FCC commissioner to work for Comcast after approving merger
updated 09:10 pm EDT, Wed May 11, 2011
Meredith Baker to lobby for Comcast-NBC
Comcast has announced that it has hired Meredith Attwell Baker, an FCC Commissioner. The Republican Commissioner will join the cable provider as Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for NBC Universal, a leadership position in the company's Washington DC-based lobbying division. The move has raised eyebrows, considering the Commissioners recent role in approving Comcast's acquisition of NBC Universal.
The company's formal announcement credits her with facilitating the digital TV transition and advising the Executive Branch on telecom policy, however it fails to mention her role in approving the controversial buyout.
"I’ve seen Meredith’s mastery of issues up close as we’ve worked together on issues at the FCC and NTIA," said Rick Cotton, NBC Universal's executive vice president and general counsel.
Baker was one of four Commissioners to vote in favor of the buyout, outweighing the vote from a single dissenter.
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Joined: Aug 2001
THIS
is what's wrong with the government in Washington right now. This is an open-and-shut, full-on, bald-faced example of the underlying corruption that is at the root of why things can't get done (or if they are done, they are done for the benefit of corporations rather than citizens).
But where are the so-called angry teabaggers on this? Where's the citizen outrage? Where's the conflict-of-interest lawsuits and angry mobs on this obvious example of kickback and bribery that benefits the powerful and hurts the working people (and society generally, to say nothing of undermining democracy itself)?
Till you can answer that question, you're going to continue to get government at this level, America.