FCC commisioner to lobby for Comcast/NBC giant she OK'd

[SoCalDem]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/12/fcc_rgulator_joins_comcastnbc/

FCC commish to lobby for Comcast/NBC giant she OK'd

An actor in Comcast's broadband's US rollout

By Gavin Clarke in San Francisco •
Posted in Government, 12th May 2011 01:27 GMT



An FCC commissioner who argued for and voted to approve Comcast's $6.5bn borging of NBC Universal is quitting her government position and becoming a lobbyist for the communications and media giant she helped to bring into existence. Meredith Attwell Baker – who had been one of two Republicans serving on the five-member commission – will become the new senior vice president of governmentaffairs for NBC Universal, just four months after the commission approved Comcast's NBC takeover.

When the FCC voted four-to-one in favor of the Comcast/NBC deal, just one Democrat dissented, saying it conferred too much power in one company's hands. Baker disagreed, writing in a joint statement with the assenting commissioners that the deal had "the potential to bring exciting benefits to consumers that outweigh potential harms."

Baker went on to complain in March that the FCC's scrutiny of the deal had taken too long. Not that her opinion of the timing was unique: Baker feels that for the last decade, FCC review processes have dragged on for too long.

In a glowing farewell statement on Wednesday, Baker said she was happy to have played a small part in the deployment of broadband in the US. "I depart most proud of our collective efforts to focus on long-term comprehensive spectrum reform," she said. "It is the most important step we can take to ensure our nation's competitiveness in an increasingly interconnected world."

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