Long Island is a vast, diverse piece of property—in terms of its topography and its population—so for any one man to have a stranglehold on all of it, on all of us, seems, well, crazy. But James Dolan defies explanation and expectation. Oh, he’s in the news everyday for his off-Island holdings—Donnie Walsh is leaving the Knicks! Can the return of Isiah be far behind? Etc., etc., ad infinitum—but that’s a fraction of who he is and the show he runs. Cablevision is not a monopoly, technically speaking, but it is still the primary provider of all television and Internet access for a massive percentage of LI’s population; furthermore, Cablevision owns the Island’s only major news television station (News 12) and the Island’s only daily newspaper (Newsday). Think about it: If Jimmy Dolan decided to close up shop tomorrow, at least a good two-thirds of this place would be blacked out and more than 10,000 of us would be out of jobs. But he wouldn’t do that. Cablevision reported revenues of $1.92 billion for the first quarter of 2011. No, he’s not going anywhere for a good long time.
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