Noel Weyrich is a Philadelphia writer
The desperate desire of Unisys to hang a pair of bright red logos on its new Liberty Place home raises the obvious question as to why Comcast never bothered to put its name atop the city's newest and tallest skyscraper.
Maybe the Comcast Center's 940-foot tower has gone unlabeled for aesthetic reasons. Or maybe the Comcast name has taken a beating for so long that no one wants to put it up in lights.
In just the last few weeks, the state of New York has threatened to investigate Comcast for not filtering kiddie porn, the Federal Communications Commission made Comcast the first Internet provider ever sanctioned for "throttling" Web traffic, and a news report revealed that Comcast's cable division delivers lower customer satisfaction than any company - of any kind - in the nation.
Comcast's reputation has been in a perpetual state of bruising for years. It's a shame, too, because the country's largest cable firm and No. 2 Internet provider is Philadelphia's foremost corporate citizen and a terrific hometown success story.
With its high national profile, Comcast could be for Philadelphia what Starbucks is for Seattle. Just as the Starbucks brand somewhat evokes the fog-bound forested Northwest, it would be nice if Comcast's public image reflected a few of Philadelphia's positive East Coast qualities - smart, fast, upbeat and urbane.
Instead, the Comcast brand is just as likely to remind consumers of the other Philadelphia - the one that's parochial, territorial, bellicose and stubborn.
Comcast's battle with New York over kiddie porn is a case in point. Earlier this year, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo introduced a voluntary "code of conduct" for Internet providers to ensure they were complying with new state laws against online child pornography.
Every major broadband company agreed to Cuomo's new code of conduct except Comcast. So Cuomo subpoenaed Comcast in May. After weeks of failed negotiations, he served formal notice on July 21 that he would start legal proceedings against Comcast within five days. On the fifth day, after months of negative headlines, Comcast relented and signed Cuomo's code.
Comcast's fight with the FCC has followed the same pattern - defiant public posturing, doomed legal maneuvers, and lots of bad press.
