Witness list for Los Angeles Comcast - NBC Universal hearing shaping up

The witness list for the House Judiciary Committee's hearing to be held Monday in Los Angeles about the Comcast-NBC Universal deal is likely to include a mix of industry executives and academics, many of whom will raise concerns about the combination of the cable giant and the programming behemoth.

Although the committee chair is Rep. John Conyers (D-MI.) and he will be overseeing the hearing, the driving force behind is it Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA). Rep Waters, who was particularly tough on NBC Universal about diversity in its prime-time programming during a hearing about the deal back in February, pushed Monday's event. Among potential witnesses are producer Suzanne de Passe, Alex Nogales of the National Hispanic Media Coalition; writer and producer Reggie Hudlin, a former senior executive at BET who was also an executive producer of Cartoon Network's "The Boondocks" and more recently has directed episodes of ABC's "Modern Family" and NBC's "The Office;" Frank Washington, chairman of Tower of Babel, which owns KBTV-TV Sacramento, a television station that Comcast carries on its cable systems there; Will Griffin, a music and cable entrepreneur; Sam Kang of the Greenlining Institute, a liberal think tank, is set to appear; media watchdog Stanley Washington, chief executive of the National Coalition of African American Owned Media.