Matthew Continetti: Comcast Has Bought The Democrats
By Chris Stigall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Chris Stigall spoke with Matthew Continetti, the Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Free Beacon Tuesday morning on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about his piece that claims Comcast has effectively bought off Democrats to ensure congress approves their merger with Time Warner.
Continetti states there is a very tight relationship that exists between Comcast and the Democrats, both financially and on the air.
"The vast majority Comcast's giving is to the Democratic Party and [Executive Vice-President David] Cohen is a bundler for President Obama and one of his strongest supporters. [Comcast President and CEO Brian] Roberts has also been a donor to President Obama. Let's not forget too that Comcast owns the NBC family of networks which, in my view, provides free money to the Democrats by owning MSNBC, which is just basically a Democratic broadcast network."
He explained why he thinks Comcast merging with Time Warner is not the same as a merger of companies from a different industry.
"The telecom industry is very different. [It is] basically a government sanctioned monopoly. This is a business that is extremely tied to government and political rents, special favors that the government disperses, and so for instance, this merger has to go before the Federal Communications Commission which is chaired by Tom Wheeler, who guess what, is also a former bundler for Barack Obama. I think it's important that we recognize this is not what conservatives would call the market at work, but this is the political market at work here."
Continetti believes Republicans remain silent about this deal because they don't accept or understand what is happening.
"These principled concerns about anti-trust and customer service are what spawn the criticisms. Republicans just don't buy it. They just think this deal will work out for the market. I'd like some people to look at the political aspect of this, how this merger has come to pass with so little criticism. I think it's because Comcast is such a major player in Democratic politics."