Flutterby™! : FCC meetings without an ex parte notice

Wetmachine: Tales of the Sausage Factory: The Comcast Witness Protection Program and Misplaced Rage:

Why Comcast has such a reputation for exacting reprisals remains unclear. Perhaps it was the time they cut funding for a film program for teenage girls because they didn’t like one of the girl’s Tweets. Or perhaps it was when they retaliated against Bloomberg News and banished them to outer programming Siberia. Or maybe it was the time they retaliated against the NFL. Or possibly the time they retaliated against Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, or refused to carry the America Channel. Anyway, for whatever reason, most folks in the industry pretty clearly believe if you do something Comcast doesn’t like, Comcast will squish you like a bug. And even the biggest companies believe that Comcast is already big enough to hurt them considerably if it wants to retaliate. So the FCC can’t get a real understanding of the industry, let alone of the impact of the proposed merger, unless it can protect companies that fear reprisal that it is safe to talk to them.