A top Washington regulator is resigning her position to join a company that her agency oversees.
Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker will become senior vice president of government affairs for NBCUniversal. Comcast Corp. bought a controlling interest in the company in January after the FCC and the Justice Department approved the deal with conditions.
Baker, one of two Republicans on the five-member FCC, joined the commission in July 2009.
Before that, she was head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, an arm of the Commerce Department, where she helped oversee the transition from analog to digital broadcasting.
The move is "raising eyebrows among some media watchdogs," reports the Los Angeles Times:
"This is just the latest -- though perhaps most blatant -- example of a so-called public servant cashing in at a company she is supposed to be regulating," said Craig Aaron, president and chief executive of Free Press, a nonprofit media reform organization.
Not everyone took such a hardline.
"Commissioner Baker has been a consummate public servant," said Media Access Project policy director Andrew Schwartzman. "While her viewpoints have often differed from ours, she has always been open-minded, conscientious and dedicated to acting in the public interest as she saw it."
A press release on Comcast's website explains that Baker will work closely with Rick Cotton, NBCUniversal's Executive Vice President and General Counsel, who says about Baker:
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"I’ve seen Meredith’s mastery of issues up close as we’ve worked together on issues at the FCC and NTIA. She understands the issues both domestic and international facing Comcast and NBCUniversal and will be a great addition to our team as we build the new NBCUniversal for the digital future."
