Comcast snider

NBC?

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an 4 25

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr is threatening to revoke the licenses of broadcasters who don’t toe the current administration's line on the wrongful deportation of a legal U.S. resident.

“Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that [Maryland father Kilmar] Abrego Garcia was merely a law-abiding U.S. citizen, just a regular ‘Maryland man.’ When the truth comes out, they ignore it,” Carr posted on X Wednesday. “Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn’t cut it.”

Carr then repeated false claims that Garcia “was validated as a member of the violent MS13 gang — a transnational criminal organization,” despite the administration's evidence resting its entire argument of Garcia's gang affiliation upon him "wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie” and the claim of a confidential informant who has not stepped forward.

Carr’s statement comes on the heels of the Trump administration purging officials and independent agencies in an effort to remake government in his image.

IFrame Content

Reaction to Carr’s post on X was quick.

“Chair of the FCC threatens broadcasters that don't peddle the administration's lies about a man who they sent to a hellish prison in another country probably for life,” wrote Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor Adam Gaffney. “Nothing to see here, all is well.”

Former NH Magazine reporter Jesse Singal said it was “insane,” for the “chair of the FCC, a longtime close Trump ally, threatening broadcasters for not serving as megaphones for this administration's endless b------t.”

“The FCC chair should not be implicitly threatening broadcasters on the basis of news channels’ editorial decisions,” posted University of Massachusetts at Amherst Ethics Associate Professor Itai Sher. “This is outrageous and horrible from the standpoint of free speech.”

Other critics lamented the FCC falling under the heel of the White House.

“The FCC is not the Ministry of Truth,” wrote Nico Perrino, executive vice president of free speech group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “It cannot ignore the First Amendment and weaponize its authority to target news outlets for critical coverage of the administration.

See Carr’s original post here.

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ars tech

federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr accused Comcast of "news distortion" because its subsidiary NBC isn't parroting the Trump administration narrative on the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

"Comcast knows that federal law requires its licensed operations to serve the public interest. News distortion doesn't cut it," Carr wrote in a post on X yesterday.

Carr's use of the phrase "news distortion" is significant because he has been invoking the FCC's rarely enforced news distortion policy to pressure licensed broadcasters that he perceives as being biased against President Trump. For a detailed look at Carr's fight against media, read our feature: "The speech police: Chairman Brendan Carr and the FCC's news distortion policy."

Carr, who recently wore a pin depicting Trump's head on his lapel, provided no substantive argument that NBC is guilty of news distortion. Historically, the FCC has enforced the policy in only the most extreme cases where there is evidence of misconduct, such as a bribe, or instructions from management to distort the news. As a 1985 ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said, the FCC policy makes "a crucial distinction between deliberate distortion and mere inaccuracy or difference of opinion."

In his post yesterday, Carr alleged that "Comcast outlets spent days misleading the American public—implying that Abrego Garcia was merely a law abiding US citizen, just a regular 'Maryland man.'" Carr wrote that "Abrego Garcia came to America illegally from El Salvador, was validated as a member of the violent MS-13 gang—a transnational criminal organization—and was denied bond by an immigration court for failure to show he would not pose a danger to others."

"Why does Comcast ignore these facts of obvious public interest?" Carr asked.

SCOTUS ruled US must facilitate man’s release

Abrego Garcia's lawyer said in a lawsuit that he has no affiliation with MS-13. During a 2019 immigration court proceeding, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "offered a Gang Field Interview Sheet ('GFIS') generated by PGPD [Prince George County Police Department]," the lawsuit said. "The GFIS explained that the only reason to believe Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was a gang member was that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie; and that a confidential informant advised that he was an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique."

The MS-13 Westerns clique is said to operate in New York, "a state that Plaintiff Abrego Garcia has never lived in," the lawsuit said. The Gang Field Interview Sheet was reportedly filled out by an officer who was later suspended and indicted for providing confidential information to a sex worker.

The Supreme Court last week upheld a key portion of a District Court order on the deportation, saying that the lower court's "order properly requires the Government to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador."

