“Governor Rendell has never been afraid to share his thoughtful analysis on national and local issues and he couldn’t be a better fit for NBC News,” said NBC News president Steve Capus in a statement. “His extensive experience serving the people of Pennsylvania gives him a unique perspective and we’re thrilled to have him on board.”

Interestingly enough, Rendell’s former chief of staff when he was the Mayor of Philadelphia, David L. Cohen, is one of the top executives at Comcast, which is expected to assume control of NBC Universal at the end of this week.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Bloomberg was joined in its letter with a handful of other organizations that oppose the deal, including Free Press, WealthTV, the Writers Guild of America, West, the National Consumers League and the Media Access Project, among others.

Today is the last day to file the initial comments on the proposed merger, as the FCC declined to extend the comment deadline. There will be opportunities for third parties to add to their comments down the line.

Write the letter’s authors:

Put simply, as the owner of both content and the means of distributing that content, Comcast will have every reason to undermine the many independent news, sports and entertainment channels that compete with the channels it owns. This discrimination could take many forms: disadvantageous placement on the dial (i.e. lack of neighborhooding), unfair negotiating practices in the context of carriage agreements with local broadcasters and unaffiliated cable networks, outright refusal to carry certain channels and potentially other tactics. Comcast must be expressly barred from using the enormous clout it will possess to cripple its programming competitors.

As B&C‘s John Eggerton notes, the organizations only oppose the merger “as filed.” In other words, if additional measures are put into place by the government, above the voluntary conditions Comcast has already offered, Bloomberg or the other orgs may change their position on the merger.

The full letter to the FCC is after the jump, as well as a response from Comcast.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

NBC News executives have been heartened by private conversations with Comcast executives in which they expressed admiration for the news division and pride that it would be part of the cable behemoth. While Comcast has not made any specific commitments about resources, NBC officials said the new owners are aware that the news division contributes to the overall bottom line of the company, buoyed by its profitable cable news network, MSNBC.

Says Comcast EVP David L. Cohen, “It’s an area where we don’t have a substantial track record, and I think we need to be judged on what we say we’re going to do.”

• Earlier: Comcast is Back in the News Business

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.