Maxine Waters Blasts Comcast-NBCU Deal

[Travicity]

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) is still not happy about the Comcast-NBC Univeral deal. Waters was critical from the onset during all steps of the merger approval process, even grilling Jeff Zucker about the lack of minority programming last year. If you remember, even 30 Rock got in on the anger, parodying Waters with a character played by Queen Latifah. Now Waters has taken aim at the actual conditions stipulated by the FCC, which okayed the marriage last week. As revealed by the commission, Comcast agreed to certain things that would indicate that it's a kind-and-gentle corporation. Among the promises: more content for minority groups and more local news and childrens programming. The company also said it would create more of an equal playing field -- that it wouldn’t withhold programming from online competitors -- and that it would launch new independent cable channels. But in her statement, Waters said, "I do not believe the American public can have much confidence in Comcast-NBCU's commitment to launch 10 new independent channels when current networks have had so many challenges negotiating reasonable carriage terms with the cable giant."

DL