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You Can't Kid a Kidder: Comcast's Cohen May Have Met His Match In FCC's Wheeler
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Comcast's top lobbyist, David Cohen, is known to be a savvy political operator, having pushed through the No. 1 U.S. cable operator's landmark acquisition of media giant NBC Universal in 2011. But Alina Selyukh And Liana B. Baker write at Reuters that although Comcast ranks among the top-ten corporate influencers in Washington, having spent $18.8 million on lobbying last year, Cohen may have met his match in Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler. Wheeler headed the cable trade group from 1979 to 1984 and ran the wireless industry association from 1992 to 2004. Since taking over the FCC last November, however, Wheeler has not shied away from stances that have roiled past allies. Wheeler publicly expressed skepticism about a potential merger between wireless carriers Sprint and T-Mobile in one of his most attention-grabbing moves last February.
'You can't kid a kidder. Having been a lobbyist, he knows all their tricks,' says Blair Levin. Comcast will formally request an FCC review of the $45.2 billion Time Warner Cable deal later in March. Opponents say the combined company will have too much power over what Americans can watch on television and do online. As FCC chairman, Wheeler has publicly and repeatedly stated his 'unabashed' support for competition. Wheeler has also hired a heavyweight consumer advocate, Gigi Sohn, as a senior adviser. Colleagues of Wheeler, a published historian, also highlight his subject expertise. 'He knows these issues like the back of his hand,' says one FCC official who works with Wheeler. 'He knows how the business runs. He knows these people, he knows what they think and what policies they want.'"
'You can't kid a kidder. Having been a lobbyist, he knows all their tricks,' says Blair Levin. Comcast will formally request an FCC review of the $45.2 billion Time Warner Cable deal later in March. Opponents say the combined company will have too much power over what Americans can watch on television and do online. As FCC chairman, Wheeler has publicly and repeatedly stated his 'unabashed' support for competition. Wheeler has also hired a heavyweight consumer advocate, Gigi Sohn, as a senior adviser. Colleagues of Wheeler, a published historian, also highlight his subject expertise. 'He knows these issues like the back of his hand,' says one FCC official who works with Wheeler. 'He knows how the business runs. He knows these people, he knows what they think and what policies they want.'"
You can't fight the tide of regulatory capture, and it's always most efficient and least risky to consolidate repeatedly until a monopoly is reached.
So, it might as well be owned by US residents rather than a few shareholders.
Wow....what happened to Kabletown?
You were critically hit for no damage. The bruise will look nice, and maybe the scars will make good party talk.
... that he's not gunning for a c-level position at Comcast, Sprint, or T-Mobile? Guess we'll have to see how favorable he acts to Verizon and AT&T.
You can be certain anything he does is benefiting those who give him money, and it's not you.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I just see this as bittersweet, that it takes a former lobbyist to be a match against another lobbyist.
Makes you think how many bad decisions the government have made due to maneuvering from professional lobbying groups.
can't come soon enough. The amount of resources squandered on who gets to send bits on a wire when all we need is food for all...
'You can't kid a kidder. Having been a lobbyist, he knows all their tricks,' says Blair Levin.
So this is what we've been reduced to? The disconsolate wish, having turned the regulatory body over to one of the kleptarchs, that he will discover not only his duty to society but also unbiased objectivity, and turn on his own? A ray of hope so thin strains my credulity.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
Chuck Schumer's brother is running it on Wall St.
that's a fine line right there. We added a 10k max restriction here to prevent this kind of thing.
Cable is too locked down. I consider myself a Cord Cutter. Because now, Every channel on my local Cable company is Encrypted QAM. If back in 1995, you had told people that every single channel, including re-broadcast Broadcast TV, in both the US and Canada would be "Scrambled" like HBO, Cinemax, Disney, and Showtime, requiring a cable box be present in every room, and that VCRs would be next to useless (you can still use a VCR, technically.) and that we would be paying $150+ in bills for it, we would be in outrage mode and be clamoring for revolution in both the US and Canada.
If the FCC really had a backbone (and it's Canadian a backbone, they would apply a Federal Regulation that all Cable must be decrypted and there would now be a universal access fee of around $65 monthly, .Any Cable or content provider that refused to comply being subject to Federal investigation, arrest, and trial on charges of money laundering, wire fraud, including it's board of directors and CEO
Ooh, what a shrewd and wise character. I'm sure nothing gets past him! Here's what the major hint for me was, personally: EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THE US IS AGAINST IT! All media coverage, every customer, even other countries are saying what a crock of monopoly bullshit it is. What a hard decision he has to make! I hope he's as clever as they say to figure this one out!
I've been saying this for many years. The reason why US broadband sucks is because the original breakup of Ma Bell has mostly failed. The fault line of Ma Bell's breakup was set to be the local service vs long distance. What should've happened instead was that the Bell system should've been broken up at the physical plant level. ILECs should've been left owning nothing more than the physical plant, selling access to it, at tariffed rates, to any CLEC that wants to provide voice or data service over the last mile.
I'm at pessimist at heart. At best, we can hope that this mega merger is going to get canned. But of course, one can dream about FCC saying to Comcast and Time Warner: "You want to merge, ok, but you end up owning only the physical plant, and anyone who wants to provide video, voice, or data service, can pay you for maintaining the coax, and other than that, butt out."
Despite aggressive warnings by the EFF for over a decade, the cable, tel, and cell companies have not done full blown blocking of web sites. Netflix has seen throttling, but it uses a large amount of bandwidth. Even the average American, and by extension average Congressman, can see that a merged Comcast will be close to a cable monopoly.
I want to see what Congress will actually do if the Comcast merger goes through, or the major teleco companies actually demand 'protection fees' from web sites that do NOT use a large amount of bandwidth.
Wheeler won't regulate. He wants a budget to work with and if he plays ball then congress will strip him of a budget. He's not the only one with influence on these decisions.
Savvy, Looking out for consumers. This is the same industry shill who gutted net neutrality? Stop using BETA, it obviously rotting your brain.
we will have to see what he does about net neutrality.
... shouldn't get involved in media regulatory bodies.
In Canada, our CRTC is run by current and former employees of Bell, Rogers, Telus and Cogeco. Their corrupt nature reeks every time someone pushes for more openness in our media environments.
If you want proof, just look at how they treated Wind Mobile and Teksavvy.
fJUDalism
Cohen and company in an attempt to potray themsemselves as the underdogs before they swoop in and take over the last vestiges of USian free market competition are playing up the capibilities of formidable and capeable FCC operators. No light will be shed on the fact that all aspects of our government are in fact paid for and bought out by multinational corporation and foreign sovreign powers. It is always good to throw the simple citizens a bone of hope before the relentless juggernaught of tyranny marches over the bones of their children.
Always remember that it takes a village to raise children. People who believe in families are all dangerous subversives and must be watched.
You would only pay the tax if you used internet, phones or television? He stated a fixed cost for infrastructure in the bill, not an extra tax.