Slashdot Mirror


White House Could Use AT&T/Time Warner Deal As 'Leverage' Against CNN (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a report via Ars Technica: AT&T seems to be on track to close its purchase of Time Warner Inc., but President Donald Trump's hatred of Time Warner property CNN could still be a "wild card" in the deal. Trump's feud with CNN was described yesterday in a New York Times article titled "The Network Against the Leader of the Free World." Within that article is one tidbit that could affect AT&T's proposed $85.4 billion purchase of Time Warner, which owns CNN and other media properties such as HBO and Turner Broadcasting System: "White House advisers have discussed a potential point of leverage over their adversary, a senior administration official said: a pending merger between CNN's parent company, Time Warner, and AT&T. Mr. Trump's Justice Department will decide whether to approve the merger, and while analysts say there is little to stop the deal from moving forward, the president's animus toward CNN remains a wild card."

Separately, The Daily Caller wrote today that Trump doesn't want the merger to be approved unless CNN President Jeff Zucker is fired. The conservative news website attributed the information to "a source familiar with President Trump's thinking." Zucker told the New York Times that the pending merger has not affected his journalistic or management decisions.

302 comments

  1. s/Trump/Obama/g by Bigbutt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm always interested in the opinions of folks if any article, regardless of the media source, replaced Trump with Obama in the article.

    [John]

    --
    Shit better not happen!
    1. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by rickb928 · · Score: 1

      As in "(fill in the blank) refused to take questions from (insert media outlet here) at his latest press conference"?

      That would be interesting. Dates and times for extra credit.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    2. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by PoopJuggler · · Score: 1, Informative

      Obama wouldn't try to stifle the free press.

    3. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Bigbutt · · Score: 1

      Agree. I think that's the same for both though as I recall.

      [John]

      --
      Shit better not happen!
    4. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Train0987 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Is that a joke? How many reporters were under surveillance during the Obama administration? Several that we know of. Not to mention his weaponized use of the IRS.

    5. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by the_skywise · · Score: 0

      And yet... he DID

    6. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by aicrules · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If CNN/NY Times had levied this level of attack to Obama, I would be citing those stories as proof that they aren't biased, just hollow brained. They are supposed to be a world class news agency, yet they continue to publish unverified stories that can't even be followed up on to fact check. It's honestly like they are trying to self destruct because eventually this shit will catch up with them. It already has in some areas...they just don't seem to care enough to change....oh wait..maybe the hint is in the fact noted in the article that they (CNN) are making so much money being exactly this kind of news agency. Fuck integrity, just sell ads!

    7. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Opportunist · · Score: 1, Troll

      How many news networks did he try to silence?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 0, Troll

      The free press also didn't try and stifle him.

      --
      If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    9. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And yet... he didnt.

    10. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by swillden · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm always interested in the opinions of folks if any article, regardless of the media source, replaced Trump with Obama in the article.

      [John]

      I'm no fan of Obama, but I don't think he ever did anything remotely similar to this, (allegedly) threatening to kill a merger unless a news network stops criticizing him. The most he ever did was threaten to exclude Fox from the press pool at an event (and then backed down).

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    11. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just replace CNN with Fox when you replace Trump with Obama. I don't remember Obama ever trying to stifle Fox.

    12. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 4, Informative

      WTF? are you kidding me? 1) Yes they did 2) It is their job to report on bad shit our leaders do 3) Retaliation against a free press from the white house is NOT ok.

    13. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump wants CEO of CNN fired.
      Obama FIRED the CEO of GM, Rich Wagoneer.

      What was your dipshit Obama suckup point again?
      That Obama actually DID what you are complaining that Trump says should be done and you were fine with it?

    14. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wasn't it fairly well known that Obama black listed reporters who were critical of him?

      https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/opinion/less-than-transparent-journalists-fault-obama.html
      https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/10/10/cpj-report-on-obama-press/2960607/
      https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/opinion/sunday/if-donald-trump-targets-journalists-thank-obama.html
      https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/10/27/usa-todays-susan-page-obama-administration-most-dangerous-to-media-in-history/

      Do you wish me to continue? Or are you going to argue that blocking their access to info isn't silencing them?

    15. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by swillden · · Score: 5, Insightful

      FYI: You're living in a reality distortion field. You should turn that off.

      Obama didn't fire Wagoneer, he asked him to resign and Wagoneer agreed. And the motivation for the request was GM's request for a multi-billion dollar bailout; the resignation wasn't a condition of receiving the bailout, but IMO it would have been perfectly reasonable if it were. If a CEO has to beg the government to save his company, he's clearly failed.

      What was your dipshit Obama suckup point again?

      Sigh. This is the sad state of what passes for political discussion in the US. One can't state facts that show one side in a bad light without being accused of being partisan for the other side. I didn't care for Obama and I'm glad he's not the the White House any more. That said, I'd gladly trade Trump for just about anybody, Obama included.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    16. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      attributed the information to "a source familiar with President Trump's thinking."

      How do we go from "someone making wild ass guesses about what's rattling in Trump's head" to "Trump said"?

    17. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you being obtuse, or just a fucking moron that you can't see the difference here? Obama requested he resign because the government was listing it as a condition for another round of bailouts FROM THE GOVERNMENT. This after he'd already continue to wreck the company. Trump wants the CEO of CNN fired as backroom condition of approving a merger. Whatever your (in my opinion legit) criticisms of CNN and their shoddy reporting, especially of late, this is INDEFENSIBLE. This is the type of "swamp" backdealing bullshit that's plagued government that you gaggots were so happy Trump would be sweeping away.

      He's a fucking politician, not your God Emperor. From this Goldwater Republican to you new breed of conservative fuckwits - hold him accountable for it.

    18. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obama wouldn't try to stifle the free press.

      Wrong. On the same day that US governement announced World Press Freedom Day,

      https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/12/152465.htm

      Julian Assange was arrested.

      http://www.npr.org/2010/12/08/131892110/wikileaks-dodges-obstacles-to-stay-online

      On that same day, the famous journalist Daniel Ellsberg defended Assange, pointing out that "EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time."

      http://blog.sfgate.com/opinionshop/2010/12/07/daniel-ellsberg-praises-wikileaks/

    19. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      I still think it's hilarious that FoxNews refused to refer to Obama as "President". Most (if not all) reporting during his first term called him "Mr. Obama".

    20. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obama had better sense than to pick fights with news agencies. Then again, he never felt the need to be constantly adored that Trump has.

      If you want a more realistic comparison, replace Trump with Obama and replace CNN with Fox News.

    21. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by quantaman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm always interested in the opinions of folks if any article, regardless of the media source, replaced Trump with Obama in the article.

