Kenny Online.NET

Focused On Urban Issues, Nightlife, & Kenny Smoov

Federal judge rules that Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios can move forward with $10B lawsuit against Charter Communications

Entertainment Studios Networks, Inc. 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. This is a historic ruling.

 

“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 percent 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 percent African American-owned media. The cable industry spends $70 billion a year licensing cable networks and 100 percent African American-owned media receives ZERO. This is completely unacceptable. We will not stop until we achieve real economic inclusion for 100 percent 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.”

 

Attached is the court’s opinion. It was issued as a tentative ruling at the beginning of the hearing, and it was made final at the end of the hearing.

Read more at The Grio

Views: 104

Comment

You need to be a member of Kenny Online.NET to add comments!

Join Kenny Online.NET

Focused on the Urban Lifestyle, Nightlife, and Issues in Nashville for Adults of "All Ages". We keep you connected!



© 2024   Created by Kenny Smoov.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

Your SEO optimized title page contents