The head honchos of US national cable operator Mediacom Communications had best run for cover.
They are about come under attack from the National Action Network, an African-American group that recently filed a class action against unnamed ad agencies and the federal government over the lower fees allegedly paid to black employees and black agencies.
The group’s militant leader, the Reverend Al Sharpton, plans ‘direct action’ against Mediacom who it accuses of refusing to carry The Word Network, an African-American urban ministry and gospel music network based in Southfield, Michigan – and which stars none other than the aforesaid Rev Sharpton alongside his close colleague Rev Horace Sheffield III, who also doubles as president of the Michigan Chapter of the NAN.
“American satellite TV and cable broadcasters such as Mediacom are rife with institutional racism,” accuses the Rev Sheffield. “Most broadcasters are unaware of the discriminatory nature of their corporate culture. Bias has become a way of corporate life.”
Mediacom, the eighth-largest US cable TV reaches around 2.6 million homes serving approximately 1.6 million basic subscribers in twenty-three states. Its executives are convening in New York on May 1 when the NAN will hold a public demonstration conducted to the tune of mass media coverage..
Data sourced from: AdAge.com; additional content by WARC staff