      [John]

      If Obama had threatened regulatory action against Fox unless Fox News ditched Roger Ailes or some pundit then it would rightfully be a major political scandal.

      I don't think it would quite reach the level of impeachment, but it would easily have been the worst thing Obama did as a President.

      --
      I stole this Sig
    22. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      There's too much difference in context there. More interesting would be to change Trump's party and imagine what the response would be.

    23. Re: s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy shit.

      Leaking confidential information? That's all sorts of illegal. You sign an nda then you ignore it?

      That's not free press. That's being illegal.

      Notice wiki leaks isn't on trial here? They're closer to a press \ media info.

    24. Re: s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      First link contains a list of 40 "media" outlets nobody's ever heard of complaining they don't get face time with the president.

      The second link complains about the government going after someone who leaked confidential information, which is all sorts of illegal.

      I stopped reading after that. At no point did those articles state Obama called an entire news outlet fake.

    25. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Trump wants CEO of CNN fired.
      Obama FIRED the CEO of GM, Rich Wagoneer.

      What was your dipshit Obama suckup point again?
      That Obama actually DID what you are complaining that Trump says should be done and you were fine with it?

      Not even close to being an apt comparison.

      ...General Motors was financially vulnerable before the automotive industry crisis of 2008-2009. In 2005 the company posted a loss of US$10.6 billion. In 2006, its attempts to obtain U.S. government financing to support its pension liabilities and also to form commercial alliances with Nissan and Renault failed. For fiscal year 2007, GM's losses for the year were US$38.7 billion, and sales for the following year dropped by 45%. On November 7, 2008 General Motors reported it had projected it would run out of cash around mid-2009 without a combination of government funding, a merger, or sales of assets. Ten days later General Motors representatives, along with executives from Ford and Chrysler testified about their need for financial aid at a congressional hearing in Washington D.C. All three companies were unsuccessful in their attempts to obtain legislation to authorize U.S. government aid, and were invited to draft a new action plan for the sustainability of the industry. On December 2, 2008, General Motors submitted its "Restructuring Plan for Long-Term Viability" to the Senate Banking Committee and House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. Congress declined to act, but in December 2008 the Bush administration provided a "bridge loan" to General Motors with the requirement of a revised business plan.It said it needed $4.6 billion in loans within weeks, from the $18 billion it had already requested, and an additional $12 billion in financial support in order to stave off bankruptcy. On Feb. 26, 2009, General Motors announced that its cash reserves were down to $14 billion at the end of 2008. G.M. lost $30.9 billion, or $53.32 a share, in 2008 and spent $19.2 billion of its cash reserves. Mr. Wagoner met with President Obama’s auto task force, and the company said that it could not survive much longer without additional government loans. On the March 30, 2009 deadline President Barack Obama declined to provide financial aid to General Motors, and requested that General Motors produce credible plans, saying that the company's proposals had avoided tough decisions, and that Chapter 11 bankruptcy appeared the most promising way to reduce its debts, by allowing the courts to compel bondholders and trade unions into settlements. GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner was also forced to resign. ...

      3/30/2009 - Why Rick Wagoner Had To Go: The fall of General Motors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner was unavoidable. There is no way President Obama could hand out more billions to a management with a practically unblemished record of failure. Yes, it’s certainly good news; the Wagoner management was never going to turn around General Motors . Never. After all, Wagoner has been chief executive since 2000 and head of North American auto operations six more years before that. His predecessor and mentor, Jack Smith, became chief in 1992. GM lost market share in the U.S. in all but a couple of those years. The losses in Wagoner’s last four years topped $80 billion. ...

    26. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      I'm always interested in the opinions of folks if any article, regardless of the media source, replaced Trump with Obama in the article.

      [John]

      What if Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Had Swapped Genders?
      "A restaging of the presidential debates with an actress playing Trump and an actor playing Clinton yielded surprising results. "

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    27. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks like the shills ran out of mod points before you got to -1.

    28. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by sheph · · Score: 1

      He didn't have to. They were falling all over themselves to portray him in the best possible light. Total propaganda. The majority of media in this country is biased towards liberalism. They don't even try to hide it anymore.

      --
      I don't believe in karma, I just call it like I see it.
    29. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Obama didn't fire Wagoneer, he asked him to resign and Wagoneer agreed.

      That's probably the dumbest sentence you've written all week. At the CxO level, no one gets fired.......they are asked to resign. It's the same thing.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    30. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by sheph · · Score: 0

      How many news networks has Trump silenced? All he's doing is pointing out their bias. CNN is still welcome to say whatever they want even if it is blatantly false. And TFA is merely speculation that he could interfere with their merger. No facts. No concrete evidence. No direct quote. Speculation based on "how the president thinks". Hey, that's totally objective right? Let's face it, if he did interfere there would be a huge backlash, and I would suspect he's smarter than to try to fool around like that. The merger will likely go through without any hindrance at all. But gee isn't it fun to use every opportunity to make Trump out to be the boogeyman?

      --
      I don't believe in karma, I just call it like I see it.
    31. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many news networks did he try to silence?

      All of them.

      Those that reported negative things about the administration or DNC were no longer given access to "anonymous sources" and were relegated to copy-pasting the Associated Press news feed. The cold-shouldered organizations still had to fill airtime and turned to talking endlessly with opinion panels.

      Now, left leaning media is having the same problem and doubling down on retaliation instead of "innovating", not that speculative opinion replacing real news should be called innovation.

    32. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would suspect he's smarter than to try to fool around like that

      What is it about Trump's behaviour that would bring you to that conclusion?

    33. Re: s/Trump/Obama/g by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Holy shit.

      Leaking confidential information? That's all sorts of illegal. You sign an nda then you ignore it?

      That's not free press. That's being illegal.

      Notice wiki leaks isn't on trial here? They're closer to a press \ media info.

      1: Leaking confidential information, or information protected by an NDA, is not illegal if you're exposing a crime. If you put it to a sane jury who was informed of their right of nullification, the vast majority of such instances would be quickly decided in favor of the defendant. We are to be judged by a jury of our peers, not a single judge sitting at the bench. Not a military tribunal. Not some corporation's stooge in the form of "arbitration". Further, leaking information is never illegal - no one can restrain your freedom to speak. At worst, someone can sue you for contract violation or sue you for direct damages. The goings-on of our government are supposed to be legal, generally public, and auditable. Yet at every turn, FOIA are denied, records are "lost", and whistle blower "protection" laws are shown to be the exact opposite of their namesake. Beyond that, the the people and the press are expressly granted freedom to criticize and expose the wrongdoings of our government.

      2: This is Slashdot. "Information wants to be free!"

