Cable came up on the wrong end of a couple "worst" lists recently, starting with Comcast being named Consumerist.com's "Worst Company in America in 2010." The competition was sponsored by the self-proclaimed "online resource for consumer-driven advice" owned by Consumers Union, which also publishes Consumer Reports.
Comcast handily beat out Ticketmaster in the competition that winnowed down U.S. companies in an NCAA basketball-like bracket competition. Comcast's win was based on what the Consumerist described as "horrendous service, exorbitant costs, throttled Internet and plans to acquire NBC Universal." While Comcast "doesn't necessarily need to take this seriously" because it was only 5,469 Consumerist.com readers who voted for the company, "it stings" because "image is everything," Motley Fool said.
In another black eye for cable, former Adelphia CEO John Rigas, labeled as responsible for driving the company to bankruptcy in 2002 and now serving jail time, ended up in 10th place in a list of the "Worst CEOs in American History" published by Wall Street.com. Rigas, who often identified himself as a small-town movie theater owner from Coudersport, Pa., "siphoned off money to fund other companies owned by his family (and) was eventually charged with stealing nearly $100 million."
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