Internet crusader Al Franken rakes in cash from cable giant

[Geee]

Watchdog.org:

U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., has made his name in the latter part of his first term as a crusader for net neutrality and a huge critic of billion-dollar mergers of multimedia companies.

 

And while his ire has been focused on Comcast, the nation’s second largest media conglomerate, he’s been raking in cash from competitor Time Warner Cable, the third-largest, according to profits.

 

Since 2009, Franken has raised $33,450 from lobbyists from TWC, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit dedicated to tracking political spending.

 

In his many speeches on the Senate floor and in committee hearings on the issue of regulating the Internet and barring mergers between large media firms, Franken has consistently criticized Comcast’s proposed merger with Time Warner.

 

“The proposed acquisition also would threaten innovation and economic activity on the Internet, and it would jeopardize the free flow of information and ideas on which our democracy depends,” wrote Franken in a 40-page statement published on his website in August. “Because the proposed acquisition does not advance the public interest — but, rather, is inimical to it — it must be rejected.”

 

Responding to Watchdog.org, Franken’s press office denied such donations influenced his decisions on the Senate floor.