Carr made his statement on X yesterday while sharing a post by White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, who said it's "SHAMEFUL that CNN and MSNBC refuses to take Angel Mom Patty Morin as she recounts the terrible tragedy of how an illegal killed her sweet daughter, Rachel."

Victor Martinez-Hernandez was convicted of killing Rachel Morin earlier this week. The White House has attempted to link this murder to Abrego Garcia's deportation, but they are entirely separate cases.

Carr’s fight against media

Carr's post yesterday, combined with his recent actions to enforce the news distortion policy, suggest that he is likely to open a proceeding if a formal complaint is lodged against any NBC stations. Carr showed he is willing to investigate news distortion complaints into ordinary editorial decisions when he revived complaints against CBS and ABC that were thrown out under the previous administration.

Carr has focused in particular on the CBS complaint, which concerns the editing of a CBS *60 Minutes* interview with Kamala Harris. The conservative Center for American Rights alleged that CBS distorted the news by airing "two completely different answers" to the same question.

CBS published unedited video and a transcript that shows it simply aired two different sentences from the same response in different segments, but Carr has kept the proceeding open and seems to be using it as a bargaining chip in the FCC review of CBS-owner Paramount's transfer of TV broadcast station licenses to Skydance.

Carr's handling of the CBS complaint has been condemned by both liberal and conservative advocacy groups—and former Democratic and Republican FCC commissioners and chairs—who say the FCC's approach is a threat to the constitutional right to free speech.

Carr has also sent letters to companies—including Comcast—alleging that their diversity policies are "invidious forms of discrimination in violation of FCC regulations and civil rights laws." Carr last month threatened to block mergers pursued by companies that enforce diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

We contacted Comcast and NBC today and will update this article if they provide any response to Carr's news distortion allegation.

Jon Brodkin Senior IT Reporter

Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry.

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LTR

:{:{Dear Mr. Roberts,}:

I am writing to inform you that I have asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into Comcast and NBCUniversal. In particular, I want to ensure that your companies are not promoting invidious forms of discrimination in violation of FCC regulations and civil rights laws.

As you know, the Communications Act and Commission rules prohibit regulated entities—like Comcast and NBCUniversal—from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, or gender.1 Indeed, the FCC’s longstanding Equal Employment Opportunity or EEO rules set forth specific requirements that both Comcast and NBCUniversal must adhere to. Nonetheless, I am concerned that Comcast and NBCUniversal may be promoting invidious forms of DEI in a manner that does not comply with FCC regulations.

For instance, Comcast states on its website that promoting DEI is “a core value of our business” and public reports state that Comcast has an entire “DEI infrastructure” that includes annual “DEI day[s],” “DEI training for company leaders,” and similar initiatives. NBCUniversal has similar DEI initiatives, including executives specifically dedicated to promoting DEI across the TV and programming side of the business. But promoting invidious forms of discrimination cannot be squared with any reasonable interpretation of federal law.

It can only deprive Americans of their rights to fair and equal treatment under the law. Despite the emergence of DEI initiatives in recent years, these forms of discrimination have long been condemned by America’s civil rights laws. Indeed, the Supreme Court has stated that “‘[d]istinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.’”2 Likewise, the Supreme Court has written that racial classifications “threaten to stigmatize individuals by reason of their membership in a racial group and to incite racial hostility.”3 For this reason, the Supreme Court has stated that, in the government context, “action based on race—a group classification long recognized as in most circumstances irrelevant and therefore prohibited— should be subjected to detailed judicial inquiry to ensure that the personal right to equal protection of the laws has not been infringed.”4

President Trump took quick and decisive action to root out the scourge of DEI. In his first week in office, President Trump issued an Executive Order that will end the radical and wasteful DEI programs that have spread across the federal government.5 Likewise, President Trump issued an Executive Order to end illegal discrimination and restore merit-based opportunity across the private sector. 6 In that latter Executive Order, President Trump wrote that illegal DEI policies “undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system.” President Trump’s Executive Order also tasked federal agencies with combatting illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.

