Another amazing Washington coincidence: Comcast hires FCC member who just OKd its NBC merger
This is one of those stories that doesn't attract much attention from the factories that produce the news consumed by millions across this country.
It's one of those "yeh-so-what-about-it?" stories back there.
But for those who watch Washington closely from normal America, like a daily visit to some exotic zoo of human behavior, this story says much in its raw chronological simplicity about how that city works. And how it works for the benefit of those there, not those elsewhere.
That was all going to change after the 2009 inauguration of someone.
July 2009 -- President Obama appoints Meredith Attwell Baker as one of two Republican members among the five on the Federal Communications Commission.
January 2011 -- Baker joins three other commission members in approving the mega-takeover of NBCUniversal by Comcast Corp.
May 11, 2011, early -- Baker announces her FCC resignation effective June 3.
May 11, 2011, later -- Comcast announces Baker will become senior vice president of government affairs for the same NBCUniversal unit that she recently agreed could be swallowed by Comcast.
That's how smoothly it works.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Photo: FCC (a happy Baker).
Your Comcast bill will be adjusted accordingly!...don't like it? to bad!
Posted by: Philip J Reilly | May 12, 2011 at 09:22 AM
This is the kind of crap that happens every single day between the political class and the executive class. Makes you wonder how these people sleep at night.
Posted by: Feudi Pandola | May 12, 2011 at 09:49 AM
Appalling from a distance. However, if it is not illegal, it becomes a no-brainer economically for the person making the move. Let's see, be a government employee for less than two years, then leverage it into a corporate job with a 10x salary increase. Particularly for those with a family, who would not do it? It will not end until it is made illegal.
Posted by: michael c | May 12, 2011 at 09:58 AM
Try not to get any slop on your nice red suit while you're bellying up to the trough, Ms Baker
No wonder the public is cynical.
Thought there are laws stipulating that for a certain amount of time after leaving office, public officials cannot accept employment in industries they were previously overseeing.
Apparently not.
Posted by: anotherstupid taxpayer | May 12, 2011 at 10:04 AM
The real issue here is why government is even involved in the decision-making of two private companies.
The FCC, like virtually all other government agencies great and small, has escaped the bounds of its original mandate.
Posted by: silverfiddle | May 12, 2011 at 11:18 AM
Absolutely nauseating.
Blatant corruption.
Posted by: Bryan | May 12, 2011 at 11:35 AM