Al Franken can be a blowhard at times, but occasionally he’s the hero of the tale. Like when he rips apart Comcast CEO Brian Roberts over some contradictions in the arguments for the Comcast/NBC merger.
The video’s well worth watching if you enjoy seeing a CEO flustered and stuttering, but Consumerist sums up what went down rather well:
Sen. Franken said that Comcatastrophe Roberts had met him in his office and said that the FCC rules “will make sure that you always have a wide variety of programs because they forbid [Comcast/NBC]from discriminating against other company’s programs.”
Then Franken pointed to a sign he had printed with a quote from Comcast’s attorneys saying that those same rules were unconstitutional.
“In other words, looking to get approval for this merger, you sat there in my office and told me to my face that these rules would protect consumers but your lawyers had just finished arguing in front of the Commission that it would be unconstitutional to apply these rules,” Franken said.
Whoops. [Consumerist]
tj_BT
February 6, 2010 at 5:40 PM
So, at what times is Al Franken a blowhard? The guy has conistently been one of the few Democratic Senators to show any spine (or Huevos Grandes).
When he stood up to the White House in demanding leadership on healch care refom?
When his anti-rape ammendment made it into the Defense Department budget?
Or perhaps it’s his consistent and passionate support of Net Neutrality? The principle that ensured the ‘net was an even playing field for every new start-up that’s come to change the way we communicate and share information.
Sorry. Rant. The point is this is a guy you should be promoting as a tech writer. A funny nerd in (currently) one of the least interesting places in the world: The US Senate.
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