This is an older column, but the introduction is so dead-on, I wanted to draw more attention to it:
If Dwight Eisenhower had General Motors and George W. Bush had Halliburton, Barack Obama arguably has Comcast. US presidents are often linked to one or two corporations that donate a lot of money to them and then benefit from their actions. Comcast, which is America’s largest cable television and internet provider and is a near monopoly in most of its largest cities, is no exception.
The company’s meteoric rise in the past decade parallels the relative decline of internet service in the US.
It comes from an Edward Luce column in the Financial Times from February. He goes on to note the strong ties between the FCC and Comcast and between Comcast and President Obama. Remember that President Obama has golfed with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and the CEO is on the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.
Susan Crawford’s Captive Audience offers a good examination of Comcast, the threat it (and other massive cable corporations) poses to our communities, and just how savvy it is in lobbying.
Don’t be shocked as this Adminstration continues to push wireless and other telecommunications “solutions” that don’t threaten Comcast’s market domination of cable. Between a dysfunctional Congress and an inevitably interest-group-compromised Executive Branch, communities are on their own.