Nancy Pelosi Tries to Stop Media Merger… AFTER She Gets Big Donation from Merger Opponents

Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has come out against a deal to take a large number of TV stations private, but only after she received a campaign donation by another group that opposes the deal.

Pelosi and her House Democrats took $500,000 from comedian and 1980s TV talk show host Byron Allen, who opposes the deal.

After the donation from Allen, Pelosi began to argue against the plan.

Per the New York Post:

The House Speaker sent an Oct. 6 letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel expressing “serious concerns” about an agreement by Tegna — a publicly traded chain of 64 local TV stations that was spun off from newspaper giant Gannett in 2015 — to sell itself to the hedge fund Standard General for $8.6 billion.

Meanwhile, Federal Election Commission filings show that in the fourth quarter of last year Pelosi got $271,300 in campaign donations from Allen, who owns a group of cable-TV networks including The Weather Channel and is angling to nab Tegna’s nationwide broadcasting empire to widen their distribution.

During the same quarter, Allen — who earlier this month made headlines for buying a $100 million estate in Malibu, Calif. — also donated $275,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which backs Democratic candidates for the House, FEC filings show.

“If she is helping out a major donor it doesn’t look good, quite frankly,” said Craig Holman, the Capitol Hill lobbyist for advocacy group Public Citizen who says he has worked on ethics issues with Pelosi for 20 years. “When it comes to campaign finance, this is often how it works. A donor gives money with the expectation of some return.”

Ya think?

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Tags: Commentary