Conservatives Launch Attack on Comcast
Is Comcast America’s “most-powerful and militant left-wing force?”
Pennsylvanians who watched Comcast’s David Cohen raise money for Gov. Tom Corbett might not think so, but Comcast’s ownership of MSNBC has put the company squarely in the sights of a group calling itself the “Conservative War Chest.”
And that group has just released an ad describing Comcast in the terms we used above — and it’s doing it as the FCC enters the stretch run of completing its review of the proposed Comcast-Time Warner merger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGyPOonUkKI
Really!
Conservative War Chest is planning to run its two-minute ad in five presidential battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Michigan and Pennsylvania — aiming to increase the pressure on the cable giant as its multi-billion dollar merger proposal enters the final weeks of regulatory review.
Michael Flynn, a spokesman for the Conservative War Chest, told The Hill that the ad will run on local NBC affiliates in the five states, in an attempt to have them discourage the national company from being “a one-note political news operation.” The ad buy is in the “mid-five figures,” Flynn said, and the super-PAC is also sending a 68-page letter to the stations “documenting the overt bias at Comcast and NBC News.”
“Our worry is the possibility of the collusion between the government and giant media companies like that,” Flynn added.
The ad campaign is going to be twinned with outreach to the NBC Affiliates Association, local stations that will receive a 68-page letter spelling out the history of recent media bias, with more than a few reminders of how the mother ship gave Al Sharpton a show. The goal: Persuade them to allow the ads to run.
“Because we believe you understand the seriousness of America’s discontent with news organizations, we are also hopeful that we can persuade you that the network of which you are such an integral and conspicuous part is an important reason for the present crisis of American journalism,” writes the CWC in the letter.
At one point in the letter, the CWC warns the affiliates that NBC, under pressure, might hire some token conservatives. “We hope the conservatives likely to be hired will do as well as Chelsea Clinton and her $600,000, or at least as well as whatever Mr. Matthews is paid for routinely smearing Republicans as racists,” the letter reads.
We’ll give this: In an era of bitter partisan splits, Comcast seems to unite people on the right and left.
Other Comcastic headlines:
Ever wonder what it would be like if Comcast was your boyfriend?
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