At my direction, the FCC has already taken action to end its own promotion of DEI.7 As a next step, the FCC will be taking fresh action to ensure that every entity the FCC regulates complies with the civil rights protections enshrined in the Communications Act and the agency’s EEO rules, including by shutting down any programs that promote invidious forms of DEI discrimination. I am starting this broader effort with Comcast and NBCUniversal for two reasons. First, as noted above, there is substantial evidence that your companies are still engaging in the promotion of DEI.

Second, your companies cover a range of sectors regulated by the FCC—from cable to high-speed Internet and from broadcast TV stations to MVNO wireless offerings. Therefore, I expect that this investigation into Comcast and its NBCUniversal operations will aid the Commission’s broader efforts to root out invidious forms of DEI discrimination across all of the sectors the FCC regulates.}:

... NO FOOT

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Days before he becomes president of the USA — and minutes after the release of a prosecutor’s bombshell report into the Jan. 6 election interference case — Donald Trump took to Truth Socialearly Tuesday to attack a comedian.

“How bad is Seth Meyers on NBC?" the president-elect asked at 1:24 a.m.

It came just minutes after special counsel Jack Smith’s report revealed that he believed he had the evidence to convict Trump.

Trump was reacting to a 10-minute segment on Meyers show Monday in which he mocked infighting in the MAGA movement which has seen allies like Steve Bannon and Elon Musk go head to head.

“Trump is caught in the middle between the MAGA diehards and the rich oligarchs who helped him get elected,” Meyers said. “And he doesn’t even really know what the hell they’re talking about.”

Trump hit back that the comedian was a “moron” and that his network, NBC, was “run by a truly bad group of people.”

ALSO READ:Fox News has blood on its hands as Trump twists the knife

“Remember, they also run MSDNC,” he added.

“I got stuck watching Marble Mouth Meyers the other night, the first time in months, and every time I watch this moron I feel an obligation to say how dumb and untalented he is, merely a slot filler for the Scum that runs Comcast.

“These guys should be paying a lot of money for the right to give these “in kind” contributions to the Radical Left Democrat Party. These are not shows or entertainment, they are simply political hits, 100% of the time, to me and the Republican Party. Comcast should pay a BIG price for this!”

Watch the Seth Meyers video below or at this link.

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odd telecomms?

jan 2022

sludge

In April 2021, as Republican-controlled states began passing bills that will restrict voting in upcoming elections, cable and media giant Comcastput out a statement declaring its opposition to the measures.

“We believe that all Americans should enjoy equitable access to secure elections and we have long supported and promoted voter education, registration and participation campaigns across the country to achieve that goal,” the company said in a statement it provided to Deadline. “Efforts to limit or impede access to this vital constitutional right for any citizen are not consistent with our values.”

In the following months, however, Comcast and its political action committees made donations to several Republican lawmakers who authored voter suppression bills that were signed into law last year. At least 19 states enacted 33 laws that further restrict access to voting in 2021, according to a recent analysis by the nonpartisan institute Brennan Center for Justice.

On October 15, Comcast donated $1,000 to Florida Sen. Dennis Baxley, the sole sponsor of SB 90, a 48-page bill that, among other measures, makes it a misdemeanor to give water—or anything else—to people waiting in line to vote in the sweltering Florida heat, similar to a restriction that first appeared in Georgia Republicans’ suppression bill. Baxter’s bill eliminates 24/7 ballot drop boxes and requires such boxes to be monitored at all times and only available during in-person voting hours. It also requires voters seeking an absentee ballot to submit a driver’s license or Social Security number and requires voters to reapply for mail ballots more often, among its many other provisions that make voting more difficult.

The League of Women Voters of Florida, Black Voters Matter Fund, and Florida voters have filed a lawsuit to stop Baxley’s bill, which Gov. DeSantis signed into law in May. The lawsuit argues that the bill is designed to make it more difficult for seniors, minorities, and young people to vote and violates people’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

Comcast made several other donations to voter suppression bill sponsors after it put out its statement, Sludge found by reviewing donations to the sponsors of new restrictive voting laws identified by the Brennan Center. The company donated $1,000 in September to Alabama Republican State Representative Alan Baker, the sponsor of a new law that shortens the window of time people have for requesting an absentee ballot. It also made donations to the sponsors of new Brennan Center-identified voter suppression laws in Utah and Kansas.

pharmaceutical company Merck signed a pro-voting rights statement that was published as an advertisement in the New York Times on April 14. “For American democracy to work for any of us, we must ensure the right to vote for all of us,” the ad reads. “We call upon all Americans to join us in taking a nonpartisan stand for this most basic and fundamental right of all Americans.”

