Comcast saw fit last week to defund a nonprofit it supported after a critical tweet and at least one Comcast employee thought it was the right move. ReelGrrls, a nonprofit for teenage girls supported by Comcast, have had their funding pulled, and then reinstated, in the last few days after they expressed incredulity at former FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker's new job at Comcast after she had helped approve its merger with NBC.
Comcast and Baker have come under scrutiny for Baker's juxtaposition of actions, not least by ReelGrrls, a nonprofit to which Comcast had pledged to give $18,000 for its summer program. A member of ReelGrrls tweeted on May 12 an expression of indignant surprise at Baker's hiring, a move that did not go unnoticed by Comcast.
A short time later, the Seattle-based nonprofit received an e-mail from Steve Kipp, a vice president of communications for Comcast based in Lynnwood, WA, stating that he "cannot in good conscience continue to provide [ReelGrrls] with funding—especially when there are so many other deserving nonprofits in town," given that "[ReelGrrls] is shaming us on Twitter."
Thursday afternoon, Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said that this had been Comcast's mistake, and they did not intend to defund ReelGrrls. "At the corporate level, we had no information on this action taken by a single employee in Seattle," Fitzmaurice told Ars. In a released statement, Fitzmaurice noted that Comcast apologized sincerely for the "unauthorized action" of their employee.
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