    34. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by sexconker · · Score: 1

      I still think it's hilarious that FoxNews refused to refer to Obama as "President". Most (if not all) reporting during his first term called him "Mr. Obama".

      Then you don't remember very well. Other media outlets stood up for Fox. Fox returned the favor recently under the new administration.
      Whether you think that's because they have integrity or they just fear being locked out by the next guy is up to you.

      The "Mr. Obama" stuff was done on day 1, sure. But it was a direct response to the "Mr. Bush" stuff that was prevalent for 8 years. It's a rejection of the President. I don't recall this being a big thing during Clinton's reign. Perhaps the media was more sane back then, perhaps both parties had actual issues to attack people on. I'm going to blame social media and the internet. All discourse is now dumbed down for the masses to chant. Instead of talking about platforms and policy, they just spout off #NotMyPresident" or shit about Obama's birth certificate.

    35. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by sexconker · · Score: 1

      I'm always interested in the opinions of folks if any article, regardless of the media source, replaced Trump with Obama in the article.

      [John]

      What if Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Had Swapped Genders?
      "A restaging of the presidential debates with an actress playing Trump and an actor playing Clinton yielded surprising results. "

      What if it were a motorcycle vs a pine tree? The staged results of our staged event to make a senseless "point" supporting our narrative and bias may SHOCK you!

    36. Re: s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1: Leaking confidential information, or information protected by an NDA, is not illegal if you're exposing a crime. If you put it to a sane jury who was informed of their right of nullification, the vast majority of such instances would be quickly decided in favor of the defendant.

      So many wrongs one does not know where to start... First, most whistleblowers of state secrets are accused under the Espionage Act. There are no mitigating motivations (like "exposing a crime") permitted in court. Read the Ellsberg trial transcripts: when Ellsberg's attorney tried explaining Ellsberg's motivation, he was shouted down by the judge and what he tried to say was struck off the record. The same judge, by the way, who eventually threw the whole case out of court since he did not see himself able to provide justice (even under the absurd conditions of the Espionage Act) because of simply unbelievable misconduct of the prosecution (like burglary, falsification of records, breach of client-attorney confidence, perjury and so on and so on). So "exposing a crime" does not come into play at all and is not allowed in court when the _accusation_ is under the Espionage Act (never mind the eventual verdict).

      Next, juries do not have a "right of nullification". Absolutely not. Jury members involved in intentional nullification are unlikely to be considered fit for jury duty ever again. Nullification is a consequence of the jury system: jury members are largely immune to "contempt of court" proceedings, and nullification is a rather straightforward case of contempt of court. Nullification not a "right" but rather something that you cannot be prosecuted for. Totally different. It's like a diplomat not having the "right" to violate traffic regulations but rather being immune to prosecution.

    37. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He didn't need to.

      Fox, despite general feelz, isn't as biased as people who don't even watch it love to believe.

      Everything else on the right - what's the point? Why silence, say, Infowars? Stopped clocks and all, but it's discounted by everyone but conspiracy theorists the moment "NASA IS SHIPPING CHILDREN TO MARS" comes up.

      Unless you've been living under a rock, you're aware how bad CNN colludes with the DNC. But they're not _batshit_. They're not easily dismissable like most of the crazy right shit. (Of course, they're quickly headed in that direction.)

    38. Re: s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Leaking confidential information? That's all sorts of illegal.

      You're missing the point. A poster claimed that "Obama wouldn't try to stifle the free press". Pointing out that the Obama administration tried to stifle Wikileaks (ironically, on the same day as announcing World Press Freedom Day), demonstrates that the poster was wrong--the Obama administration did try to stifle the free press.

    39. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by J053 · · Score: 1

      Assange was not arrested by the US. As I recall, he was arrested by the Brits for failure to appear in court to answer the Swedish request for his return to Sweden on rape charges.

    40. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I did not claim that Assage was arrested by the US. If you read the article linked above, it states that:

      The tough talk from the United States and allied governments may have had an effect on some companies that were providing services to WikiLeaks. The online retailer Amazon stopped hosting its website. A Swiss bank that had been holding Assange's legal defense fund announced it was freezing the account. PayPal, Visa and MasterCard all said they would stop processing payments to WikiLeaks.

      "There are all kinds of influence that government has in dealing with the private sector," says Herbert Lin, a computer scientist and cyberwar expert at the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. "One could imagine some senior government official calling them up and saying, 'You know, you really ought to stop supporting payments to this organization, because it's really harming national security. And if you help us, we won't forget you.'"

      There has also been a longstanding suspicion that Sweden issued the arrest warrant for Assage as a favor to the US government. How else do you explain the coincidental arrest of Assage during the same week that his website was shut down, his bank account was frozen, and PayPal, Visa and MasterCard refused to do business with him?

    41. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by swillden · · Score: 2

      Obama didn't fire Wagoneer, he asked him to resign and Wagoneer agreed.

      That's probably the dumbest sentence you've written all week. At the CxO level, no one gets fired.......they are asked to resign. It's the same thing.

      It's the same thing when the board asks, because the board could fire the CEO if the request were refused. But the president has no authority to fire employees of private companies, so it truly was just a request.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    42. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by swillden · · Score: 1

      You didn't read the post you responded to.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    43. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Do you think the president could have brought pressure on him to be fired if he refused?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    44. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sigh. This is the sad state of what passes for political discussion in the US. One can't state facts that show one side in a bad light without being accused of being partisan for the other side. I didn't care for Obama and I'm glad he's not the the White House any more. That said, I'd gladly trade Trump for just about anybody, Obama included.

      I remember a little of Reagan and all the others. I'll take any of them instead of Trump. Hell, I'll even take Pence. If I had to pick, I'd probably go with another Obama. No drama is a good thing,

      If I had to pick a republican that is living, how bout the first George Bush? If I had to pick an eligible democrat, I'd say Bernie. Republican wise, I'd rather go with someone like Bloomberg. Kasich wasn't that bad either. I'd take Angela Merkel if that was a choice as well. I'd vote for Elizabeth Warren as well, though I don't think the Electoral College would.

      The basic problem this article mentions is another case of abuse of power. It would be abuse of power regardless of who did it. A pattern of abuse of power is evidence that could be used during impeachment of any president. In fact from the Wikipedia article on Clinton's impeachment:

      The impeachment process of Bill Clinton was initiated by the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998, against Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, on two charges, one of perjury and one of obstruction of justice.[1] These charges stemmed from Clinton's sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by Paula Jones.

      I'd be astounded if Trump hasn't perjured on something, and probably many somethings. He lies too much for him not to meet that bar, and for those who think it is a which hunt, well Ken star started with the whitewater thing, and eventually stumbled onto the Monica mess, which hadn't occurred when the investigation started. If that investigation is valid, then this one surely is. As far as obstruction of justice, well, there are multiple examples. Firing Comey and then admitting why pretty much makes that case.

