Reel Grrls rejects Comcast funding after Twitter spat

The Seattle-based nonprofit Reel Grrls is rejecting funding from Comcast after a spat over a tweet that was critical of the company.

A Comcast official in Washington state told Reel Grrls it would lose its $18,000 in funding after the group sent out a negative tweet about the company's decision to hire someone away from the Federal Communications Commission.

The tweet questioned Comcast's decision to hire FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, who voted to allow the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal earlier this year.

“OMG! @FCC Commissioner Baker voted 2 approve Comcast/NBC merger & is now lving FCC for A JOB AT COMCAST?!?” Reel Grrls tweeted. 

Comcast apologized for the official's statement to the group and said on Thursday that it wanted to continue sponsoring it.

But Reel Grrls spokeswoman Teresa Mozur on Friday said the nonprofit would not accept Comcast's donation and will be looking elsewhere for funds.

"We appreciate Comcast’s desire to rectify this situation and hope to encourage them to craft a corporate policy that clearly defends freedom of expression in order to ensure that this situation does not arise again," Mozur said in a statement. 

Mozur said the group is redesigning its summer camp program to focus on films about free press issues in light of what happened.

A Comcast spokeswoman apologized again for the incident Friday. 

“We sincerely regret the actions of this one unauthorized employee, which does not represent how our company treats our community partners," the spokeswoman said. "While we planned to continue their funding, we will respect their decision.”