Personal Injury Law

Comcast Pulls Consumer Ads Critical Of GM Bankruptcy

By Jane Akre

Comcast Pulls Ads That Urge Consumer Protection

Media giants have been known to pull advertising when the rich and powerful request it.

Comcast Corporation, the largest cable-television corporation in the country, has pulled an advertisement critical of General Motors bankruptcy plan that leaves injured consumers or their survivors uncompensated.

The ads started running in Washington D.C. last week. They say that taxpayer funded bankruptcy relief should not  allow automakers to evade product-liability claims of hundreds of individuals injured in GM and Chrysler vehicles.

Free And Clear of all Liens

When Chrysler and 24 subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy code, it was assumed the New Chrysler would assume Chrysler's tort liabilities. Instead the automaker asked the sale be "free and clear of all liens and claims". The U.S. Treasury Department cleared the bankruptcy with that stipulation.

The Chapter 11 filings mean that someone currently injured from a defective seat belt, an exploding gas tank, or a roof crush has no remedy through the court to cover medical expenses from injury or in the case of a survivor, has no access to survivor benefits from a defective product.  

There are thousands of victims stories being told by consumer groups and General Motors reportedly has $1.25 billion in pending product liability claims.   

The Pulled Ads

The ads say:

"Now that GM and Chrysler have 57 billion dollars of taxpayer money, they're full of promises.

But they don't mention their current bankruptcy plan throws consumer safety protections out the window.

Americans would have no protection if they were injured or killed by a defective GM or Chrysler vehicle from pre-bankruptcy days.

Many life threatening defects would no longer be reported -- let alone fixed.

We all want GM and Chrysler to thrive - but not at the cost of our own survival."

Comcast spokesman, Chris Ellis tells the Washington Post, "We have temporarily stopped airing the ad while we conduct a review of the claims it makes." The company says it is reviewing the ad for accuracy.

Interestingly, a June 10 news article, published on Comcast news, admits that "compensation for such claims would have to come from the part of the company not being sold to Fiat. But those assets have limited value and it's unlikely there will be anything to pay out."   

A GM spokesman admits the company expressed its concern to Comcast that the ads, which ran in the Washington D.C. area "contained false statements about GM."

An Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of GM and Chrysler, spent $56,000 to run the ad, which was supposed to continue this weekend. 

Meanwhile, GM has just received approval to use an additional $33 billion in financing to help it emerge from bankruptcy committed by the U.S. and Canadian governments.  GM already received $19 billion in taxpayer money before the bankruptcy filing June 1.

Future driver injuries and deaths from the 40 to 99 million GM and Chrysler cars currently on the road, will also face empty coffers they file a product liability claim.   

The consumer groups want Congress to establish, or force the bankrupt company to establish, a victims' fund, not unlike those established for victims of asbestos or the Dalkon Shield contraceptive. # 

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on June 25, 2009 (boomark / email).