Rep Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) has been very critical about Comcast and NBC/Universal, because she felt the companies were not committed to hiring and promoting minorities. But she praised Comcast’s announcement this week that they are establishing four new independent channels targeting minorities. The sale of Comcast cable channels to Magic Johnson and Sean Combs have met with her approval.”I am pleased that Comcast-NBC/Universal has taken steps to honor its commitment to media diversity in programming and ownership,” Waters said in a statement released Wednesday.
The new channels include one owned by former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson, one owned by Sean Combs and a third owned by “Spy Kids” director Robert Rodriguez.”It is clear that Comcast has begun to act on the concerns that I, and the community of minority media professionals, raised during the course of the merger review.” She added, “While these initial steps are commendable, I urge the company to continue to cultivate diversity among its executive leadership, showrunners and other studio heads with “�greenlighting’ authority “� Comcast-NBCUniversal would be a trailblazer within an industry that continues to struggle with diversity and inclusion.”