There's really no doubt that Comcast has its tendrils in deep when it comes to lobbying for approval of their $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable. The revolving door helps; former FCC boss Michael Powell now heads the NCTA, the cable industry's largest lobbying group. Former FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, who voted for Comcast's acquisition of NBC while at the FCC, now lobbies the FCC for Comcast. FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen formerly provided legal counsel for Comcast.
But the company is also
throwing money hand over fist at both parties in the hopes that they can quite simply buy merger approval. Comcast PACs have given money to all but three members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and nearly all of the folks who'll be responsible with reviewing their merger application.
They've also donated to 32 of the 39 members of the House Judiciary Committee, who'll be holding an upcoming merger hearing.
None of this is particularly surprising, given that this is how a broken democracy works. What
is surprising is that in defending the practice, Comcast attempts to tell
Politico in a roundabout way that they're doing this all for employees (who'll likely see layoffs from duplicate positions) and customers (who are more than certain to see rate hikes either way):
quote:
“Comcast NBCUniversal operates in 39 states and has 130,000 employees across the country,” said spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice. “It is important for our customers, our employees and our shareholders that we participate in the political process. The majority of our PAC contributions are to the senators and members who represent our employees and customers."
That's a Comcast representative trying to claim that because lawmakers technically represent
you, throwing money at them to support a merger that likely won't help you in the slightest is perfectly ok.