Not four months after voting to approve Comcast’s takeover of NBC, FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker will soon be employed by Comcast as an executive of Governmental Affairs. Wait, what?
Shady? Absolutely. While she technically committed no ethical violations by doing this, you have to question her getting hired so soon after lording over this huge corporate transaction. But, to be fair, the New York Times says she will be prohibited from dealing with the FCC during the rest of Obama’s presidency.
Ms. Baker, one of two Republicans on the five-member commission, was nominated to F.C.C. by President Obama and started there in July 2009. As part of an ethics pledge she signed upon taking office at the F.C.C., she will not be able to contact F.C.C. officials for the length of the Obama administration, a Comcast spokeswoman said.
In addition, Ms. Baker will not be allowed to lobby any executive branch or agency official on matters related to the Comcast-NBC merger for the remainder of the administration. The F.C.C. voted 4 to 1 in January to approve the merger, subject to several conditions.
I still don’t like this. Not one bit. [NY Times]