Days after Comcast finalized details on their merger deal with NBCUniversal, The Nation‘s John Nichols joined Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America, and Jeff Gelles, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s consumer columnist, on Radio Times today to explain just how unprecedented the Comcast/NBC Universal merger will be.

Nichols, whose recent article co-written with Robert W. McChesney outlines the dramatic effects of the Comcast/NBC deal, makes clear that he is “a massive, unrelenting, overwhelming critic of this merger.” He challenges Cooper on the need to consider not just what this does for consumers but also what this does for citizens.

“I am a citizen always. I’m a consumer some times when I am looking for a product,” explains Nichols. “As a citizen, I need information from a variety of sources, not a consolidated single source.”

—Kevin Gosztola