After signing the ad, Merck donated $1,000 in September to Florida’s Baxley and $1,000 in October to Texas Republican State Senator Lois Kolkhorst, the primary sponsor of one of the state’s two new voter suppression laws and a cosponsor of the other one.

Kolkhorst’s bill, SB 1111, which was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, limits the types of addresses people can use to register to vote in ways that could be difficult for people who move often or are homeless.The bill says that people can’t use addresses where they do not live full time, and it allows voting officials to demand voters show documents to prove their place of residence. With few exceptions, Texans would not be able to use commercial post office boxes as their registration addresses, a practice that Democratic attorney Marc Elias says is often used by churches that help homeless people register to vote.

Kolkhorst was also one of the 14 cosponsors of SB 1, an omnibus voter suppression law that bans drive-through voting and 24-hour voting locations, requires voters to provide driver’s license or Social Security numbers to request absentee ballots, prohibits election officials from proactively mailing out ballots, says poll watchers can not be denied “free movement” in polling places, and more. The Brennan Center is suing Gov. Abbott in an attempt to stop the law, which it says is “a reaction to Texas’s changing electorate, which is now more racially diverse and younger than ever before.”

JPMorgan Chasealso donated to a cosponsor of Texas SB 1, giving $1,000 from its PAC to Sen. Dawn Buckingham in September. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon released a statement in March saying that “as state capitals debate election laws, we believe voting must be accessible and equitable,” and that “We regularly encourage our employees to exercise their fundamental right to vote, and we stand against efforts that may prevent them from being able to do so.”

AT&T is another company whose political donations seem to contradict its public statements.

“We believe the right to vote is sacred and we support voting laws that make it easier for more Americans to vote in free, fair and secure elections,” reads an April statement from AT&T CEO John Stankey. “We are working together with other businesses through groups like the Business Roundtable to support efforts to enhance every person’s ability to vote.”

In September, AT&T donated $1,000 to Alabama Republican Wes Allen, the chief sponsor of H.B. 285, a new state law that prohibits election officials from setting up curbside voting, ballot drop boxes, or putting voting machines outside of polling locations. The company’s Oklahoma PAC also donated $2,500 that month to Oklahoma Senate Republican Majority Leader Kim David, the sponsor of a new state law that shortens the deadline for applying for a mail-in ballot from 7 days before an election to 15 days before the election, among other provisions.

AT&T and its PACs also donated $500 to Florida’s Baxley in March, after the senator had formally introduced his voter suppression bill, and made donations to sponsors of Brennan Center-identified restrictive voting laws in Utah and Kansas.

Other companies and organizations that donated to the sponsors of Brennan Center-identified state voter suppression measures after publicly denouncing them earlier this year include General Motors and Planned Parenthood, whose PACs contributed to Democratic New York senators who cosponsored a bill that shortens the window for applying for a mail-in ballot, and Microsoft, which donated to a Kansas Republican representative who chairs the committee that sponsored a new law limiting mail-in voting.

AT&T, Merck, and Comcast did not respond to Sludge’s requests for comment on how their donations to the sponsors of voter suppression bills relate to their public expressions in favor of voting rights. JPMorgan Chase declined to comment.

2014

In the case of Alec, expect campaigners like Forecast the Facts and CMD to shift the pressure to remaining group members with prominent brand recognition, such as Expedia, Comcast, FedEx, Pfizer, and Shell. In the broader marketplace, businesses striving for sustainability should recognize that their influence – and therefore their accountability – spreads further than they think.

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2014/04/the-comcast-fcc-revolving-door/

robbie4/14

proposed merger between cable giants Comcast and Time Warner is a hotly contested issue in Congress, and angers flared again at a recent Senate hearing on the merger last week.

