Writers Guild wants Comcast to pay millions for pubaffairs programming via CPB

The Writers Guild of America East, which reps writers at several pubcasting stations, has written to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski with a suggestion: Comcast should donate $10 million annually over 10 years for news and public affairs programming as a requirement of its merger with NBC Universal. The Los Angeles Times reports that Michael Winship, president of the guild, and Lowell Peterson, its executive director, wrote that the merger "would further consolidate the production and distribution of news and public affairs programming relied on by the American public." So they think Comcast should "contribute significant resources to the production of truly independent content." The money should go through CPB or "another entity to be established for this purpose." Comcast responded by saying it was up to Congress and the public broadcasting community to figure out funding.