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. The timing has raised eyebrows in some quarters.
“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.”
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.
“We absolutely dispute the notion that our contributions have anything to do with currying favor with Commissioner Clyburn or any honoree,” said Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice in a statement. “Such claims are insulting and not supported by any evidence. They are purely fiction. We have supported the organization year in and year out regardless of who the dinner honorees have been.”
A Time Warner Cable spokesman also said the company has consistently donated to the foundation and said the firm was not concerned about the appearance of sponsoring a dinner honoring one of the regulators who oversees it.
