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PECIAL TO CITYWATCH-(Ed Note: Clinton Galloway is the author of Anatomy of a Hustle and, in this special series for CityWatch, tells how former Mayor Bradley and his political cohorts … despite a Supreme Court ruling … used pay-to-play and manipulated a local judge to keep him from bringing cable to South LA. He also reports in this Anatomy of a Hustle Series … that nothing has changed.)
In the underbelly of LA, right is wrong; winning is losing and the rules apply to everyone except the ones in charge. This is where the government is really run. This is where cable television was created.
In 1978 my brother and I approached the City of Los Angeles in an attempt to obtain a license to build a cable television system in the South Central area. At that time there was no cable television system and no one was interested in building one, except us. What happens over the next 14 years is a demonstration of the corrupting influence that the cable industry has had over government in general and specifically the City of Los Angeles.
From 1978 through 1982 we pursued a license to build a cable television system in the most impoverished area of Los Angeles, South Central. We pursued this license as a joint venture with the largest cable operator in the Los Angeles. Despite meeting all the licensing requirements, in 1980 Mayor Tom Bradley told us that unless we gave control of our company to his friends we could not obtain a license. We refused.
By 1983 we realized that there was no chance we would ever get a license from the City of Los Angeles without making payoffs. We then sought the protection of the US District Court in order to obtain our First Amendment rights that would be exercised through cable television. Cable television was little more than electronic newspaper that used the public right-of-way, utility poles, just as newspapers use corners, another public right-of-way.
However, shortly after filing our case, Preferred Communications vs City of Los Angeles, we were thrown out of court by U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall, a friend of Mayor Tom Bradley. From 1983 through 1986 we would go through the federal appellate process. In 1986 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in our favor that cable television was a medium subject to First Amendment protection; Los Angeles could not limit cable television to a single monopoly provider as it had done. If you thought, like we did, a Supreme Court ruling would stop the cable corruption you would be wrong.
In 1984 the City awarded a South Central cable license to the NYSE real estate company owned by Eli Broad, one of the richest men in America and another friend of Tom Bradley. The company had no other interests in cable and never built South Central. In 1987 they sold the monopoly at a great profit.
In 1986 the case was remanded back to the US District Court of Judge Marshall. The Supreme Court had rejected the city’s position that cable television was a “natural monopoly”. Still, there was no cable in South Central. For the next 6 years the judge would allow continuing delaying tactics and refuse to allow a trial on the facts in this case. There was little doubt there was room on the poles but that did not dissuade the City from continuing to violate the rights that had been guaranteed by the Supreme Court. This is how cable television became a powerful monopoly, through manipulation by the courts and politically appointed judges.
Despite the constitutional protection for a second cable television company, Los Angeles would refuse to allow any competitive construction within the city. The judge would do nothing except delay this case. City Attorney and future mayor James Hahn, in collusion with Tom Bradley, was responsible for this ongoing violation of our civil rights.
The cable television industry could not have taken the positions taken by the government; that they were entitled to use public right of ways and all other people would be prohibited. Only the protection provided by a compromised government, which received large contributions from the cable television industry, could support such a ludicrous theory.
In 1992 Judge Marshall confirmed that the city had been violating our rights for more than 10 years. As a penalty for this behavior the city was ordered to pay damages in the amount of one dollar. What laws can you violate for one dollar? This is how the federal courts protected the citizens from the unbridled power of the unregulated monopoly, cable television.
Now cable is seeking to do the same thing with broadband communications that it did with cable television. They are seeking to have the government do their dirty work while they steal your resources. Net neutrality cannot be compromised otherwise freedom will be compromised. Yes, it is that simple.
(Author Clinton Galloway details the entire story of the hustle, the demands, threats in his fascinating book “Anatomy of a Hustle: Cable Comes to South Central LA”. This is the first of a series on power, influence and corruption in government. Galloway can be reached here.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 42
Pub: May 23, 2014
