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Media Merger MOUs Seen Needing More Federal Oversight

Voluntary memoranda of understanding (MOU) in media mergers lack teeth and need more federal oversight, blogged George Mason University sociology Ph.D. candidate Jason Smith and New York lawyer Randy Abreu Friday for the London School of Economics and Political Science…

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U.S. Centre. They cited a 2010 MOU between Comcast and Hispanic interest groups signed as part of that company's bid to buy NBCUniversal. But despite that MOU, they said, a Columbia University Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race study indicates it has not increased Hispanic representation off screen, that stereotyped portrayals increased on screen, and that Hispanic leaders in the company "were segregated and paid less." They said the FCC, by not adapting the language or intent of the MOU into formal conditions, "fundamentally set up a scenario in which Comcast had no obligation to support diversifying the media landscape." The agency and Comcast didn't comment.