Documents Show Comcast Ghostwrote Pro-TWC Merger Letters of Support for Hawaii Governor

[eridani]

http://inthesetimes.com/article/17602/comcast_merger_hawaii


On August 22, Neil Abercrombie, then Hawaii’s governor, sent a letter to Washington, D.C., urging the Federal Communications Commission to approve Comcast’s controversial proposal to merge with Time Warner Cable. In explaining the importance of what Comcast could bring to Hawaii’s future, the governor’s letter invoked the country’s recent recession and the state’s high number of families without Internet access.

“I have been impressed with Comcast and what it can offer the State, especially its Internet Essentials program, which offers discount Internet service to low income families,” the Democratic Governor’s letter asserted. “Your approval of this transaction should bring this needed service from the mainland to our shores.”

Yet the state of Hawaii did not give credit to one primary author of the letter: Comcast itself.

The first draft of the missive was sent from the Executive Director of Government Affairs at Comcast Cable. After receiving the original draft, the governor’s office—with help from a state regulatory agency—made mostly cosmetic changes to the Comcast PR document, added some language about a specific transaction involving Comcast’s proposed merger in the state, and sent it to Washington stamped with the state of Hawaii’s official seal.

Records obtained by In These Times through a public records request reveal that, in its effort to persuade the FCC to approve its proposed mega-merger, Comcast drafted letters all the way up the state political food chain to the governorship.
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[marym625]

1. jesus christ

Why don't we just skip the middle man and vote for the corporation du jour for all the offices, State and federal

[Panich52]

2. Many more than Hawaii's. Consumerist keeps good track of Comcast...

"Politicians' letters written in support of Comcast merger were actually written by Comcast"

In the eleven months since Comcast announced that it would acquire Time Warner Cable, numerous local and national politicians have written to the FCC in support of the merger, ... Many of the letters hit the same points...almost as if they were ghostwritten ...

http://consumerist.com/2015/01/26/politicians-letters-in-support-of-comcast-merger-were-actually-written-by-comcast/#more-10193511


More on the 2-years-in-row "Worst Company" from Consumerist:

http://consumerist.com/tag/comcast/

..

[woo me with science]

3. K&R