Monday, December 22, 2014

Comcast Buys Off Minorites With Cash: Sharpton Gets His $155,000 to Look The Other Way on Merger "Problems" With Regulators.

The Washingtonian reports:
To rally political support for the merger, Comcast’s political-action committee handed out campaign cash, and Cohen worked to head off the concerns over diversity. Between 2008 and 2010, Comcast’s corporate foundation donated more than $3 million to 39 minority groups that wrote letters to federal regulators in support of the NBC deal. Comcast and NBC Universal also worked out an agreement with advocacy groups guaranteeing increased “minority participation in news and public affairs programming”—so long as the deal went through. And in 2009 and 2010, Comcast gave $155,000 to an organization founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton, who ended up endorsing the merger.
A highly regulated economy sure helps the rent-seekers.