Thursday Reading Room -- Is Sinclair a better gas station than a broadcasting company?

The Sinclair Oil dinosaur always seemed friendly. Is Sinclair Broadcast Group?

I don't like what what Sinclair Broadcast Group may do to Mediacom cable customers, and I know a lot of you don't, either.

Sinclair (the broadcast company) owns KGAN-CBS2 and operates KFXA-Fox 28 under a management agreement. It also owns KDSM (Fox) in Des Moines. It wants to be paid a higher fee for Mediacom to carry the channels on their cable systems.

Their agreement expires on Dec. 31, which is very convenient for Sinclair since it has the Jan. 5 Orange Bowl on KFXA and the Feb. 7 Super Bowl on KGAN.

KGAN rarely lets a half-hour go by without running a scroll at the bottom of its programming to alert viewers of the upcoming end to its agreement with Mediacom. (Hey, we get it. We got it after the 888th time you did it.) You better let Mediacom know you want a deal done, KGAN basically says in the scroll, which takes up about 92 percent of the screen. Well, 9.2 percent.

Sinclair Vice President and General Council Barry Faber said this in an Iowa City Press-Citizen story:

"What is going on is a simple business negotiation," Faber said online. "We don't see this as an emotional issue. They do."

Sure. And that scroll you keep running isn't to incite anyone to, you know, pressure Mediacom to cede to your demands.

Let me make this loud and clear: I work for Gazette Communications, which owns KCRG-TV. That is a direct competitor of the two Sinclair stations named here. Sinclair, by the way, isn't locally owned like Gazette Communications, and owns 58 television stations in 35 markets according to its profile of itself.

Let me also make this loud and clear: I'm a Mediacom subscriber and have been for several years. I've often been tempted to get rid of it for another cable company or a satellite dish provider, but I like its cable Internet service, so I stay on for that.

Fast, reliable Internet is essential for me, or I'd have to spend even more time working in the office. My co-workers should be paying for part of it, now that I think of it.

Also, Mediacom's customer service representatives are almost always very helpful and patient on the phone. Your mileage may vary. I just hope they're making more than minimum wage. Heck, I hope they're not prisoners on galley ships somewhere on the high seas.

But let's just say I wouldn't take a bullet, or even a hangnail, for the company. Their services aren't exactly for bargain-hunters.

When Mediacom and Sinclair had a similar spat three years ago, I drove to the Mediacom customer-service site in Cedar Rapids and got a lousy rabbit-ears antenna that did little good in retrieving KGAN's signal so I could watch the Super Bowl at home. I was mad at both companies, but they settled their little dispute (Jjust like they probably will this time, in the nick of time for the Orange Bowl. And it wouldn't be stunning if the Mediacom cable rates went up shortly afterward. Again.).

But since then, KFXA has been added to Sinclair's arsenal. How that was allowed to happen, I'll never understand. Is anyone in the federal government minding the store? I know, stupid question.

I'm not going to get into some of the, ahem, interesting history of Sinclair. However, I recommend a Black Hearts Gold Pants piece that has a much-stronger tone than this one. If memory serves, it links to a Web site that details some of what some might call less-than-fair practices in which the company engaged.

I'm not going pedal to the metal on this because I don't care enough. I'll be covering the Orange Bowl, so I won't care about the telecast. And you can always find somewhere to watch the Super Bowl, like one of several Web sites that pirate over-the-air television. Though, I would never recommend such dastardly endeavors.

Besides, there just isn't that much on CBS and Fox I watch other than the David Letterman-Craig Ferguson late-night tag team. Ferguson's 1,000th show Tuesday night was positively brilliant, and that's not a word I throw around loosely. If everyone in the world had a mind as alive as his, there would be no television because we'd all be too busy enjoying each others' company.

If you like the multiple editions of CSI, well, to each their own. And American Idol on Fox? Eastern Iowa could survive without it. At least my tiny portion of Eastern Iowa could.

Anyway, why do we never hear of other broadcast entitites having such problems with Mediacom? (OK, they have, as Mr. Morehouse points out in a comment below.) Are they all suckers? Should my own company be trying a similar power play with the cable company? Would I be writing this if it were?

Now that last question is a good one. Forget I asked it.

Wait a second. My own company isn't trying a similar power play. And for proudly noting that for you without their prompting, I think they should finally give me my own assigned parking spot in the Gazette/KCRG lower ramp after working there since ... well, a long time. Who's with me???

In fact, forget this television malarkey. Everyone, unite to help me get that parking spot. Let freedom ring!

UPDATE! Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley weighs in:

 Washington, DC – In response to news that a long-standing cable dispute could leave 300,000 Iowans without Orange Bowl coverage, Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski today encouraging him to step in and protect the interests of Iowa's families before January 5. In a game of significant importance to Iowans, the University of Iowa Hawkeyes will play the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the Orange Bowl as part of the Bowl Championship Series.

“On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of constituents in my district who would be affected by the Sinclair-Mediacom retransmission rights negotiations, I write to solicit the FCC to protect my constituents and the public good,” Braley wrote. “The January 5

^th

Orange Bowl, in which the University of Iowa is playing their championship game with Georgia Tech, is on FOX.  Mediacom's broadcast area is highly populated with the fans and alumni of the University of Iowa, and hundreds of thousands of Iowans stand to lose their chance to watch their team in the Orange Bowl if the FCC does not take action to referee the Mediacom-Sinclair dispute.

“I do not write to ask the FCC to take sides in this contentious negotiation.  Rather, I ask that the FCC step in and take the appropriate actions to protect the public interest in the event that Mediacom and Sinclair are unable to come to terms on a retransmission consent agreement.” 

My response: How brave of the congressman to call for the Orange Bowl to be aired on all Mediacom cable systems in Iowa. What a bold, powerful statement in defense of the public good. Sinclair and Mediacom will undoubtedly be moved by Braley's oratory and will rush to a conclusion that is satisfactory and beneficial to the citizens.

That was sarcasm, by the way. 

All right, there are other matters. Here's a KUsports.com piece on former Iowa quarterback/assistant coach Chuck Long becoming Turner Gill's offensive coordinator at Kansas.

The legendary Phil Steele has a statistical breakdown of the Georgia Tech-Iowa Orange Bowl that will have numbers coming out of your ears. The number that may interest you most: Phil picks the Hawkeyes to win by six points.

Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has another look at the Yellow Jackets' less-than-Nebraska defense.

If news about the number of chartered flights leaving Iowa for the Orange Bowl grabs you, Radioiowa.com has a good, succinct story about it.

Amie Kiehn of the Daily Iowan revisits the scene at the Iowa football complex the day it was learned the Hawkeyes were Miami-bound.

A FINAL NOTE: I'm going to try to assemble a Hlog bowls pool. Keep your eyes open for that. I can't promise prizes that are glorious, but isn't a job well done satisfaction enough?

If an assigned parking spot in a ramp is part of the deal, yes, it is.