F.C.C. Chairman: Comcast 'Packing' No Big Deal

The Federal Communications Commission acknowledges that Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, paid people to attend last week's public meeting about net neutrality at Harvard — but don't expect an investigation into the company's tactics.

"It's usually more interesting for people to attend on their own without being paid to do so, but we're not investigating anything," F.C.C. Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters during a press briefing yesterday.

Last week, Comcast told Portfolio.com that it had paid people to show up at the Harvard hearing in order to save seats for Comcast employees.

When many of the Comcast employees failed to materialize, some these paid seat-holders entered the meeting and promptly fell asleep. Meanwhile, campus police officers shut out interested members of the public, citing the fire code.

Martin also tried to dispel a report that suggested that the F.C.C. is considering holding a "do-over" hearing on this issue at Stanford.

Martin suggested that the idea of a Stanford "do-over" may have spread because he is traveling to Stanford this week to the university's law school conference, according to News.com's Anne Broache.

by Sam Gustin