Al Sharpton, NAACP, Comcast, Time Warner not liable in $20B lawsuit over black-owned TV channels

A Los Angeles federal judge rejected a $20 billion lawsuit alleging that Comcast and Time Warner Cable excluded black-owned television channels from their lineups, court papers obtained Friday show.

U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter tossed the lawsuit filed by the National Association of African American Owned Media and comedian Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Networks on the grounds that they “failed to allege a plausible claim for relief,” according to Wednesday’s written order.

The lawsuit, filed in February, named as co-defendants the NAACP, the National Urban League, Al Sharpton, the National Action Network and others.

The complaint alleged that Sharpton and the civil rights groups collaborated with Comcast to support its 2011 acquisition of NBC-Universal, “while at the same time refusing to do business with 100 percent African- American owned media companies.”

— City News Service