Meredith Attwell Baker insists the obvious isn't happening

They don't even try to hide the sleaze anymore.

Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker defended her decision to leave the regulatory agency to take a job at Comcast Corp. just months after voting yes on the cable giant's heavily scrutinized acquisition of General Electric Co.'s NBCUniversal.

In a statement, Baker said, "I have not only complied with the legal and ethical laws, but I also have gone further. I have not participated or voted any item, not just those related to Comcast or NBCUniversal, since entering discussions about an offer of potential employment." She said Comcast approached her about a job last month, which was when Bob Okun, the longtime head of NBC's D.C. lobbying office, announced his departure.

Since her hiring was announced earlier this week, Baker has taken lots of heat from media watchdogs.

Read more here.

Comcast: Worst. Company. Ever.

We got the same kind of sneaky middlemen beginning to piss on the net up here too.

Inspired by March Madness, the folks at the Consumerist blog recently set up brackets to determine America’s worst company. The tournament was still going on as this column went to press, but I’m not afraid to predict the winner.

It will be Comcast — in a rout.

Read more here.

Comcast caught packing FCC hearing at Harvard

Ha, what total clowns.

Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury admitted that the cable giant paid some people to arrive early for an FCC hearing on network neutrality. The purpose? Supposedly to hold places for Comcast employees who wanted to attend the hearing. Some of those lineholders didn't just wait in line -- they attended the meeting, taking spots which would otherwise have gone to members of the public. Some even fell asleep. Comcast says it didn't intend to block anyone from the hearing, but it doesn't really matter. What Comcast did wasn't illegal, just bad PR, done on the cheap. Next time, ply the seatwarmers with extra-shot Starbucks so they don't get caught napping. That seems easier.

So all they succeeded in doing was drawing attention to itself, and making everyone wonder even more:

"What have you got to hide??"

Hehe, seems the hearing may be redone, this time at another location.

Comcast wins the Idiot of the Day Award™.

Comcast could receive hefty FCC fine for throttling Bit Torrent traffic

Good.

Remember October's news of Comcast throttling Bit Torrent traffic? The debacle not only created a firestorm of bad press for the nation's largest cable provider but also re-ignited the nationwide debate about Net Neutrality. We had numerous signs that Comcast was inhibiting our use of this legal and legitimate file transfer protocol, but to have the AP catch them red handed was icing on the cake.

To add to our pleasure, we learned today that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has finally taken notice of Comcast's indiscretion as well. According to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a group of consumer advocates and legal scholars have asked the commission to look into Comcast discriminating against specific types of data (read: Bit Torrent). The groups have also requested the FCC to fine Comcast $195,000 per affected subscribers. In case you were wondering, at last report, Comcast has 9.1 million subscribers.