Snarlin’ Arlen’s Goal-Line Stand For Team Comcast

The Inquirer reported yesterday that our PA Republican senator is after the National Football League once more…

Specter on Wednesday called for an independent investigation of the New England Patriots' taping of opposing coaches' signals, possibly similar to the high-profile Mitchell Report on performance enhancing drugs in baseball.

"What is necessary is an objective investigation," Specter said at a news conference in the Capitol. "And this one has not been objective."

The Pennsylvania Republican was unforgiving of his criticism of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, saying that Goodell has made "ridiculous" assertions that wouldn't fly "in kindergarten." The Senator said Goodell was caught in an "apparent conflict of interest" because the NFL doesn't want the public to lose confidence in the league's integrity.

And Arlen also rambled on about how football players are such role models…yaddah yaddah yaddah.

And even though Ted Kennedy is hardly an impartial observer in this, he was quoted as follows…

"With the war in Iraq raging on, gasoline prices closing in on $4 a gallon, and Americans losing their homes at record rates to foreclosure, the United States Senate should be focusing on the real problems that Americans are struggling with," the Democrat said. "I'm looking forward to another great Patriots season where they can let their play on the field speak for itself."

I would be inclined to agree with that.

OK, for all of our sakes, I’m going to cut to the chase here and let you know about what’s really going on (and with most stories involving politics and anything that touches on the media, particularly in the Philadelphia area, it involves Comcast – I’ll get to them in a minute).

This tells us that Specter was mad at the NFL in 2006 for the following reason…

Specter said the NFL should not use (its antitrust) exemption to negotiate exclusive programming packages such as DirectTV Inc.'s "Sunday Ticket," which allows viewers to watch teams outside their regional market.

"As I look at what the NFL is doing today with the NFL channel with the DirectTV ... a lot of people, including myself, would like to be able to have that ticket," Specter said.

Among the grievances cited by Specter in what he termed a "fans be damned" mentality demonstrated by the NFL was the relocation of franchises, and decisions like the one that moved Monday Night Football from ABC, an over-the-air network broadcaster, to ESPN, a cable entity.

Both of which are owned by Disney, by the way, which Comcast tried to acquire, though it failed to do so (here, and Specter replayed this a year later here).

How does Comcast fit into this? Well, DirectTV is a competitor of Comcast (here). Also, Comcast wants the right to include the NFL Channel as a premium channel (more $$) instead of part of basic service, but it can’t do that as long as the NFL owns it because of its antitrust exemption (there’s other stuff going on here, but that’s what matters the most).

And by the way (as noted here), Specter’s two biggest campaign contributors are 1) Blank Rome, a PAC set up by a law firm that represents Comcast, and 2) Comcast (not much else to think about, is there?). So it stands to reason that Specter’s marching orders are to do whatever he can to ultimately rid the NFL of its antitrust exemption.

And what does the senator have to say for himself in response?

"They have been a campaign contributor," Specter said, "along with 50,000 other people ... I've been at this line of work for a long time, and no one has ever questioned my integrity."

Yep, they don’t call him “Snarlin’ Arlen” for nothing (and by the way, Senator, I’m still waiting to hear about that book deal).