Congresswoman Maxine Waters: COMCAST- No Shame!

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), a member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet, issued the following statement today after it was announced that FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker will resign her post to join Comcast NBC:

"FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker's announcement today that she will resign from the Commission to lobby for Comcast NBC Universal, mere months after casting her yes vote to approve the merger, further confirms my suspicion that the Commission's merger review – in cooperation with the Department of Justice (DOJ) – was overly politicized and rammed through in blatant disregard for the agencies' responsibility to the American people. In addition to the Obama Administration's appointment of NBC Universal's former parent company, General Electric ‘s CEO Jeff Immelt to his new economic panel the same week the Comcast-NBC merger was approved, Commissioner Baker's resignation and frequent criticisms against the FCC's review process underscores the pressure and influence the combining companies exerted over federal regulators. At every juncture, Comcast and NBC Universal set the terms of the merger's approval as they co-opted civil rights organizations with philanthropic donations and pressured the Administration to grant the approval in exchange for "innovation, investment, and job creation." The fact that the companies announced their new executives before the regulators released their orders approving the merger further illustrates how brazen and assured Comcast and NBCU were that the merger would be approved.

"Contrary to what Commissioner Baker and some Republicans claim was an overreach of regulatory authority, there was nothing in the Commission's 279-page order approving the merger that Comcast-NBC did not agree to or previously offer as their "public interest commitments" early in the review proceedings. Moreover, the memoranda of understanding with civil rights groups were only slight variations of the same commitments Comcast-NBC submitted to Congress and the FCC in July 2010. Similarly, the network neutrality conditions were taken from the rule the Commission adopted last month – a narrowly tailored compromise with the telecommunications industry that excludes mobile wireless companies.

"Despite the unprecedented public participation and substantive concerns expressed during the Commission's review of the Comcast-NBC merger, it is sufficiently clear that neither the Commission nor the DOJ had any intention of blocking the combination or reviewing it with careful scrutiny. In fact, many independent networks, writers, directors, actors, and programmers had cynically predicted to me, early in the review, that the government would succumb to pressure, and fail to truly serve the public interest. It was in this vein that I acted early in the Comcast-NBC merger review process – introducing legislation to encourage the FCC to extend the public comment period so they would have the appropriate amount of time to hear from the creative community, especially those who have felt excluded. I strongly believed that broad public engagement and participation would ensure accountability, even if the outcome was pre-determined.

"It seems that with each passing month, we discover more troubling information about the Comcast-NBC merger's approval that continues to undermine the credibility of the entire regulatory review. I hope the American people are paying attention."

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