Comcast - not such a fan of summer film camps?

Reel Grrls supports the empowerment of hundreds of young women through media-based training, resources, and community building (check out our Hella Bus profile on Reel Grrls here). They do good stuff. They are also nice people.  That's why we were a wee bit concerned to hear the news that Comcast threatened to cut $18,000 in funding for their summer film camp for teens because of a tweet (which was on point, by the way).

The tweet referred to former FCC commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker's spectacularly shady departure  from the FCC to take a high-powered job at Comcast just months after approving the controversial Comcast-NBC merger.  Free Press and other media watchdog organizations have been calling for an investigation into what seems to be a pretty blatant conflict of interest.  Although, it seems to have been pretty much legal.

In the wake of a media-blitzing, the higher-ups at Comcast are claiming that the threat to defund the program was the work of a rogue employee and that Comcast will restore funding. “This is not the way Comcast behaves toward its nonprofit partners,” said Comcast Spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice.

However, should Comcast follow through with their threat, three Reel Grrls participants "who had signed up for the camp are planning to come in voluntarily to create a film about Comcast’s decision to pull their funding," noted the Washington Post.

If you aren't familiar with them already, please check out Reel Grrls and the excellent programs they have to offer! Seriously, they're great.