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There were howls of protest in 2001 when NBC purchased Spanish-language television network Telemundo.
The National Latino Media Council petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to reject the merger on the grounds that media consolidation was detrimental to the general public. The NLMC argued that consolidation represented a bottom-line strategy to amass the largest possible revenue at the smallest possible cost, and would likely result in payroll cuts at Telemundo.
Aware of such concerns, Ramon Escobar, vice president of live-news programming for MSNBC, said all the right things to the FCC. NBC was determined to set the standard for excellence in Spanish-language news, Escobar said, adding, "There will be more resources for Telemundo to produce news."
Five years later, the skeptics are saying "I told you so," and NBC Universal reps are doing damage control. In October, NBC announced that it was laying off 700 employees, with 100 of them targeted for Telemundo stations. NBC's plan for slashing expenses at Telemundo was to eliminate major-market news divisions in Texas, Arizona, and the West Coast, creating a Fort Worth-based regional hub that serves all of those stations. San Antonio's KVDA Telemundo Channel 60 is among the stations affected by the move.
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