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Comcast Ghost-Writes Politician's Letters To Support Time Warner Mega-Merger
WheezyJoe writes: As the FCC considers the merger between Comcast/Universal and Time-Warner Cable, which would create the largest cable company in the U.S. and is entering the final stages of federal review, politicians are pressuring the FCC with pro-merger letters actually written by Comcast. According to documents obtained through public records requests, politicians are passing letters nearly word-for-word written by Comcast as their own. "Not only do records show that a Comcast official sent the councilman the exact wording of the letter he would submit to the FCC, but also that finishing touches were put on the letter by a former FCC official named Rosemary Harold, who is now a partner at one of the nation's foremost telecom law firms in Washington, DC. Comcast has enlisted Harold to help persuade her former agency to approve the proposed merger."
Ars Technica had already reported that politicians have closely mimicked Comcast talking points and re-used Comcast's own statements without attribution. The documents revealed today show just how deeply Comcast is involved with certain politicians, and how they were able to get them on board.
Ars Technica had already reported that politicians have closely mimicked Comcast talking points and re-used Comcast's own statements without attribution. The documents revealed today show just how deeply Comcast is involved with certain politicians, and how they were able to get them on board.
glad to see we have the best government money can buy!
When companies can "effectively" just "buy laws" (and/or Politicians) corruption knows no bounds for price gouging.
Not just companies. The political network overseen by the Koch brothers is getting ready to spend $900 Million on the 2016 elections.
Now the Kochs’ network will embark on its largest drive ever to influence legislation and campaigns across the country, leveraging Republican control of Congress and the party’s dominance of state Capitols to push for deregulation, tax cuts and smaller government.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
We tried that in Canada along with limits on campaign contributions and spending during elections. Worked OK until the Conservatives got in and they canceled the public campaign financing to save tax payers money, neutered Elections Canada so not only they can't hardly investigate anything but can't even talk about it and now the government spends more money on telling us how great the Conservatives are then used to get spent on election financing and the party itself has continuous ads telling us how horrible the other choices are.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Not that I'm disagreeing with your point, but it should be noted that the Koch companies are somewhere around #15 on the list of top donors. The top 10 are names like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Merrill Lynch who give millions to Hillary Clinton. The cable industry also spends more on Clinton than the Koch brothers spend opposing her.
Brother, remove the log that is in your own eye so that you may see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye. In a democracy, the people vote on laws, budgets, wars and everything else. In a republic, the people elect representatives who vote on laws, budgets, wars, and everything else. That's what people generally understand, and how they use the terms. You can quibble over more precise terms like "direct democracy" vs. "democratic republic" etc. Of course, you don't have to take my word for it. But I can't think of any way you could independently verify what I said. I wish there was some independent reference materials you could consult. Can someone help me out here?
Join the IParty!