Comcast fights shareholder call for lobbying transparency, saying that it would be "burdensome" to reveal how much it spends lobbying states

[doctorow]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/24/friends-fiduciary.html

…

[snigs]

Saying that the piles of money you’re shoveling towards corrupting the system are too hard to count does not speak well of you.

[anon50609448]

This “Shareholders don’t need to know how the company spends money” thing runs a bit counter to “corporations are run only to make profits for the shareholders” line we usually hear from the same crowd. Big corporations like comcast don’t serve the public good or even the good of the shareholders. They serve the egos of their board members and CEOs.

[apenzott]

Perhaps Comcast should be added to the IRS “naughty list” of companies that are comprehensively audited quarterly, each year.

Given that alternative, I am sure the funds to publish a lobbying transparency report will be cheaper in the long run.

[anotherone]

Burdensome? Are we being told that Comcast isn’t already recording their lobbying expenditures for tax and accounting purposes? Would that not be a violation of SEC rules? Is this an indication to shareholders than Comcast valuations are incomplete and should not be trusted?

[anon41977465]

sounds slightly archaic, I think tiresome would be better.

[knoxblox]

C’mon Comcast, the shareholders need their money. Dressage trainers don’t come cheap, you know.

[scott7ree]

don’t hate the player, hate the the gov

[Brian_Shock]

I would pay real money to see Comcast upper management prosecuted for corruption… if SCOTUS hadn’t defined “corruption” down to the point where it has to be explicit, mutually acknowledged, recorded bribery.

[LDoBe]

I’d pay money to see pretty much any american ISP ceo publicly executed.

[fuzzyfungus]

“We just want to be sure that legislators write their bills the same way we write ours: with a commitment to opacity, mysterious errors in our favor; and absolutely no memory of prior promises.”

-kind regards,
Comcast

[philbin1]

Mario Savio said to the cameras in 1964:

There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!