      I'm just tired of all the hypocrisy. Obstruction of justice and abuse of power are real quantifiable actions. If he did them, then they will eventually find it. The sad bit is the current congress may ignore the results if they possibly can and even if the democrats win a few in 2018, that probably won't lead to removal.

      I've heard that Trump's supposed to lead to resistance against trump like politicians in the future, sort of like an antibody reaction. I'm not convinced. Hell, I was unfortunate enough to talk to someone who afaik a decent guy at work, churchgoing and all the rest, and when the topic was brought up of the way Trump is damaging truth, he immediately brought up some BS about how Clinton or some such did it too.

      First, Clinton's lies aren't nearly in the same scale. You can't defending against a scale ten lie with an example of a scale 3 lie. Second, all the lies are wrong and a failure on the part of our leaders. I defend none of them. Bernie, for all of his talk and such, did not suddenly have new plans and such when he ran. He has been talking and planning on the same thing for decades.

      Why the heck can't Bernie be the standard? An honest man, with long held honest beliefs that is just trying to do his best. Kasich is likely close there, and even some of the other republicans (not cruz), but I take it you get my point.

      We need to not elect the loudest monkey in the room. We need to elect one that will surprise no one. I want another no drama presidency, and at this point I'd even take a real republican to get it.

    45. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by riley · · Score: 1

      No. You are wrong. He did not fire the CEO of GM. Beyond that, the situation is completely different. GM was asking the U.S. government for a multi-billion dollar loan to keep it out of bankruptcy. AT&T are attempting to get approval for a merger of two large (profitable) companies serving the same markets. You are entitled to your own opinion. You are not entitled to your own facts.

    46. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The press should collude with the executive branch so nobody has to retaliate for anything.

    47. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      how about you stop lying to everyone and expect to be taken seriously son.

    48. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But he mentioned this merger during his campaign and seemed against it (or at least that's what I remember).

    49. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Bernie is not a democrat. All the democrats took their orders and lined up behind Hillary. Bernie saw a vacuum and opportunistically jumped in.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    50. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by swillden · · Score: 1

      Do you think the president could have brought pressure on him to be fired if he refused?

      He could have asked the board, but it would still just be a request. Unless, as I said, the bailout were conditional upon the resignation. But it explicitly was not.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    51. Re:s/Trump/Obama/g by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      What do you think the board would have done?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  2. Abuse of Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has any former President ever been so open in his abuse of power?

    1. Re: Abuse of Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is nothing wrong with them threatening people.

    2. Re:Abuse of Power by Tempest_2084 · · Score: 2

      Not since the last one. And the one before that, and the one before that, and....

    3. Re: Abuse of Power by ud0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Has any former President ever been so open in his abuse of power?

      The President? It's CNN that is blackmailing people they disagree with.

      This is a fallacy. Being (ethically) corrupt isn't a zero-sum pool. They can both be horrible at the same time. It's still an abuse of power even if you're doing it to someone reprehensible. Also: criticizing one for their actions is not an implicit endorsement of the other party.

    4. Re:Abuse of Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Has any former President ever been so open in his abuse of power?

      Do you actually believe these reports from anonymous sources? This is all speculation on what *could* happen. And it's being speculated by people that hate Trump. So....

    5. Re:Abuse of Power by aicrules · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He hasn't actually done what is stated in this article. Unnamed "White House advisers" and "source familiar with President Trump’s thinking". Yes, it is common for news agencies to report based on anonymous sources, but given the lack of journalistic integrity that has plagued coverage of Trump, shit like this has no place in headlines without verifiable sources. When I see any story about anybody that has it's sole source for such a damning quote being an anonymous source with nothing else to back it up, I immediately dismiss it. Doesn't matter if it's Trump, Obama, someone I love, or someone I hate. Literally none of the Trump connections to Russia in the formerly "earth shattering" Russia Dossier have been proven true. Yet it was bandied about like it was Trump's death sentence. Where are all the retractions? Three people at CNN fired? That's it? Bullshit. They just double down and go after the next fake story.

    6. Re: Abuse of Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just like with opponents to Obamacare. Just because they oppose that particular implementation, doesn't mean they oppose the concept of universal healthcare.

    7. Re:Abuse of Power by thaylin · · Score: 1

      You dont have to look further than his current and past open abuse of power to believe this one is probably true

      --
      When you cant win, ad hominem.
    8. Re:Abuse of Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No that's completely incorrect, Trumps boasting about such abuses of power on his own twitter feed. It really baffles me how much people are happy to turn a blind eye to in support of the current childish president. No president before has abused the power to such an extent since Nixon. Trumps celebrity status has earned him some relentless support from people who perpetuate their own false news to discredit any real criticism of him. You only have to look at press around the world and you will find that the criticisms which Trump supports are so upset with and very much commonplace in both right and left wing news outlets elsewhere. The fact there is some press support for him in the US is thanks to his connections. It's an amazing spectacle having a president who's there through pure marketing of himself as a brand, let's just hope it doesn't catch on.

    9. Re:Abuse of Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Has any former President ever been so open in his abuse of power?"

      Yes, in 1973. Nixon went power mad and tried to take down the New York Times and the Washington Post. There were actually still some Republicans left who had integrity like Howard Baker; with their cooperation, Nixon was the one taken down.
      It started with the publishing of the Pentagon Papers and the Injunctions Nixon then instituted. The curious thing about this was it was Johnson who bore the brunt of the criticism for the handling of the Vietnam War, but Nixon felt that if he did nothing it would set a dangerous precedent. So he used the FBI among others to discredit Ellsberg and the Newspapers. This backfired spectacularly when the Watergate break-in was reported. Elements in the FBI and the Justice Department turned against him. By some accounts, Nixon feared that impending Impeachment was another dangerous precedent, and so he resigned.
      Some Republicans have never forgiven Nixon; they feel that he should have stuck it out. Some Democrats think that Nixon finally did the right thing by resigning. Ford inherited the Presidency and he wasn't all that bad, except for dealing with the massive Inflation that he also inherited. His solution? Handing out "Whip Inflation Now" badges.
      This was also the beginning of the Republican Lie that Carter was responsible for the Inflation of the Seventies. Nope, it was Nixon and his War. He ran in 1968 partly on the Plank of ending the War. Instead, he ratcheted it up without finding the means to pay for it.

      We have a similar situation now, in that a Corrupt President is taking on the Free Press. But this time there are no honorable Republicans left to stand up to him.