Most of the senators seemed ambivalent about the merger and wouldn’t say whether they supported or opposed it, but one senator in particular stuck out from the rest: Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.).

“I don’t like this revolving door,” Franken said in an April 13 interview with CNN. “I don’t like this revolving door between regulators and Comcast. I thought that was kind of tacky that one of the FCC commissioners, I think just four months after they approved the Comcast/NBC deal, went over to work a high-paying job at Comcast. I just don’t like that.”

So how wide is the revolving door between the telecommunications giant and the FCC? For Comcast’s in-house lobbyists, it’s significant and still swinging. According to an analysis byOpenSecrets Blog, 18 people have both lobbied for Comcast and spent time in the public sector. Of those, 12 are currently registered lobbyists for Comcast, with five of them having spent time at the FCC.

From FCC chair to Comcast lobbyist

The most prominent example of the Comcast/FCC revolving door is former FCC commissioner and current Comcast lobbyist Meredith Baker.

Baker, whose views tended to side with the industry even before she went to the FCC, was appointed to to her FCC position in July 2009 and stayed there for nearly two years, cutting her four-year term short in June 2011 to move to Comcast as its senior vice president of government affairs.

When she made the move, Baker said she didn’t see any problem with moving from a regulatory agency to a company she regulated, explaining in a statement that she had “not participated or voted any item, not just those related to Comcast or NBCUniversal, since entering discussions about an offer of potential employment.”

Due to lobbying rules, Baker wasn’t allowed to lobby the FCC for the two years following her hire at Comcast, but she has lobbied the House and Senate on a range of issues. In 2013, she lobbied on 21 bills on behalf of Comcast, with much of the legislation dealing with deregulation of the Internet, including bills that would keep online purchases tax-free.

Baker’s transition from FCC leadership to industry isn’t unprecedented. Michael Powell, the FCC chairman from 1997 to 2005, made a similar move, heading to theNational Cable & Telecommunications Association, an industry group, in 2011 as its CEO. And Jonathan Adelstein, who was an FCC commissioner from 2002 to 2009, became the president and CEO of PCIA: The Wireless Infrastructure Association in 2012.

Four other former FCC employees have followed Baker’s path to Comcast. They include Rudy Brioche, who worked as an advisor to former commissioner Adelstein before moving to Comcast as its senior director of external affairs and public policy counsel in 2009. Brioche was so valued by the FCC, in fact, that he was brought in to join the commission’s Advisory Committee for Diversity in the Digital Age in 2011.

Other revolving Comcast lobbyists include James Coltharp, who served as a special counsel to commissioner James H. Quello until 1997, and Jordan Goldstein, who worked as a senior legal adviser to commissioner Michael J. Copps. John Morabito, who served a number of roles in the FCC’s Common Carrier Bureau, joined Comcast as one of its senior lobbyists in 2004. (He is no longer with the company.)

Comcast and Congress

But the revolving door doesn’t just swing from the FCC to Comcast. Lobbyists also can head back to the public sector. That’s been the case with David Krone. Krone has an extensive background with the telecommunications industry, holding leadership and lobbying positions with companies like AT&T, TCI Communications and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

In 2008, Krone worked as Comcast’s senior vice president for corporate affairs. But since then, Krone has taken his telecommunications knowledge to the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Krone started as a senior advisor to the senator in 2008 and rose to become Reid’s chief of staff in 2011, a position he holds today.

Overall, Comcast has traditionally had a heavy lobbying presence Washington. The company has spent at least $12 million on lobbying every year since 2008, with that number peaking at $19.6 million in 2011. Last year, Comcast spent more than $18.8 million, making it the sixth-highest spender on federal lobbying.

