[Infowarrior] - Comcast, Time Warner Cable, FCC conflict-of-interest dinner?

[Richard Forno]

Comcast, Time Warner Cable help honor Mignon Clyburn amid merger review
By: Alex Byers
August 11, 2014 05:34 PM EDT

Comcast and Time Warner Cable are sponsoring a dinner honoring FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn at a time when the agency is weighing whether to approve a multibillion-dollar merger between the two companies.

Comcast will pay $110,000 to be a top-level “presenting sponsor” at the Walter Kaitz Foundation’s annual dinner in September, at which Clyburn is receiving the “diversity advocate” award, according to a foundation spokeswoman. Time Warner Cable paid $22,000 in May to the foundation for the same event, according to a Senate lobbying disclosure filed at the end of last month. The foundation supports diversity in the cable industry.

There are no rules preventing businesses from helping to honor regulators in this way, and both companies say they have supported the foundation for years.

But one watchdog is pointing out the appearance of a conflict.

“I think that the timing is curious,” said Carrie Levine, research director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which noted the corporate sponsorships in a blog post Monday. “They’re honoring an FCC commissioner at the exact same time they’re trying to get approval for a merger. And that doesn’t look so good.”

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http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=6E392652-CFD3-413D-B279-81CF25CB9C6A

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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.