    10. Re:Abuse of Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So are we just ignoring Trumps firing of an FBI director and uses of his powers to silence any proper investigation into the claims? It must be nice and dark with your head that deep in the sand!

    11. Re:Abuse of Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Care to enumerate those abuses?

    12. Re:Abuse of Power by quantaman · · Score: 3, Informative

      He hasn't actually done what is stated in this article. Unnamed "White House advisers" and "source familiar with President Trump’s thinking". Yes, it is common for news agencies to report based on anonymous sources, but given the lack of journalistic integrity that has plagued coverage of Trump, shit like this has no place in headlines without verifiable sources. When I see any story about anybody that has it's sole source for such a damning quote being an anonymous source with nothing else to back it up, I immediately dismiss it.

      Which, in the case of this administration, would have lead to you dismissing a lot of accurate news reports. Anonymous sources should be treated with caution yes, but not immediate dismissal.

      Doesn't matter if it's Trump, Obama, someone I love, or someone I hate. Literally none of the Trump connections to Russia in the formerly "earth shattering" Russia Dossier have been proven true.

      Which is why CNN only reported on the existence of the dossier, they didn't break it.

      Yet it was bandied about like it was Trump's death sentence. Where are all the retractions?

      Because there's nothing to retract, it hasn't been falsified. Of course the explosive claims are hard to falsify, which is one of the reasons CNN, despite having access to the dossier, deliberately held back the actual contents (until Buzzfeed broke them, an act most media organizations disagreed with).

      Three people at CNN fired? That's it? Bullshit. They just double down and go after the next fake story.

      CNN published one legitimately inaccurate story, and fired everyone involved.

      Can you imagine if Breitbart or even Fox News was held to that standard? Would Sean Spicer even last through a single press conference?

      --
      I stole this Sig
    13. Re:Abuse of Power by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You understand that the White House lies everytime they put on a press conference. The only way we ever hear what they are actually doing is when it is leaked. If you are a reporter and wish to maintain that flow of information you are going to protect your source.

      I don't like unverified sources anymore than you do but you seem to be glossing over the fact that Trump's administration is not behaving like any previous administration. When the administration can lie about something as mundane as crowd sizes you can't trust them, that lack of trust only leads in one direction.

      Journalistic integrity from the likes of CNN is still orders of magnitude more reliable than the Trump administration to date. To you point, CNN fired people for negligence. You have never heard Trump say he was wrong, you've never heard anyone in his administration say they were wrong even when Ms Conway coined the term alternative facts. What would you have preferred CNN do in response to their screw up? They break hundreds of news articles everyday. Yes, they make mistakes, everybody does, but they always retract if they are shown to be in error. That is not reciprocated at all by this administration.

    14. Re: Abuse of Power by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Its the fact that the Democrats keep killing single-payer legislation that proves they dont actually support the concept.

      Their words dont match their actions. They never have in my lifetime.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    15. Re:Abuse of Power by aicrules · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      One legitimately inaccurate story but what stories about the dossier or any other Trump/Russia illegal connection have been found true? None. It's not about just CNN either, but the entire mainstream media. The entire mainstream media machine has been derelict in their duty to verify news before reporting it. To think that is anything other than malevolence at its source is asinine. The alternative is that the entire mainstream media machine is so blind/inept that they mistakenly published story after story that has turned out to be false about Trump collusion with Russia. So what has this administration ACTUALLY done that warrants this behavior? The worst thing Trump has done is repeatedly go off rude/half cocked on Twitter which, while super annoying regardless of anyone's political affiliation, isn't the criminal behavior Trump has been accused of. Every single action he has taken as president has resulted in a completely overblow reaction in the media. The temp travel ban for 6 countries identified as a concern by Obama's administration? OMG TRUMP HATES IMMIGRANTS AND IS BANNING MUSLIMS FROM THE U.S.! The Wall? OMG TRUMP IS RACIST AND HATES IMMIGRANTS! Repeal and replace the teetering failure that is Obamacare? OMG TRUMP HATES POOR PEOPLE AND WANTS THEM TO DIE! Pulls out of a Paris Climate Accord that has no demonstrable value other than to send money to the U.N. and third world countries? OMG TRUMP WANTS THE WORLD TO BURN!

      I didn't approve of many of the things Obama did, but there was NEVER this level of excoriation of Obama by the mainstream media and that includes Fox News. Despite Obama popping off incorrectly on the Harvard professor and blaming the cops, or encouraging the divide in race in our country by saying Treyvon Martin is what his son would look like despite the legal evidence showing no crime was committed. Obama did more to purposely divide the country than any president before him or likely will after him. Yes people protested Obama, but generally in small numbers. Trump's divisiveness is passive, because it's actively caused through mainstream media and liberal crybabies numbering the millions who have protested his mere existence. RESIST! Don't think! RESIST! Because acting on verifiable, true information is not important anymore (CNN or otherwise)...>RESIST

    16. Re:Abuse of Power by quantaman · · Score: 1

      One legitimately inaccurate story but what stories about the dossier or any other Trump/Russia illegal connection have been found true? None. It's not about just CNN either, but the entire mainstream media. The entire mainstream media machine has been derelict in their duty to verify news before reporting it.

      Multiple news organizations knew about the dossier before the election and didn't print because they couldn't verify it. If it hadn't been for Buzzfeed breaking with journalistic practices and publishing you still wouldn't know about the contents!

      The alternative is that the entire mainstream media machine is so blind/inept that they mistakenly published story after story that has turned out to be false about Trump collusion with Russia. So what has this administration ACTUALLY done that warrants this behavior?

      Trump's team removing language against Russia from the GOP platform. Hiring multiple people with close connections to Russia. Hiring a campaign manager who worked for Russian puppets and choosing an Attorney General who lied in his confirmation hearing about meeting with the Russian ambassador. Hiring a national security advisor who hid payments from Russia, and then contacted the Russian ambassador to assure him that Trump would drop sanctions while Obama was still President. And then when that advisor lied to the media and the VP about the meeting he still kept that advisor until then press found out.

      And then he fired the head of the FBI for refusing to drop a Russia related investigation. Oh, and every intelligence agency agreeing that Putin was trying to help Trump in the election.

      And these are just the publicly confirmed things. There's no smoking gun, but there's more than enough for a full congressional investigation.

      I didn't approve of many of the things Obama did, but there was NEVER this level of excoriation of Obama by the mainstream media and that includes Fox News. Despite Obama popping off incorrectly on the Harvard professor and blaming the cops, or encouraging the divide in race in our country by saying Treyvon Martin is what his son would look like despite the legal evidence showing no crime was committed. Obama did more to purposely divide the country than any president before him or likely will after him.

