Media

Comcast showing off its old school ties

There was no stronger pro-merger witness at Wednesday’s Senate hearing on the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal than University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Christopher Yoo.

A well-known professor of law, communications and information science, Yoo told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee the $45 billion merger wouldn’t jeopardize competition in cable.

What Yoo didn’t tell the lawmakers was that David Cohen, the Comcast executive sitting five chairs to his right, is the chairman of the board of trustees at Penn.

The possible conflict, while unknown to the senators and their staff, did raise eyebrows in the media world.

“I was stunned to see the committee would allow it, because of at least the appearance of a conflict,” said one person who watched the proceedings. “It’s a little odd.”

As is typical, the committee selected three witnesses who were against the merger and three who were in favor of it.

A call to the committee chairman, Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), was referred to the ranking member, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who selected Yoo.

A spokeswoman for Grassley said Yoo had been approved by both the majority and minority members of the committee.

The Cohen-Yoo Penn connection was likely not known, the spokeswoman said.

The committee also heard from Cohen and Time Warner Cable Chief Financial Officer Arthur Minson, who spoke in favor of the deal. Speaking against the deal were James Bosworth, the CEO of a fledgling golf lifestyle channel Back9Network; Gene Kimmelman, CEO of public-interest group Public Knowledge; and Richard Sherwon, CEO of Spot On Network, a wireless Internet access firm.