries also rely on Section 1981 to force corporations to show if any business is being done with black owned firms.

While this recent decision is not a final ruling on the case, it does recognize that the case as filed has merit. It also allows Mr. Allen and the NAAAOM to proceed to discovery, and demand that the truth be laid out for all of America to finally see whether blacks have economic inclusion in media. This is a case that is bigger than Byron Allen, and extends beyond the effects on just African Americans. At the core of the case is the question, does Charter Communications do business with truly black owned media? This is a question of who has the right to the cable lines that provide television to the homes across the nation. For a generation, American media has moved in the shadows of a veil of diversity they created. Presenting blacks as talent on television, while allowing them little if any access to the wealth-building tool of ownership. The Washington Post in the article “Blacks own just 10 U.S. television stations. Here’s why” explained the historical reason why there are so few black stations.

Minority owners are burdened by the legacy of racism. When the U.S. government first started giving away our airwaves in the 1930s, they were distributed exclusively to white, male owners. It mostly stayed this way until the 1970s, when the FCC tried to remedy the problem by implementing a “Minority Ownership Policy.” The measure offered tax incentives to people seeking to sell stations to minority owners.

The policy worked. Within two years of its passage, the country went from one black-owned television station to ten. Over its total 17 year existence, minority ownership increased five-fold. But it was struck down by the newly-elected Republican Congress in 1995 and since then, its success has been mostly undone. In 2013, minorities owned just 6 percent of commercial television stations in the country, 6 percent of FM stations, and 11 percent of AM stations.

With a few notable exceptions (the cable network Black Entertainment Television launched in 1980, and TV One followed in 1995), African American ownership remains particularly low, hovering at less than one percent of all television properties, and less than 2 percent of radio. That year in fact, just two television stations were owned by black owners. (That number is up to about 10 today).
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It is Allen’s goal to get Charter Communication to clarify how many, if any fully black owned stations are carried in their cable channel lineup. Allen stated, “America has never had a conversation about African Americans and real economic inclusion.” If the media covers it, this case may be just the litigation to be that conversation starter. #blackwealthmatters

Below, watch Byron Allen’s discussion with me earlier this year on this litigation’s importance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WyxXMZ9IXI
[YOUTUBE]8WyxXMZ9IXI[/YOUTUBE]

Antonio Moore, an attorney based in Los Angeles, is one of the producers of the Emmy-nominated documentary “Freeway: Crack in the System.” He has contributed pieces to the Grio, Huffington Post, and Inequality.org on the topics of race, mass incarceration and economics. Subscribe to his Youtube Channel Tonetalks
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Byron Allen is a real dude watching that interview.

goodlove8 · Nov 5, 2016

ColiBreh1 said: ↑

President Obama isn't above criticism from the black community though. I don't think Byron said anything crazy. His criticisms of Obama are legit.
Click to expand...

I didn't say he was not above criticism, I'm saying he has nothing to do with this situation. If you want to drag him into it then let's not stop there. It's his fault cause it raonee

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Judge rules Byron Allen’s studio Can Proceed w/ $10Bil Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

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