      I love how in 8 years of Obama this was the best evidence you could find of his malfeasance.

      --
      I stole this Sig
  3. Too many mergers by tmshort · · Score: 3, Interesting

    While I am against the AT&T/Time-Warner merger (and was also against the Comcast/NBC-Universal merger), I think this goes too far. The Press is part of the checks and balances of the government. There have been lots of bad press against all former Presidents, but the President didn't use his powers against them like this. This blatantly violates the First Amendment.https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/07/06/2255213/white-house-could-use-atttime-warner-deal-as-leverage-against-cnn#

    1. Re:Too many mergers by rickb928 · · Score: 2

      "The Press is part of the checks and balances of the government. "

      Not so much any more, and that's the problem.

      --
      deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
    2. Re:Too many mergers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's precious that you think this story is even true.

      But I'll play along - exactly how would it violate the First Amendment? Not sure you've bothered to read it, or any case law about it, by making this claim.

    3. Re:Too many mergers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CNN gave the questions to Hillary Clinton before a debate. They also recently blackmailed a person for creating a meme they didn't like (who may not have been the original author). I think we are past the point of calling them journalists and they certainly don't have any integrity.

    4. Re:Too many mergers by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 1

      LMOL nothing is stopping from CNN to *ahem* report the news. Mergers and Acquisitions are not covered under Free Speech. Moron.

    5. Re:Too many mergers by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      By and large you are on point, but it's naive to believe this is the 1st time a sitting President has wielded power to his benefit over adversaries in the 4th estate.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    6. Re:Too many mergers by thaylin · · Score: 0

      They are accused of those things, not found guilty.

      --
      When you cant win, ad hominem.
    7. Re:Too many mergers by thaylin · · Score: 1

      unless you are trying to stifle free speech by using the merger.

      --
      When you cant win, ad hominem.
    8. Re:Too many mergers by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      Trump has actually been good for the press. Starting with Reagan, the press has been mostly subservient to the White House. Even more so since the Iraq War, since in order to be "embedded", you had to be in the Administration's good graces.

      By declaring war on those who report him in less than flattering terms, Trump has re-kindled the role of the press as critic.

    9. Re:Too many mergers by Joviex · · Score: 0

      CNN gave the questions to Hillary Clinton before a debate. They also recently blackmailed a person for creating a meme they didn't like (who may not have been the original author).

      Since when did accusation turn into conviction? Overnight? This some new retard playbook?

      I think you are RETARDED -- that is an accusation.

      You ARE retarded. That is a conviction (and a fact in this case).

    10. Re:Too many mergers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Press is part of the checks and balances of the government.

      No. No, it isn't.
      The Press is a bunch of individuals, who have the same rights and responsibilities of any other citizen. They've simply joined together to better spread their message.

      The PEOPLE are the check and balance against government. The People of the United States, through their Congressmen, through their Governors, through their juries, and finally through their armed selves, are what holds the government in check.

    11. Re:Too many mergers by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      I think much of this will rest on any statements Trump or his administration actually make on this merger. It's been clearly shown in multiple court decisions that the actual "intent" of the Administration's decisions matter quite a bit. When Trump's surrogates repeatedly said "Muslim ban", even during the campaigning time, this came back to bite them no matter what they claimed later.

      However, as far as I know, there has been no actual communications from the Executive branch on this merger recently outside of these "unnamed sources". Trump did say earlier ""it would consolidate too much power in the media industry" and he is correct. Blocking it for this reason is entirely legal, and IMHO, a good idea. His constant attacks on CNN with his "fake news" meme is already riding the line on First Amendment areas, many feel he is attempting to "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" as it is.

      If Trump, by some miracle, actually personally stays out of the merger talks and doesn't 3:00AM tweet about it...he should just let the DoJ do it's job. They can cite legal anti-trust reasons to block the merger that have nothing to do with "fake news". Trump should direct them from behind, and not get involved publicly. Yet that's not the pattern we've seen, so I don't know. One tweet about "blocking the merger" due to "fake news" and the whole thing will turn into a dumpster fire.

      The worst outcome I can see is if Trump does speak out, this goes to court. A court decides that Trump is messing with the merger and is violating the First Amendment and decides in the merger's favor. This will have multiple repercussions...one, a giant media company controlled by a corp (AT&T) who has been shown to flaunt their monopoly / duopoly against consumers for almost 50 years now. Two, it will coniderably weaken the government's ability in the anti-trust realm by setting a court precedence. Other mergers will cite this case, and it will continue to erode the government's capabilities to effectively regulate giant corporations.

      On a side note, this reminds me of the RPG Shadowrun's "Shiawase Decision of 2001" that helped establish corporations as true multinational entities on their own. If this ends up stripping regulatory power away from the USA, it is one more step towards corporate extra-territoriality.

    12. Re:Too many mergers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >This blatantly violates the First Amendment.https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/07/06/2255213/white-house-could-use-atttime-warner-deal-as-leverage-against-cnn#

      Someone should call Fox News and tell them that some dictator pretending to be a Christian is President and hates the Constitution!

      Oh wait, wrong party affiliation and skin color. Nevermind.

    13. Re:Too many mergers by tmshort · · Score: 1

      No idea who I'd be playing with Anonymous Coward.

    14. Re:Too many mergers by tmshort · · Score: 1

      They are preventing a journalist/editor from reporting the news by requiring his firing for the merger to proceed.

    15. Re:Too many mergers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or he is putting the final nail in the coffin of the free press. That sounds more like his style.

    16. Re:Too many mergers by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      They are accused of those things, not found guilty.

      So? There are many forms of professional and political misconduct that are not technically illegal but that people find rightfully objectionable. That's true for CNN's journalistic misconduct as much as it is for Silicon Valley VCs proposing sex to female employees or Hillary Clinton lying about her E-mail or her husband's sexual affairs.

    17. Re:Too many mergers by FlyHelicopters · · Score: 1

      That would be true, if the press was unbiased... but they have an agenda to push, making them part of the problem...

    18. Re:Too many mergers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So does the White House. At least with multiple agendas, there's a possibility of weighing the biases.

    19. Re:Too many mergers by strikethree · · Score: 1

      While I am against the AT&T/Time-Warner merger (and was also against the Comcast/NBC-Universal merger), I think this goes too far.

      Eh? Shit went too far a looooooonng time ago.

      It is arguable that this deal should be pushed through so that the State can fail sooner instead of dragging it on for possibly hundreds of years. Absolute total control is what they want... and it seems they will get it. Once they get it, they will realize utter failure. Power can only be extracted from a gradient. Once all power is centralized, there is no more gradient to extract work from and nothing more can happen.

