Capitol Hill news publication Politico noticed that the lineup of talk show hosts on Comcast/NBCU’s cable newser MSNBC are now disclosing the parent company’s relationship with Bain Capital, a relationship made pertinent by the presence of Bain co-founder Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential sweepstakes.
As a news channel, MSNBC is acutely involved in political coverage. Its lineup of talk show hosts is very much on the left side of the spectrum, and is often seen as a counterbalance to the rightward tendencies of rival Fox News.
The partnership between NBCU and Bain involves another non-political cable channel, as well as one more partner. Along with the Blackstone Group, NBCU and Bain combined to buy The Weather Channel for $3.5B in 2008.
According to Politico, MSNBC’s VP of Communications, Jeremy Gaines, stated in response to inquiries as to the reason for the new disclosure policy, “Given Bain’s ownership stake in the Weather Channel, we thought it was appropriate to disclose this as the voting is about to begin in the GOP primary.”
Politico notes that Romney is not getting any editorial benefit from the NBCU/Bain connection. The first to disclose the relationship was Ed Schultz, who did so while commenting on Romney’s track record as a job destroyer during his days at Bain.
