Comcast Corp. has been snapping up ex-government officials to help win approval of its proposed takeover of NBC Universal Inc., including former congressmen and congressional staff members, ex-government antitrust lawyers and former aides to the Federal Communications Commissions most impassioned critics of media mergers.
In all, 78 former government employees registered as Comcast lobbyists in the final quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, according to an analysis by the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a project of the School of Communication at American University. The most common background among those identified in the workshop investigation is congressional staff, but there also are four former members of Congress: Reps. Robert Walker (R-Pa.), who is referred to as Congressman Walker on his firms website; William Gray (D-Pa.); Chip Pickering (R-Miss.); and former Sen. Don Nickles (R-Okla.).
Meanwhile, General Electric, which could make $6.5 billion on the sale of its stake in NBC Universal, has hired former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), along with 18 other ex-government officials, to lobby for the deal, according to a review of records.
Walker and Gephardt list the transaction as a specific lobbying issue while the other three former members of Congress give vague descriptions of their activity.
The Comcast/NBC deal will require approval from the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, which studies its effect on competition, as well as the FCC, which must approve the transfer of GEs broadcast licenses and is concerned with the public interest. In its army of lobbyists, Comcast now employs former staff from both.
At the FCC, Commissioner Michael Copps and former Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein have been the most visible and vocal opponents of relaxing limits on media ownership.
Comcast has hired two of their former aides: Jordan Goldstein, who worked for Copps, and Rudy Brioche, who worked for Adelstein.
Rick Chessen, another former aide to Copps, now works for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, whose biggest member is Comcast. His job is to oversee NCTAs relationship with the FCC, according to his association bio.
Former FCC lawyers who work in the private sector are not required to register as long as they stick to legal chores and not lobbying. Today, Goldstein is senior director of regulatory affairs for Comcast and is doing legal work on the proposed combination. Brioche is Comcasts senior director of external affairs and public policy counsel.
There are several former DOJ antitrust lawyers and advisers to the House and Senate Judiciary committees working on the planned merger. David Urban of American Continental Group was chief of staff for Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.); James Flood of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck was counsel to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Schumer and Specter are members of the Judiciary Committees antitrust subcommittee.
According to the Investigative Reporting Workshop analysis, 54 former government workers list the Comcast/NBC deal as a specific lobbying issue on their disclosure forms, while 14 describe their activity ambiguously enough that it could include the merger. Ten others list Comcast as a client but dont appear to be working on the deal.
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