FCC Commissioner That Approved Comcast Merger Leaves For Comcast
mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com
You read that right folks, more fueling of corporate lobbies by the regressive forces in government.
Four months after the Federal Communications Commission approved a hotly contested merger of Comcast and NBC Universal, one of the commissioners who voted for the deal said on Wednesday that she would soon join Comcast’s Washington lobbying office.
Meredith Attwell Baker, a former Commerce Department official who worked on telecommunications issues in George W. Bush’s administration, announced that she would leave the F.C.C. when her term expires at the end of June. At Comcast, she will serve as senior vice president for government affairs for NBC Universal, which Comcast acquired in January.
And if you’re wondering exactly who she can lobby…
Under the pledge [signed when she joined the FCC in 2009], she will not be allowed to lobby anyone at the F.C.C. for two years after her departure.
In addition, Ms. Baker will not be able to lobby other political appointees at the F.C.C., including other commissioners, for the remainder of the Obama administration, including a second term if the president is re-elected. She faces a lifetime ban on lobbying any executive branch agency, including the F.C.C., on the agreement that Comcast made with the commission as a condition of its approval of the merger with NBC Universal.
Ms. Baker can lobby members of Congress immediately upon beginning her new job.