Comcast CEO Brian Roberts held the company’s first virtual shareholder meeting on Thursday, and the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research questioned the company’s public advocacy for liberalism, including its “news” being biased at MSNBC.
"MSNBC caters to liberals, at 24 percent the smallest ideological demographic," the National Center shareholder argued "As this makes no sense, I ask you: Is Comcast using MSNBC and its loyalty to the Obama administration and other liberal elected officials as a lobbying tool? Is this lobbying tool worth the cost to shareholders of being a distant third in the ratings?"
Roberts failed to deny a liberal bias or its coziness with the Obama administration, merely stating that they like the present direction: "Under Andy Lack’s leadership, who is the president of NBC News, who joined us in the last year or so, I think MSNBC has made terrific improvements in ratings and continues to have a wonderful roadmap ahead."
Liberals are upset at how Lack has tried to move MSNBC back toward a "news" orientation instead of just spouting hard-left opinion all day and into the night. National Center chairman Amy Ridenour said "If Comcast is running MSNBC to keep the Obama Administration and its allies on its good side, people such as Rachel Maddow are actually a new form of lobbyist, not journalists."
The Hollywood Reporter also noted the Comcast CEO was questioned about the company's public support for GLAAD, an LGBT lobbying group that works to promote one-sided news and entertainment propaganda for the gay agenda and censor religious and conservative critics of their libertine ideology. Bizarrely, Comcast thinks this is support for "inclusion."
Comcast “must appeal to all sectors of the population,” said one shareholder in a submitted question, arguing it shouldn’t take positions on any cultural issue that "divide" people. “The recent Xfinity LGBT presence at the GLAAD Awards” and its microsite was “no more neutral than it would be for Comcast to hire picketers at an abortion [clinic],” the shareholder argued. Xfinity is Comcast's digital cable service.
Roberts responded: “We are a diverse and inclusive company, and we respect all perspectives and points of view" of employees and customers, he said, adding: "Thank you for your point of view."
Xfinity promoted the GLAAD Awards, with Jean-Claire Fitschen, executive director of multicultural consumer services in TV, writing in a blog post that the service was putting the spotlight on the community in connection with the awards. "In addition, for the whole month of April, we’ve polished up the LGBT TV & Film Collection with hundreds of quality LGBT-themed storylines, romance, dramas, classics, thrillers, documentaries plus GLAAD-nominated TV and Films," Fitschen said.
Fitschen boosted shows with titles like Cucumber and Banana, as well as:
Logo’s As Beautiful As I Want To Be which pairs trans young people with successful trans leaders to explore what it means to be beautiful on the inside and out.
MTV’s True Life: I Am GenderQueer which follows two people who do not identify as male or female and live outside the gender binary.
In "thoughtulness and joyfulness," the Comcast bureaucrat completely endorsed the GLAAD lingo about their Media Awards that "recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives."
"Inclusive" weirdly means "one-sided propaganda." The April awards in Los Angeles honored, for example both E's I Am Cait and TLC's I Am Jazz as "Outstanding Reality Program."
Likewise, at their news awards in New York in May, the GLAAD Award for “Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine” went to “Bruce Jenner: The Interview" with Diane Sawyer on ABC’s 20/20.
