http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/26/7878239/comcast-twc-fcc-merger-letters-politicians-ghostwritten
Exclusive: politicians are supporting Comcast’s TWC merger with letters ghostwritten by Comcast
Documents reveal the cozy relationship between lobbyists, officials, and the FCC
By Spencer Woodman on January 26, 2015 11:46 am
EXCERPT
More prominent officials with histories of receiving campaign money from Comcast — like Oregon’s Democratic Secretary of State Kate Brown — also recently sent personal letters to the FCC supporting the merger.
Records obtained by The Verge show that Secretary of State Brown’s letter to the agency was almost wholly written by a Comcast Government Affairs specialist. After a conversation with Brown’s staff, the Comcast official sent Brown a letter he had prewritten for her that even included her typed sign-off, name, and title. Brown’s office sent the Comcast document — containing just three sentences with new or altered language — to the FCC emblazoned with the official seal of the State of Oregon.
Since 2008, Comcast has contributed nearly $10,000 to Brown’s two campaigns for secretary of state. Neither Comcast nor the state of Oregon made any attempt tell the public of the corporation’s role in authoring Brown’s letter. Brown’s communications director told The Verge that Brown was too busy to be interviewed. (Neither Wood nor Todd Wodraska, the councilman from Jupiter, Florida, accepted requests to speak to The Verge about the letters they sent the FCC. Rosemary Harold did not respond to multiple interview requests.)
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Many of the letters sent to the FCC by state and local officials bear striking resemblance to those of Brown, Wodraska, and Wood. The letters are often quick to point to Comcast’s spending on local infrastructure and its record of philanthropy. Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the governors of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Hawaii, Colorado, Maryland, and Vermont all wrote letters to the FCC regarding the merger that cite both Comcast’s Internet Essentials program — which discounts internet services to low-income customers — and past or future local investments by the company.
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Related??
Comcast-Time Warner Odds Not More Than 50-50 Now: Copps
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/375116/how-comcast-bought-democratic-party-matthew-continetti
How Comcast Bought the Democratic Party
A huge merger brought about by high-intensity lobbying goes unopposed.
Sharpton’s Affirmative-Action Win
Earlier this year, the reverend lent crucial black support to the controversial merger between Comcast and NBC. Is his new MSNBC show payback?
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/chelsea-clinton-nbc-600-k-salary-107827.html#ixzz3RNeMHuGR
Chelsea Clinton earned an annual salary of $600,000 at NBC News before switching to a month-to-month contract earlier this year, sources with knowledge of the agreement told POLITICO.
(snip)
As special correspondent, Clinton worked on service-related feature assignments for NBC’s “Rock Center with Brian Williams” until the show’s cancellation in June 2013. Clinton has since worked on packages for NBC Nightly News.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3256166/posts
Drudge Claims Savannah Guthrie Might Replace Brian Williams
Guthrie’s husband ...
http://gpg.com/team/michael-feldman/
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3119422/posts
Report: Obama and Bill Ayers attended same 2014 wedding (Alex Wagner and Sam Kass)
February 13, 2015 at 7:23:11 AM CST · 13 of 24
http://freebeacon.com/columns/love-in-the-time-of-obama/
Wagner also owes a lot to dad. Her father is Carl Wagner, a longtime Democratic operative who helped run Ted Kennedy’s 1980 presidential campaign, who served in the DNC, and who co-chaired Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. A highly successful consultant, for a time Carl Wagner ran the Entertainment Express Corporation, a California cable company that, ironically enough, was bought by Comcast, which now employs his daughter. Alex Wagner grew up in Northwest D.C., went to Woodrow Wilson High School, and matriculated at Brown. She is an only child. When she graduated from college in 1999 she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked at music magazines. After a few years, though, and a stint in Amsterdam where she tried to write a novel while living with her mom, “I wanted to switch gears.”
It was back to D.C. Wagner met with Democratic mastermind John Podesta—“an old Washington neighbor” whose relationship with her father was longstanding. Podesta gave her a job at his new think tank, the Center for American Progress. Which led to a job in New York City at Fader magazine. Which led to the job with George Clooney. Which led to a gig covering the Obama White House for the now defunct Politics Daily. Which led to MSNBC. Her agent is Ari Emanuel, brother to Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and to Dr. Zeke Emanuel, a frequent guest on her show. “Wagner talks about the series of events that brought her from that Los Angeles pay phone to MSNBC’s soundstage as if it were the most natural progression in the world,” Elle magazine noted a couple years back. Of course she does. It was natural for her.
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http://nypost.com/2013/12/24/nbc-news-boss-grills-meet-the-press-staff/
NBC News boss grills ‘Meet the Press’ staff
By Claire AtkinsonDecember 24, 2013
With “Meet the Press” slipping in the ratings, WME’s Ari Emanuel has been making a serious pitch for his clients, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” to take over, several sources said.
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http://thehill.com/policy/technology/222631-nyc-warns-feds-about-comcast-merger
NYC warns feds on Comcast merger
By Julian Hattem - 11/03/14 11:43 AM EST
Comcast’s $45 billion merger deal with Time Warner Cable could lead to worse service, slowed innovation and higher advertising rates, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio told federal regulators.
The mayor sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler last week warning that the cable merger would have “far-reaching impacts” on his city and the rest of the nation.
For one, the deal could lead to higher prices and worse service from the company, since it will have no major competitors to fear, he said.
“This is alarming given both Comcast’s and Time Warner Cable’s already poor customer satisfaction ratings,” de Blasio warned.
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http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/13/8037071/comcast-time-warner-cable-merger-one-year-later
One year later, the Comcast merger apocalypse still isn’t here
And suddenly, everything looks different
By Colin Lecher on February 13, 2015 06:25 pm
Someone needs to un weave and expose the web that’s been woven Lots of strings for the puppet masters