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Tuesday, July 7, 2026
1 hour ago
Raheem J. Kassam
Analysis

Comcast-Owned ‘Sky News’ – Caught Hounding Farage’s Daughter – Run by Brother of Top Obama Staffer.

When Donald Trump calls Comcast “Concast,” he is making a specific allegation about one of the most powerful media companies in the world: that it presents political hostility as journalism. Sky News (known by many as “Sly News”) which is owned by Comcast, recently denied hounding Reform UK leader Nigel Farage’s daughter at her house, before being caught out lying by CCTV footage. The network has now admitted its reporters had indeed approached the property.

Trump has repeatedly gone after Comcast and its chairman, Brian Roberts, by name. In February 2025, he accused MSNBC of being “an illegal arm of the Democrat Party” and referred to Roberts as the “Lowlife Chairman of ‘Concast.’” He has also blasted Comcast, NBC, and Roberts as a disgrace to broadcasting. The language is Trump’s, but the underlying point is one many conservatives have understood for years: large corporate broadcasters now behave like political actors while demanding the deference once given to neutral institutions.

They also feel like they can turn up at politicians’ doors, but be exempt from the same treatment themselves. Something which has to change.

CONCAST OWNS SLY NEWS.

Comcast bought Sky in 2018 after a bidding war with 21st Century Fox, paying about £30.6 billion. The deal gave the Philadelphia-based media and telecoms giant control of Sky’s television, broadband, mobile, streaming, entertainment, sports, and news operations.

The ownership chain is simple enough. Sky News is owned by Sky Group. Sky Group is owned by Comcast. Comcast is chaired and controlled by Brian L. Roberts.

Comcast’s political operation is not especially subtle, either. The company has long maintained a major Washington presence. David Cohen, one of the most politically connected figures in Comcast’s orbit, served for years as Comcast’s chief lobbyist and senior executive vice president. Before Comcast, he was chief of staff to Ed Rendell in Philadelphia. Later, Joe Biden made him U.S. ambassador to Canada.

British viewers who still think of Sky as a purely British broadcaster are looking at an old map.

THE RHODES CONNECTION.

Sky News Group is chaired by David Rhodes, an American media executive featured by the World Economic Forum. Rhodes happens to be the brother of Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s former advisor, who has his own public history of hostility toward Farage.

In 2017, Ben Rhodes compared Farage to Putin-aligned critics of NATO and the EU, writing: “Like Putin, Trump and Bannon have talked down NATO / the EU, lifted up EU critics like Farage, worried leaders like Tusk and Merkel.” The following year, replying to the Labour Party’s David Lammy, he wrote: “Perhaps Farage could just go to Moscow so that he can take his instructions directly.”

Rhodes was caught publicly mourning the loss of Hillary Clinton in 2016, who herself attacked Farage after he appeared on the campaign trail with then-candidate Trump in Jackson, Mississippi, making him one of the first major global leaders to back the 45th and 47th President.

So the man overseeing Comcast-owned Sky News is not even a product of the old British broadcasting world, but of the left-wing American media establishment. His politically prominent brother has openly treated Farage with hostility.

When Sky News is caught out over Farage’s family, it is not paranoia to ask whether Britain’s supposedly neutral broadcaster is operating inside a much wider American establishment culture that has viewed Farage as an enemy for years.

THE LIE UNRAVELS.

The Farage row matters because it shows the culture problem in plain sight. First came the denial. Then came the later disclosure. Then came the studio defence that doorstepping is just normal journalism. Well, perhaps it is “normal” journalism. That is the indictment.

The press spends half its time demanding transparency from everyone else while hiding behind evasive corporate wording when the questions turn inward. Sky’s own statement may have been narrowly constructed, but the wider public heard what we heard: you said you had not contacted his family, then we learned reporters had indeed pulled up at the property, blocked the driveway, and attempted to contact his daughter inside.

If a politician tried that kind of parsing, Sky News would devote a panel to it before lunch. Which brings us back to “Concast.”

Trump’s critique has always been that these companies are not merely biased in the old-fashioned sense. His argument is that they are protected political institutions: wealthy, corporate, self-regarding, and convinced that their own intrusions are public service while everyone else’s complaints are threats to press freedom.

Sky’s handling of the Farage doorstep row looks like a British exhibit in the same case.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Consumers can stop paying Comcast and its subsidiaries, now.

In Britain, that means cancelling Sky TV, Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, Sky Broadband, Sky Mobile, and NOW (formerly NOW TV). It means refusing the little retention discount when the call centre tries to save the subscription. It means telling Sky, in writing, that the cancellation is because of Sky News and its handling of the Farage family row. It means not feeding Sky News clips on social media where outrage still counts as engagement.

There is also the regulatory route. Viewers can complain to Ofcom if they believe Sky breached broadcasting standards. But companies understand revenue faster than they understand public anger.

Trump called it “Concast” because he believed Comcast had become a byword for corporate media corruption dressed up as public interest journalism. After this week, plenty of British viewers may finally understand the nickname.

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