Comcast, Time Warner Cable Spend Big To 'Honor' FCC Commissioner Overseeing Their Merger Review
from the soft-corruption dept
We've written in the past about the idea of "soft corruption," in which the direct exchange of money isn't necessarily obvious, but the very clear appearance of conflicts of interest certainly erode the trust of the public in the policy makers. Even when everything is technically above-board, these actions attack the credibility of the policy process. Witness the latest example. Comcast and Time Warner Cable are each shelling out significant cash to "sponsor" an event which is honoring FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn who, of course, is in the midst of a review over the merger proposal between the two companies. As Politico reports:Comcast will pay $110,000 to be a top-level “presenting sponsor” at the Walter Kaitz Foundation’s annual dinner in September, at which Clyburn is receiving the “diversity advocate” award, according to a foundation spokeswoman. Time Warner Cable paid $22,000 in May to the foundation for the same event, according to a Senate lobbying disclosure filed at the end of last month. The foundation supports diversity in the cable industry.Diversity is a good thing and we're all for it. It's also great that Comcast and TWC want to "support" diversity. But the questionable optics here are quite troubling -- even if it's technically legal:
There are no rules preventing businesses from helping to honor regulators in this way, and both companies say they have supported the foundation for years.Comcast further claims that it's "insulting" to suggest that its donation here has anything to do with Clyburn being honored at the event. And, indeed, Comcast has sponsored similar events from the same group, giving similar amounts -- all while past honorees tended to be industry insiders, rather than public sector officials. So it's doubtful that this is any sort of direct tit-for-tat type payment. But, again, that's part of what's so troubling about the nature of "soft corruption." There's still a pretty clear conflict of interest in the entire setup which -- whether true or not -- creates the perception that people in the public sector are in debt to the very companies they're supposed to be regulating.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: awards, conflict of interest, fcc, merger, mignon clyburn, soft corruption, sponsorship
Companies: comcast, time warner cable
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Make sure there's a recording
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"soft corruption"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: "soft corruption"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What's da problem?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
i think that is most unfair, the duck i've eaten hasn't stunk at all...
besides, we are in times of 'diode justice' (only works one way), the 1% pull legal justifications out of their butts and they pass muster (to odiferously mix metaphors), and the 99% can't depend on 'rights' or 'laws' or 'justice' at all...
works out great for the 1%, and, after all, isn't that -both literally and figuratively- all that counts ? ? ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Might this be the Police/Nobody diode?
or P–N diode for short
/geek-pun
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Emigration
The scale of the emigration worries the US-government. Some of the retaliations and measures taken to limit emigration is demanding money to accept applications, choosing to unilaterally prolong the citizenship, double tax, demand money to end the citizenship, and so on.
Most nations expect its citizens to pay a larger part of their income as tax. This will be unfamiliar for some. And then give more of it back, something that some ex-USA people find queer. The tax evasion argument for FATCA is quite ludicrous.
You will probably be harassed and treated as an defector when you leave, so you might do the paperwork when you are safely out instead. Later you will probably be harassed at the border if you visit your friends and family after you have succeeded.
But your (future) kids will be safer from bullying, attend fewer schools run by correction officers, get less zero tolerance abuse, less manhandling at airports, less stop-and-frisk, less SWATting, and generally grow up in a place were it is OK to think. And so do you.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Emigration
Making Canadia sound so nice is part of your dirty Socialist plan to take over the world! ;-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Voting
And I admit that I like it ;-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Adjustment Bureau
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
"Questionable optics"?
The NCTA website seems to imply that the Kaitz Foundation is one of its projects. (See https://www.ncta.com/who-we-are .)
So... if it helps, this could be seen as something more like ALL the major cable players honoring Clyburn, rather than just Comcast and TWC. OK, maybe that doesn't help. But it certainly business as usual across a lot of different industries.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just once...
Yes such a decision would drastically cut down on the perks of the job(which is likely the biggest reason they never will), but it would certainly be refreshing to see them realize how obviously for sale their votes/voices are, and do something to try and minimize that.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Just once...
If that happened they will then be accused of grandstanding.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Just once...
This is the U.S.A. There are few other civilized countries where waiters are only paid their tips rather than a proper wage, leading to stuff like women being happy like anything to have the qualifications for working at "Hooters".
Bending over and smiling when someone is waving dollar bills is part of the culture.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
De monopolize them
Make them common carriers and get them OUT of the content packaging biz.
And let me buy my hardware from competitors via Amazon and Best Buy.
These guys are screwing us bad.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Does Public Knowledge have the authority to regulate Comcast?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Where's the PR department?
Or is their PR department about ready to throw in the towel, especially in light of all the bad customer service issues?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Where's the PR department?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]