      TL;DR I am tired of observing the process of control being centralized. Let's just get it over with already.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  4. Bad News by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since the overturn of Citizens United, I'm really worried about corporations' well-being. AT&T only has a market cap of $222.95 billion, and little 'ol Time Warner is only worth $78.66 billion. How are they going to look out for their own interests in the same way that a real life citizen making $40k/year would?

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    1. Re:Bad News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Miss the point much?

      The problem is not the financial well being of either corporation. The problem is the possibility that the President is attempting to dictate who can and cannot be president of a company that controls one of the major news networks.

    2. Re:Bad News by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      If you are expecting me to defend Trump, you will be disappointed. Nevertheless, on the list of things I worry about him doing, bullying a ~$200 billion company is pretty far down my list. Did you notice that yesterday he flew bombers across the South China sea, just like Obama? Or that he has now sailed two warships past Chinese-claims in the same area, just like Obama? Did you notice that he has invaded parts of Syria? I'm not saying you haven't, but the choice to focus on CNN-Trump garbage is nonsense, and frankly I think calling them a "news network" at this point is a stretch. They do have some news content, but it's mostly a Fox-of-the-left network since the election.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    3. Re:Bad News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did the candidate with more money in 2016 win? Did the special election with more money win last month?

    4. Re:Bad News by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      You can't force the population to vote for a terrible candidate. Money won't flip a gerrymandered Republican congressional district. But there is no denying that corporate megabucks made a huge impact on both of those races.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    5. Re:Bad News by Straif · · Score: 1

      The problem with that assertion is that the megabucks (corporate and private) were almost all on the losing side.

      By pretty much every measure the Dems spent more money that Republicans (direct campaign spending, national level Party spending, Super PACs, etc..) and failed to hold or get control in every federal category (House, Senate and President).

      During the Presidential campaign they even had huge corporate donations in kind by most of the media which ran anti-Trump stories almost 24/7 after it because clear he would be the Republican nominee (not completely undeserved but even with Trumps unfiltered talking style they went way too far).

      The amount of money wasted in the last election cycle is simply staggering; especially considering the results. If anything it seems the amount of money spent doesn't seem to directly impact the results, just makes a local matter into a national one but it's really of little use to a Congressional candidate to be nationally know when the only votes that count are in his or her district. It's like a real estate agent in Portland running ads in Washington, DC.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    6. Re:Bad News by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      Elections are a binary result, but the underlying data is not. To find a correlation, you do not compare a win/loss category to money spent - rather you would compare polling data (e.g. turnout, number of votes for/against). In every analysis I've seen, money does have an impact. Repeating myself, it is absurd to expect money alone to flip a super-gerrymandered Republican district. Money did make the race closer than it would have been.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    7. Re:Bad News by Joviex · · Score: 0

      If you are expecting me to defend Trump, you will be disappointed.

      Yes, but you dont care because you are retarded.

      Its ok, lots of you exist, though not as many as you think

      You dont care that a person in power can dictate to a free owned company how to behave. Congrats, you obviously dont want to live in America where we have such freedom.

      Do not worry, we wont miss you, or your retardation.

    8. Re:Bad News by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      Your conflation of people's freedoms and companies' freedoms is worrying to me. This is the thought process that brought us Citizen's United. I'm asking you to take a step back and see that the whole stack is rotten, not just this one incident (that by the way is not yet an incident, just a theoretical thing that might maybe happen, like nuclear war). I think Sanders was an economical retard, but I would have voted for him in the hopes of getting an Amendment banning corporate and union money from politics. Corporations are not people and they should not have any natural rights - only rights specifically granted to them under corporate charters and laws.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    9. Re:Bad News by Joviex · · Score: 1

      Your conflation of people's freedoms and companies' freedoms is worrying to me.

      And the acceptance of the erosion of your rights, as they will indeed filter down to us, is mind numbing.

      As for "corporations are not people" you need to read more.

      They are now considered so via Citizen's United.

      Try to understand that the world you think you live in is not the one that is reality, and that thinking this has a non-plussed affect on anyone other than a corporate entity is just hyperbolic ignorance.

      Perception is not reality. Reality is reality.

    10. Re:Bad News by Joviex · · Score: 1

      Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc not C.U.

    11. Re:Bad News by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      They are now considered so via Citizen's United.

      Thus my comment about the Sanders amendment?

      Perception is not reality. Reality is reality.

      Thus my support for the Sanders amendment.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    12. Re:Bad News by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Elections are a binary result, but the underlying data is not. To find a correlation, you do not compare a win/loss category to money spent - rather you would compare polling data (e.g. turnout, number of votes for/against). In every analysis I've seen, money does have an impact. Repeating myself, it is absurd to expect money alone to flip a super-gerrymandered Republican district. Money did make the race closer than it would have been.

      The elections are win/lose. And that's all that matters to the people spending money. They don't care that they made the race closer. They care about whether or not they have influence over the person that won. They seek to maximize influence and minimize spending

    13. Re:Bad News by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      OK, but you are changing the goal posts on me here, unless you want to claim that there aren't close elections where the winning side had the monetary advantage. Senate races, for example.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    14. Re:Bad News by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      Let me FTFY: "Elections are a binary result in the USA". IMHO, that is the root of most of our current problems. Majority rules voting, and the lack of proportional representation, leads to a system of only two ruling parties. All attempts at a third party end up with the third getting absorbed by one of the other two. There is no viable "other" cohesive voice, there are only loose groups of individuals inside the established party. The Tea Party, Freedom Cacus, Blue Dog Coalition, Dixiecrats, and so on. Our two-party system has led to extreme partisanship, a highly divided electorate, and has ceded true control to a "fifth column" of intensely wealthy corporations and individuals that the public has zero control or voice with. This fifth column influences both parties, and often switches affiliations to acheive their profit-making goals.

    15. Re:Bad News by sexconker · · Score: 1

      What goalposts? Do you realize I'm a different person?

      You claimed that elections are a binary result but that the underlying data is more important than the result, or is important even when the result doesn't support the conclusion you want to draw from the underlying data.

      I'm pointing out that the people spending the money only care about the result, and will seek to maximize their influence for a minimum of spending. We've seen plenty of cases where money buys an election, and we've seen plenty of cases where it doesn't, and we've seen plenty of cases where corporations buy off both sides because they need to hedge their bets.

      Unless you're spending those big political dollars or receiving them, the end result is all that matters. Corporate money (and private money via corporate stooges) owns our government. Trump's win was a shocking case where they typical goons didn't get to outright buy an election.

    16. Re:Bad News by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      OK, there are two questions here:
      1. Does money influence elections and,
      2. Can you buy an election.

      The answer to #1 is obviously yes. The answer to #2 is, it depends.

