FCC commissioner who approved Comcast/NBC merger

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WASHINGTON – Four months after the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal, one of the commissioners who approved the deal said she would join Comcast to oversee its government affairs office.

 

Meredith Attwell Baker, a former Commerce Department official in the George W. Bush administration, announced on Thursday that she will leave the F.C.C. when her term expires at the end of June. At Comcast, she will serve as senior vice president of government affairs for NBC Universal.

 

Ms. Baker, one of two Republicans on the five-member commission, was nominated to F.C.C. by President Obama and started there in July 2009. As part of an ethics pledge she signed upon taking office at the F.C.C., she will not be able to contact F.C.C. officials for the length of the Obama administration, a Comcast spokeswoman said.

 

In addition, Ms. Baker will not be allowed to lobby any executive branch or agency official on matters related to the Comcast-NBC merger for the remainder of the administration. The F.C.C. voted 4 to 1 in January to approve the merger, subject to several conditions.

 

The departure drew immediate criticism from group that opposed the Comcast-NBC merger. Craig Aaron, the president and chief executive of Free Press, a media interest group, called the move “just the latest, though perhaps most blatant, example of a so-called public servant cashing in at a company she is supposed to be regulating.”

awesome

wow. classy.

way 2 go obama

don't you guys know how this works? it's a symbiotic relationship between corporate america and the federal gov't. everybody wins amirite

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:42 AM, theSun said:

don't you guys know how this works? it's a symbiotic relationship between corporate america and the federal gov't. everybody wins amirite

part of me seriously does think its awesome. i mean it must be so great to revel in the fact that once you are in a position of comparable power you don't even have to TRY to pull the wool anymore. seems like a pretty badass way to live. i mean, my weakness is my morality, or whats left of it.

Thanks for that. It was seriously troubling.

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:52 AM, Smettingham Rutherford IV said:

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:42 AM, theSun said:

don't you guys know how this works? it's a symbiotic relationship between corporate america and the federal gov't. everybody wins amirite

 

 

part of me seriously does think its awesome. i mean it must be so great to revel in the fact that once you are in a position of comparable power you don't even have to TRY to pull the wool anymore. seems like a pretty badass way to live. i mean, my weakness is my morality, or whats left of it.

.....and now we shoot you in the face. good day sir!

whenever i open these types of threads i'm always impressed at how well everyone seems to understand the situation.

  On 5/12/2011 at 7:40 AM, Luke Fucking Hazard said:

whenever i open these types of threads i'm always impressed at how well everyone seems to understand the situation.

Let me ruin that for you by saying I don't get it.

synergy

synergy: now with more nerg

so was the Comcast/NBC merger controversial at all? i never heard about it. is this a scandal about nothing?

It's not controversial, cause it's a repub. ex-bushie.

it's not controversial because the media controls controversy lolol

edit- person x, whose job is to regulate industry y, regulates industry y favorably for company z, gets 6 figure exec job with company z. this is not complicated, and it happens every day in a nation where our gov't is for sale. not just with giving regulators/policymakers jobs, but giving them cruises and other such gifts

Media and entertainment industry giving tame government regulators Cruises ay.

This is standard procedure and happens all of the time on Wall Street. C.R.E.A.M.

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:06 PM, patternoverlap said:

This is standard procedure and happens all of the time on Wall Street. C.R.E.A.M.

Name the last three times it's happened that you know of. Be specific.

  On 5/12/2011 at 3:06 PM, theSun said:

it's not controversial because the media controls controversy lolol

 

edit- person x, whose job is to regulate industry y, regulates industry y favorably for company z, gets 6 figure exec job with company z. this is not complicated, and it happens every day in a nation where our gov't is for sale. not just with giving regulators/policymakers jobs, but giving them cruises and other such gifts

OR: person x who is an expert about regulation since she's been working in the regulation body of government for years gets hired by private company to handle governmental affairs.

So unless the merger was suspicious from the beginning I don't see why make such a fuss. If i got a job at a regulatory entity I would certainly have it in mind that it would give me more than enough credentials to later pursue a good position in the private industry.

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:52 PM, SPD² said:

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:06 PM, patternoverlap said:

This is standard procedure and happens all of the time on Wall Street. C.R.E.A.M.

 

Name the last three times it's happened that you know of. Be specific.

watch inside job.

  On 5/12/2011 at 5:01 PM, GORDO said:

 

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:52 PM, SPD² said:

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:06 PM, patternoverlap said:

This is standard procedure and happens all of the time on Wall Street. C.R.E.A.M.

 

Name the last three times it's happened that you know of. Be specific.

 

 

watch inside job.

link to the whole movie, or it didn't happen.

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:52 PM, SPD² said:

  On 5/12/2011 at 4:06 PM, patternoverlap said:

This is standard procedure and happens all of the time on Wall Street. C.R.E.A.M.

 

Name the last three times it's happened that you know of. Be specific.

Over the past decade, more than a dozen high-ranking SEC officials have gone on to lucrative jobs at Wall Street banks or white-shoe law firms, where partnerships are worth millions.

Paul Berger, SEC associate director of enforcement turned lawyer for Debevoise & Plimpton

Mary Jo White, former U.S. attorney turned lawyer for Debevoise & Plimpton

Linda Thomsen, former SEC director of enforcement turned partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell

The SEC and many of these firms swap lawyers regularly.

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Khuzami, the SEC's director of enforcement, talked about a new "cooperation initiative" the agency had recently unveiled, in which executives are being offered incentives to report fraud they have witnessed or committed. From now on, Khuzami said, when corporate lawyers like the ones he was addressing want to know if their Wall Street clients are going to be charged by the Justice Department before deciding whether to come forward, all they have to do is ask the SEC.

 

"We are going to try to get those individuals answers," Khuzami announced, as to "whether or not there is criminal interest in the case — so that defense counsel can have as much information as possible in deciding whether or not to choose to sign up their client."

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The SEC's enforcement director was saying, in essence, that firms like Goldman Sachs and AIG and Lehman Brothers will henceforth be able to get the SEC to act as a middleman between them and the Justice Department, negotiating fines as a way out of jail time. Khuzami was basically outlining a four-step system for banks and their executives to buy their way out of prison. "First, the SEC and Wall Street player make an agreement on a fine that the player will pay to the SEC," Aguirre says. "Then the Justice Department commits itself to pass, so that the player knows he's 'safe.' Third, the player pays the SEC — and fourth, the player gets a pass from the Justice Department."

Revolving door, innit. :sup:

If I were in the same position and if it meant setting my family up for life, I would totally do it.

You would too.

  On 5/12/2011 at 5:01 PM, GORDO said:

 

 

So unless the merger was suspicious from the beginning I don't see why make such a fuss. If i got a job at a regulatory entity I would certainly have it in mind that it would give me more than enough credentials to later pursue a good position in the private industry.

 

Yes certainly you would have good credentials - but if you can't see it as a huge conflict of interests, then please never ever enter government employment.

potentially yeah, but not necessarily.

In this case most certainly though.