One look at the political history of Dish Network founder and Chairman Charles Ergen places the idea that the network dropped Fox News over a simple contract dispute in serious doubt.
Since Dec. 20, when the Dish network dropped Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, the former has lost about 90,000 subscribers.
The Media Research Center’s Dan Joseph decided to take a look at OpenSecrets documents revealing Ergen’s political donations from last year, which immediately raised some red flags. Ergen donated a total of $64,000 to the Democratic Senatorial campaign Committee, according to the report.
As Joseph writes, Ergen’s donating record obviously doesn’t prove he is intentionally blocking Fox out of spite for his political preferences. But, that’s not all:
In 2012, a federal complaint was filed against Ergen in which several company executives alleged that he had intimidated them into making contributions to specific candidates, the majority of which were Democrats.
The claim was filed by an unnamed company insider who accused Ergen of "forcing" Dish Network’s Chief Operating Officer Bernard Han to donate to a Democratic Party candidate in the 2009/2010 election cycle.
The complaint also claimed that Han was “encouraged" to attend Democratic functions and fundraisers and that other Dish employees were strong-armed by Ergen in a similar way.
More
Since Dec. 20, when the Dish network dropped Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, the former has lost about 90,000 subscribers.
The Media Research Center’s Dan Joseph decided to take a look at OpenSecrets documents revealing Ergen’s political donations from last year, which immediately raised some red flags. Ergen donated a total of $64,000 to the Democratic Senatorial campaign Committee, according to the report.
As Joseph writes, Ergen’s donating record obviously doesn’t prove he is intentionally blocking Fox out of spite for his political preferences. But, that’s not all:
In 2012, a federal complaint was filed against Ergen in which several company executives alleged that he had intimidated them into making contributions to specific candidates, the majority of which were Democrats.
The claim was filed by an unnamed company insider who accused Ergen of "forcing" Dish Network’s Chief Operating Officer Bernard Han to donate to a Democratic Party candidate in the 2009/2010 election cycle.
The complaint also claimed that Han was “encouraged" to attend Democratic functions and fundraisers and that other Dish employees were strong-armed by Ergen in a similar way.
More
5 comments:
Truth will all come out in the wash...
Hmm.. I was just contemplating switching to Directv from Dish.
This may make the decision easier.
It doesn't matter; they are all in cahoots to keep our prices up. Best Buds paying Best Buds, then "sign" a rescue deal!
Yeahright.
You might be on to something. Except for two things.
1. Dish didn't "drop" Fox, as the article claims. Fox disallowed Dish from broadcasting Fox until a new agreement was meant. It is _always_ like this; Dish (and Comcast, DirecTV, etc.) is not permitted to block channels.
and...
2. CNN was off Dish for several weeks last year. Where's the cry that Ergen was playing politics then? And
Nice try tho, townhall.com
10;32 you've got it all wrong genius! Dish was/is attempting to censor and/or completely silence Fox on hot button issues. More and more people are viewing Fox because they want the TRUTH for a change. This dilemma was causing other networks freakout thus causing a nightmare for Dish.
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