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David Cohen
(Image: corporate.comcast.com) |
The name "
David Cohen" may not be a household word. However, the company he represents -- Comcast -- is in more households than nearly any other cable television provider. Cohen recently testified on behalf of his employer during Senate hearings on the Comcast-Time Warner Cable (TWC) merger.
While many US mainstream media outlets reported the proceedings in a desultory way, only the British
Financial Times bothered to connect the insider dots related to Cohen. Reporter Matthew Garrahan wrote that Cohen, a Comcast executive vice president, happens to be one of President Obama's financial "bundlers." He also hosted a fundraiser for 44 at the EVP's home.
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US Senator Al Franken (D-MN)
(Image: wikipedia.com) |
Comcast and Obama are cozy bedfellows.
The FT noted that, since 1989, Comcast's employees and PAC gave more campaign contributions to President Obama than any other politician. It should be noted that Comcast and NBC merged during the Obama presidential years. Today's Comcast-TWC shotgun marriage hearings in the Senate notably did not provoke any substantive pushback from the solons, except from the former entertainer and current senator from Minnesota,
Al Franken. Unsurprisingly, Cohen did not think the merger would lead to any consumer savings. However, he did chat up the potential for "innovation" that the Comcast-Time Warner Cable smerge would supposedly generate.
Whenever a media or tech company uses "innovation" as their justification for rate or price increases, one should be suspicious. I'm curious just what "innovations" Comcast could reliably project as a result of the merger. Just don't expect the US Senate -- and certainly not the Obama Administration -- to ask that question.
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