Bad News for Comcast
Posted February 26th, 2010 by Josh Stearns
Sometimes the headlines say it all:
“Congresswoman Maxine Waters rips into NBC Universal’s Jeff Zucker over lack of diversity”
“Lawmakers Question Comcast, NBC on Jobs, Online Video Competition”
“Lawmakers worry Comcast-NBC merger would cut jobs”
“Comcast and NBC Universal take second beating on the Hill”
“Jobs, Diversity Top Issues At Comcast-NBCU Hearing”
It was another bruising day for Comcast and NBC on Capitol Hill. The House Judiciary Committee seemed to be taking a page from Sen. Al Franken – asking tough questions, calling CEOs Roberts and Zucker out on their meager talking points, and articulating serious concerns about Comcast’s proposed takeover of NBC-Universal.
As noted in the headlines above, the issue of jobs and diversity were lightning rods at this hearing, and some of the questioning left Roberts and Zucker stammering.
One highlight included Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) running down the list of board members for each company and noting the extraordinarily low number of women and people of color in the companies’ leadership. Neither company has any Latinos on its board, even though NBC owns one of the nation’s largest Spanish-language TV networks, Telemundo. “A board can tell us a lot about an organization,” Rep Waters said in response to the CEOs’ claims of prioritizing diversity.
Another highlight came when Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D- Ill.) reminded NBC’s Zucker about the labor promises NBC made and then broke when it acquired Telemundo. Earlier in the hearing, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas), also frustrated about the companies’ past labor practices, made both Roberts and Zucker publicly commit to schedule a meeting in the near future with Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America.
For full coverage of the event, read the articles above or watch the nearly eight-hour hearing archived on C-Span.
