Lawmakers at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday on Comcast Corp.’s proposal to take a majority stake in NBC Universal put both company chiefs in the hot seat.
But legislators were interested in shining a spotlight not so much on whether the deal might raise antitrust concerns, but on the companies themselves and their track records on labor and diversity, and with independent producers.
The merger, which was announced in early December, would give Comcast a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal. NBC’s current owner, General Electric Co., would hold the remaining 49 percent.
Two members of the Judiciary panel — Reps. Shelia Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — ripped into Roberts and Zucker for what they saw as the lack of diversity in programming and in the executive ranks at either company.
“There is no diversity on the Sunday morning talk shows,” Jackson-Lee told NBC’s Zucker.
Armed with lists of board members for both companies, Waters asked Roberts why Comcast had only one woman and one black man on its board. She then asked Zucker why NBC didn’t currently have any black programming on NBC. ”Is there some assumption that black programming is not profitable?” she asked him.
Zucker said that diversity was one of his strategic goals and that the company was trying to do better.
http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/02/25/house-lawmakers-grill-comcast-nbc-on-jobs-diversity/
:lol:
Paging Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, you have no black faces at NBC.
But legislators were interested in shining a spotlight not so much on whether the deal might raise antitrust concerns, but on the companies themselves and their track records on labor and diversity, and with independent producers.
The merger, which was announced in early December, would give Comcast a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal. NBC’s current owner, General Electric Co., would hold the remaining 49 percent.
Two members of the Judiciary panel — Reps. Shelia Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — ripped into Roberts and Zucker for what they saw as the lack of diversity in programming and in the executive ranks at either company.
“There is no diversity on the Sunday morning talk shows,” Jackson-Lee told NBC’s Zucker.
Armed with lists of board members for both companies, Waters asked Roberts why Comcast had only one woman and one black man on its board. She then asked Zucker why NBC didn’t currently have any black programming on NBC. ”Is there some assumption that black programming is not profitable?” she asked him.
Zucker said that diversity was one of his strategic goals and that the company was trying to do better.
http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/02/25/house-lawmakers-grill-comcast-nbc-on-jobs-diversity/
:lol:
Paging Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, you have no black faces at NBC.