Tags: al franken, at&t, comcast corp., david krone, harry reid, james coltharp, john morabito, jonathan adelstein, jordan goldstein, meredith baker, michael powell, pcia: the wireless infrastructure association, robbie feinberg, rudy brioche, time warner

actually only partner?3. Ed Snider hearts Ayn Rand and War Ed Snider, CEO of the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment firm Comcast Spectator, owns two sports teams: the Philadelphia Flyers (NHL) and the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA). Along with hockey and basketball, Snider is an admirer of Ayn Rand, so much so that he co-founded the Ayn Rand Institute in the mid-1980s. He was also the executive producer [20] of a movie based on his all-time favorite book, Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.Besides funding the Institute, Snider remained largely passive in the political arena until the 2001 terrorist attacks. It was after 9/11 that Snider aggressively engaged in politics by becoming the number one donor to Freedom’s Watch, a group that pushed for war with Iraq in support of George W. Bush’s war on terror.According to Politico [21], one of the organization's first projects involved a $15 million propaganda campaign that pushed for a troop surge in Iraq by conflating the war with 9/11. For five weeks radio, web and television ads featuring military veterans filled the airwaves. In the opening ad, a military veteran said:I re-enlisted after Sept. 11 because I don’t want my sons to see what I saw. I want them to be free and safe. I know what I lost. I also know that if we pull out now, everything I’ve given and the sacrifices will mean nothing. They attacked us, and they will again. They won’t stop in Iraq. We are winning on the ground and making real progress. It’s no time to quit. It’s no time for politics.When John McCain chose the self-described hockey mom Sarah Palin as his running mate in the 2008 election, Snider jumped at the opportunity to continue his push for endless war by supporting the pro-war duo. He used his hockey stadium, along with its audience, to play PR agent for Sarah Palin by inviting her to drop the puck at the Flyers' season opener.In the Flyers' press release [22], Snider is quoted as saying, “Because of the tremendous amount of publicity she has brought to our sport, we invited the most popular hockey mom in North America to our home opener to help us get our season started."Snider was doing nothing illegal in his position as team owner, but as Will Bunch [22] of the Philidelphia Daily News put it prior to the event, "he's making a huge in-kind donation to the McCain-Palin campaign in the arena that we taxpayers kicked in for, giving her a chance to skate her stuff in front of 19,500 mostly upscale male hockey fans from the swing suburbs outside Philly,” adding that “Flyers fans should be outraged -- even conservative ones, because this misuse of a hockey game for his political agenda is flat-out wrong.”Snider's plan ultimately backfired when fans at Philidelphia's Wachovia Center erupted in boos [23] when Palin came onto the ice. In the midst of this spectacle, writes Zirin, "the JumboTron, our twenty-first-century altar of truth, sent forth a simple request: 'Flyers fans, show Philadelphia’s class and welcome America’s number-one hockey mom, Sarah Palin!'"“The problem,” Zirin argues, “is when owners use the platform handed to them by taxpayers to play propagandist,” in which case Ed Snider is guilty.===Comcast Sports Ventures d.b.a. Comcast Spectacor is a Philadelphia-based American sports and entertainment company. It owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and formerly owned the Philadelphia 76ers of theNational Basketball Association. The company owns and manages the Wells Fargo Center and formerly managed theSpectrum in South Philadelphia before that arena was demolished, plus several community skating rinks in the Philadelphia region known as Flyers Skate Zone. The Comcast SportsNet regional sports networks were also owned by Comcast Spectacor prior to parent company Comcast's acquisition of a majority stake in NBCUniversal in January 2011; CSN is now operated through NBC Sports.The company was formed in 1974 by Flyers founder and chairman Ed Snider as Spectacor, the parent company of both the Flyers and the Spectrum. Snider had been instrumental in getting the Spectrum built in 1967, and assumed control of the arena in 1971. He sold a 63% stake in Spectacor to Comcast in 1996, remaining the renamed Comcast Spectacor's chairman. Shortly afterward, Comcast Spectacor bought the 76ers; as the Spectrum's owner, Snider had been the Sixers' landlord since 1971. Comcast Spectacor sold the 76ers to Joshua Harris in 2011.Contents [hide] 1Spectra2Other businesses3References4External linksSpectra[edit]Comcast Spectacor is the principal owner of Spectra (formerly Global Spectrum, Ovations and Paciolan). Globally, Spectra serves 300-plus clients at more than 400 properties including public assembly facilities throughout the United States and Canada, such as arenas, civic and convention centers, stadiums, university convocation center, trade and exposition centers, community ice rinks and theaters. Some of the arenas and stadiums currently managed by Spectra are: