OMG!!! Be careful what you tweet for!

Reel Grrls, a nonprofit empowering you women to realize their potential through media production, got in some hot water with Comcast, one of their sponsors, when they tweeted:

“OMG! @FCC Commissioner Baker voted 2 approve Comcast/NBC merger & is now lving FCC for A JOB AT COMCAST?!? http://su.pr/1trT4z #mediajustice”


Comcast revoked $18,000 it had pledged for a Reel Grrls teen summer camp program.  Luckily, Comcast’s plan to censor punish the nonprofit for criticizing the incredibly undemocratic decision of FCC Commissioner Margret Baker to take an executive position with Comcast-NBC just months after she approved the merger (see previous Channel G posts) failed.

Comcast apologized saying the company never planned on revoking the funds. When Steve Kipp, a director of communications, told Reel Grrls that the funding would be cut, he had gone rogue! 

Whatever the case, the Reel Grrls caper shows the precarious relationship many nonprofits have with their sponsors.  How do you navigate your organizations social justice goals against the need to secure funding? If nonprofits have to be careful about criticizing undemocratic practices, it could seriously comprise their vision and potential. The relationship between sponsors and nonprofits a crucial issue (esp. in the field of media)!!! Any thoughts or experiences?

Watch the Reel Grrls on the funding issue:

http://youtu.be/x8WW5q7SR7c

SHAME on FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker for her recent announcement that she will be leaving the FCC to become a lobbyist for Comcast-NBC Universal just four months after she voted to approve the merger.

Criticizing Baker’s actions, Craig Aaron, Free Press President and CEO, stated, “No wonder the public is so nauseated by business as usual in Washington — where the complete capture of government by industry barely raises any eyebrows. The continuously revolving door at the FCC continues to erode any prospects for good public policy. We hope — but won’t hold our breath — that her replacement will be someone who is not just greasing the way for their next industry job.”

This is one of the most blatant examples of the revolving door EVER.  The revolving door refers to the corrupt process through which people circulate through related government, lobbyist, and corporate jobs.  Revolving door politics create a spiral of power, influence, and money connecting government and corporations as former government employees use their public sector experience to obtain well-paying private sector jobs and lobby for industry friendly legislation.

The Baker example demonstrates how government employees seamlessly move from government positions to the private sector, working for the SAME industries they regulated while a government employee.  The ability of former government regulators to make loads of money working for the industries they previously regulated raises serious ethical issues that complicate the ability of government employees to regulate in the interests of the public. Democracy can’t write the kinds of checks Comcast-NBC Universal can.

While Baker may be barred from lobbying the executive branch under conditions of the merger and Office of Government Ethics post-employment guidelines, her ability to utilize the contacts and networks she created while an FCC Commissioner are anything but democratic. Additionally, the fact that Baker most likely would have followed other Republicans FCC Commissioners in voting to push through corporate-friendly deregulation regardless of whether or not she thought she would be taking a top executive position at the newly formed mega-conglomerate in no way diminishes the anti-democratic implications of her actions.

The FCC’s recent approval of the merger of NBC and Comcast further tightens the anti-democratic, monopolistic control of U.S. media ownership.  The wave of corporate consolidations that have swept through our media landscape as a result of massive dereguations (part of the same deregulatory project that brought you predatory lending, the stock market crash, and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill) desecrate what is left of the public sphere and civic culture. They strengthen the voice of corporations, while diminishing the voices of independent media, activists, and citizens.

As firm supporters of independent media and democratic practices, we urge you to SAY “NO” TO THE REVOLVING DOOR.