Conservative Czar

Brian L. Roberts

It has been widely reported that Com­cast is going to buy and take over NBC Uni­ver­sal. While the deal has not been final­ized, it looks emi­nent. GE will still retain a sig­nif­i­cant stake and may be rep­re­sented on the board of directors. 

GE has been mired with con­tro­versy over its own­er­ship of NBC tele­vi­sion and MSNBC cable news out­let. Much of the con­tro­versy comes from the lib­eral polit­i­cal stance of NBC and the extreme left-wing MSNBC. By mov­ing con­trol of NBC Uni­ver­sal to Com­cast, GE hopes to divorce itself from the polit­i­cal taint.

For GE this might have some effect, but GE is still a lib­eral cor­po­ra­tion with it’s future tied to global warm­ing and bil­lions of aid that will come its way from the Obama administration.

For con­ser­v­a­tives who might hope for some changes at NBC and MSNBC, you might not want to hold your breath. The deal is not final­ized and could include some pro­tec­tions for the cur­rent NBC Uni­ver­sal management.

More impor­tantly, Com­cast seems no bet­ter. Brian L. Roberts is the Chair­man and CEO of Com­cast.  He is the son of one of the founders, Ralph Roberts. Accord­ing to Yahoo, Brian L. Roberts owns over 30 per­cent of Com­cast stock. His father owns between 15 and 20 per­cent. For all prac­ti­cal sense, Brian L. Roberts is Comcast.

These are Brian L. Roberts’ last 10 polit­i­cal con­tri­bu­tions listed in News­meat:  Arlen Spector(D), Michael Ben­net (D) in Col­orado Sen­ate pri­mary, twice for Robert Brady(D) in pri­mary, Hillary Clin­ton (D) in pri­mary, John L. Lewis (D) in pri­mary, three times for John F. Kerry (D) in pri­mary, and Edward J. Markey (D) in primary.

There are Com­cast execs who have con­tributed to Repub­li­cans, but make no mis­take Com­cast is run by Brian L. Roberts and he alone.

Just a small sam­ple, but it does not bode well for change at NBC. If any­thing there is the mak­ing of a giant media con­glom­er­ate with an expanded lib­eral reach. Com­cast is the largest cable oper­a­tor in the coun­try, and they have begun to add con­tent.  Com­cast already owns E! , Style Net­work, The Golf Chan­nel, and Out­door Life Net­work, among oth­ers. Adding all NBC Uni­ver­sal con­tent, means that Com­cast will own, by far, the most con­tent that it dis­trib­utes on its cable sys­tem. This seems a gigan­tic con­flict of interest. 

Jeff Immelt, the lib­eral CEO of GE, owns less than one per­cent of GE stock. He over­saw the left­ward march of NBC.  Immelt was con­strained by the stock­hold­ers of GE, and had to lis­ten to the board of direc­tors. Brian L. Roberts needs to lis­ten to no one. This is a lot of power in the hands of one man, and that power is growing.