Inside the ingeniously sneaky tricks Comcast uses to get what it wants

As Bloomberg News documents, one of Comcast’s go-to tactics for persuading lawmakers to support its merger proposals is pledging to expand its Internet Essentials program, which is designed to get more low-income people in the United States connected to the Internet. The problem is that few families appear to be taking advantage of these programs — Bloomberg writes that Internet Essentials “has reached 350,000 households — or about 13% of those eligible, according to one estimate. [...] Washingtonian Magazine, meanwhile, explains how Comcast uses charity donations as a weapon — essentially, Comcast will make big donations to some charities and in exchange leans on them to publicly support the company during big public policy battles. - Brad Reed,BGR [via/web:http://streaming-tv.us]