Sen. John Kerry toughens up on MLB; watches over shoulder for Schilling
Well, well, turns out John Kerry had to be good for something. I mean, he could be facing a tough reelection campaign with Curt Schilling being teased to run for his seat; might as well make it interesting, right?
One of our readers (thanks Vincent) forwarded this to us:
Kerry to Question FCC Chairman Over Direct TV-Major League Baseball Deal
WASHINGTON, DC – Senator John Kerry said today that he intends to seek answers from the FCC about a pending DirectTV deal that could make it harder for baseball fans to watch their favorite teams. The issue centers on a plan to shift the “Extra Innings” baseball package to DirectTV as part of a $700 million exclusive deal. According to recent press reports, during the last five years, the Extra Innings package has been available to 75 million people. If the deal goes through, the baseball package will be available to the 15 million people who have DirectTV.
“I am opposed to anything that deprives people of reasonable choices. In this day and age, consumers should have more choices – not fewer. I’d like to know how this serves the public - a deal which will force fans to subscribe to DirectTV in order to tune in to their favorite players. A Red Sox fan ought to be able to watch their team without having to switch to DirectTV,” said Kerry.
The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin, is a witness at a hearing tomorrow of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Kerry is a member of the committee.
I’m not sure what good would come out of this, I mean, Kerry can be a bit of a douche, so, we’ll take it with a grain of salt. Even though, as far as Selig and the rest of his MLB New Media goons are concerned, we might as well be dead.
Note: The headline for this post was changed due to lameness - a result from hastily writing copy as one is leaving for brainstorming meeting at neighborhood pub.
February 1st, 2007 at 11:00 am
I think the question that needs to be asked is, “Why does MLB have an obligation to ’serve the public?’” After all, baseball is a business. Boxing doesn’t serve the public by putting all the good fights on pay per view. The NFL doesn’t serve the public by blacking out games that aren’t sold out. The NHL didn’t serve the public by moving its games to Versus. So why is baseball held to a higher standard?
The answer is simple. Baseball has been allowed to opperate in violation of anti-trust laws for years. So legislators expect them to go the extra mile to not screw over fans, aka voters. You can bet that Kerry is going to mention the phrase “anti-trust violation” about a dozen times when he sits down with reps from the FCC and MLB.
There’s a lot of reasons to be pissed at John Kerry, but I don’t think this is one of them. I think Kerry just has some free time on his hands, since he’s decided not to run for president, and he’s decided to hold Bud Selig’s ass to the fire. Thank god somebody’s doing it.
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