A right-wing political action committee (PAC) claims that the Comcast-owned NBC is manipulating the news to hide President Obama’s shortcomings and is speaking out against Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC).

The group, Conservative War Chest (CWC), issued a press release describing “The appearance of collusion by NBC with Obama Administration officials and Democratic activists to shape the news agenda.”

Comcast purchased NBCUniversal during Obama’s first term and is now seeking Federal Communications Commission approval of its TWC merger.

President wants bans on blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization.

The “potential collusion between Comcast and the Obama Administration [is] especially critical now because the mega-corporation is again seeking government favors,” CWC claims. Already, NBC is “helping the Obama Administration cover up the IRS, Benghazi, Attorney-General Holder perjury and other scandals.”

Comcast denied the group’s accusations. “Comcast, as GE before us, has a strict policy of non-interference with the judgment of the news division,” a Comcast spokesperson told Ars. “We pledged as a condition of our NBCUniversal transaction to not interfere with the editorial judgment of the news channels or news division.”

On broadband policy, Comcast is not on the same page as Obama. The president urged the FCC to reclassify broadband providers as common carriers in order to impose strict net neutrality rules; Comcast has lobbied heavily against that plan, saying utility-style rules aren’t necessary to enforce net neutrality. Obama is also lobbying to end state laws that prevent cities and towns from building their own broadband networks, putting him at odds with private Internet service providers.

But Conservative War Chest is convinced that Comcast and Obama are tight. The Georgia-based group was founded one year ago and spent $311,320 in the 2014 election cycle, mostly on advertising, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Most of CWC’s money comes from a Texas organization called “Tomorrow, American.” CWC “intends to raise funds in unlimited amounts,” it says. The group's goal is to "turn every blue state red."

“Comcast needs Obama Administration approval to merge with Time Warner cable, giving it access to two-thirds of American’s homes,” CWC spokesman Mike Flynn said in the group’s announcement. “The last time Comcast needed a government favor we got Al Sharpton five nights a week. What will we get in exchange for a deal worth billions to [CEO] Brian Roberts and other owners of Comcast?”

Most opposition to the Comcast/TWC merger has come from Democrats and liberal groups. But Conservative War Chest makes its displeasure with NBC clear in this two-minute ad:



The group “specializes in 120-second storytelling ads” and is trying to get the anti-NBC ad on the air in “presidential swing states–Florida, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, and Pennsylvania,” Bloomberg reported yesterday. “The ad campaign is going to be twinned with outreach to the NBC Affiliates Association, local stations that will receive a 68-page letter spelling out the history of recent media bias, with more than a few reminders of how the mother ship gave Al Sharpton a show. The goal: Persuade them to allow the ads to run.”

That letter says that “Over the past few years… NBC viewers haven’t been overburdened with references to a steadily mounting number of Obama Administration scandals with shorthand terms like ‘Fast and Furious,’ ‘IRS,’ ‘Benghazi,’ ‘VA,’ and ‘Secret Service.’ Nor were viewers subjected to excessive in-depth reporting of these events. In addition, they were hardly barraged with stories about the many rebukes of the administration for its illegal actions by U.S. courts, such as 20 unanimous rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Things will get even worse if Comcast can buy TWC, the group says.

“Having established NBC and MSNBC as militant, left-of-center outlets, Comcast now seeks to politicize sports, strengthen Telemundo’s anti-conservative bias, support 'JournoList' founder Ezra Klein with $10 million, and complete a Time Warner merger that will give them control of cable to 66 percent of homes,” the group claims.

Conservative War Chest did not provide a source for that "two-thirds" figure. We asked Flynn about this, and while he didn't provide a source, he replied, "The 66 percent refers to control of the broadband cable market. The TV market is about 1/3rd. Broadband cable is increasingly a much more important distribution channel."

In reality, Comcast would divest some customers as part of the merger and stay below 30 percent of the total number of pay TV subscribers in the US. For broadband, it also would not have anywhere close to two-thirds of US subscribers unless you counted only cable and not other wireline broadband networks like fiber and DSL or hybrid fiber/copper networks like AT&T's U-verse.