      You are right that the people spending the money only care about #2. Sometimes their money is well spent, sometimes it is not. I would very much like it to never be well spent. In fact I would like to stop them from spending it.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    17. Re:Bad News by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      The flip side of that argument are the left and right fringe parties that become 'kingmakers' in coalition governments.

      In America the 'edge crazys' (Antifa/KKK etc) get pushed forward by the opposition media to discredit the other side. In Europe they decide which coalition makes it to 50%. But they're still batshit NUTS, so the coalition breaks up shortly after.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    18. Re: Bad News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're just people. I swear it's true. Pinky swear.

    19. Re: Bad News by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      Of the clan LLC on the isle of Corporatosia.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  5. News for Nerds by 110010001000 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yeah, right. More news about going to Mars, please.

    1. Re:News for Nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, right. More news about going to Mars, please.

      Trump is working hard so that you won't be able to tell the difference.

    2. Re:News for Nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Expect more of this. Protecting and espousing the Narrative (TM) comes before all else.

    3. Re:News for Nerds by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Trump is going to bring the Mars to us!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:News for Nerds by interkin3tic · · Score: 1

      ISPs further conglomerating so that they control all our internet access inherently is news for nerds. The fact that the president is so bad that every news story has him as a subject including this one doesn't change that.

      I suspect you're actually asking to be able to ignore national politics again. That's part of what got us into this issue in the first place. You'll have a chance in 2018 to reduce the number of hair-raising news stories about politics with your vote, and in 2020 you'll have a chance to elect someone who is not going to require more attention than an infant.

  6. trumphumps on the move by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Queue up the trumphumps.

  7. Daily Caller by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's remember the Daily Caller isn't a real news source. It's either non-english speakers out of Texas rewording mainstream news, or it's a very poor experiment in AI.

    1. Re: Daily Caller by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Non-english speakers out of Texas" is a tad redundant.

    2. Re: Daily Caller by SeriousTube · · Score: 1

      Hah, maybe not.

    3. Re: Daily Caller by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never thought Texans spoke english.

      Some variation of southern, yes. Usually spouting ignorance, yes.

  8. Made up? by unixcorn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whether it's CNN or any other news organization, does it bother others when you read shit like this;
    "The conservative news website attributed the information to "a source familiar with President Trump's thinking."
    I AM conservative and I call bullshit on printing hearsay like this. Come on media, print what he says, not what others think he his thinking is like.

    1. Re:Made up? by Jakester2K · · Score: 2

      At least we can be sure the source isn't the President....

    2. Re:Made up? by PoopJuggler · · Score: 0

      If you don't think the source is credible, then don't believe the report -- it's as simple as that. There's no need for fascism.

    3. Re: Made up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hear from people familiar with this post that the person who wrote it had mixed feelings about what they were trying to say about how they perceive what they think other people might have as an internal dialog.

    4. Re:Made up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      except... pretty much everything leaked from unofficial sources inside the white house has turned out to be completely true.

    5. Re:Made up? by sid+crimson · · Score: 1

      If you don't think the source is credible, then don't believe the report -- it's as simple as that. There's no need for fascism.

      Fair point regarding fascism, however isn't the job of journalists to report facts that have been checked and corroborated, and to refrain from "reporting" while they follow leads until they lead to facts or otherwise?

    6. Re:Made up? by GrumpySteen · · Score: 1

      Come on media, print what he says, not what others think he his thinking is like.

      Perhaps if he stopped whining about talk show's being mean to him and continually lying about winning the popular vote, printing what he says would be worthwhile.

    7. Re: Made up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dan Rather found that out the hard way.

    8. Re:Made up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Didn't you hear? It's OK to repost "fake news" on this site as long as it has the same political bias that the editors have.

      "News for nerds, stuff that matters" indeed.

    9. Re:Made up? by aicrules · · Score: 1

      Yes, fake sources used as the sole impetus for such incendiary claims bother me greatly. I can write game changing articles citing anonymous sources with vague bona fides too, and it would be just as real as these articles.

    10. Re:Made up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I agree, but it's hard to get it from the horse's mouth when Trump's comments are often difficult to interpret (or outright contradictory) and his press secretaries won't answer obvious questions because they evidently haven't spoken to the President about them and gotten an answer. This is not a particularly transparent administration when it comes to decisions or their "thinking" on an issue, unless it's putting down some entertainer or press people on twitter.

      If someone asked the press secretary or Trump himself whether they favored the AT&T-Time Warner merger, do you think they'd get a straight answer? I doubt it. Same if they asked "Is it true the President doesn't want the merger approved unless the head of CNN is fired?" although from past history I suppose there's a 50-50 chance Trump would say "Yeah, of course I wanted him fired" the next day. Sometimes he is clear after having his press secretary say exactly the opposite.

      [Shrug] Who knows? Hopefully this tenuous report will prompt people to ask, and maybe they'll get a proper answer.

    11. Re:Made up? by thaylin · · Score: 1

      The job of journalists are to report the news, and ensure that it is as well documented as possible. This is well documented, it gives you all you need to either believe it of not.

      --
      When you cant win, ad hominem.
    12. Re:Made up? by sid+crimson · · Score: 1

      The job of journalists are to report the news, and ensure that it is as well documented as possible. This is well documented, it gives you all you need to either believe it of not.

      I don't think so.
      "As well documented as possible" leaves way to wide an margin. If something cannot be documented, then "no documentation" *is* "as well documented as possible".

      "To report the news" means there is... well... news. Not rumor nor speculation nor some unknown source with unknown motives and uncertain access.

    13. Re:Made up? by Straif · · Score: 1

      Only when applying your own bias to your selection of 'everything' and your own definition of 'true'.

      Most of the 'leaked' stories are about internal disagreements and how person A is forcing person B out of power and how person B will soon be gone. The following week the A and B are reversed. Even stories like this one rarely have a follow up so there is no way to judge the veracity of the original claim. And then there's the insider leaks that are directly contradicted a day or two later.

      Lately anonymous sources have had a bad track record in this administration. The problem may lie with the over abundance of sources willing to talk (a signifigant percentage of Federal employees tend to be Democrat supporters and therefore generally anti-Trump) or it may lie with the current medias trend of wanting to get the story first which removes almost any process of corroboration.

      --
      Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
    14. Re:Made up? by crafoo · · Score: 1

      CNN is confirmed fake news. I don't know why articles like this surprise you.

    15. Re:Made up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "a source familiar with President Trump's thinking."

      I'll agree with you on this. Anyone claiming that this President does any thinking must obviously be lying.

    16. Re:Made up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, that's hearsay. Anyone can make that kind of BS up and it shouldn't even get reported by an ethical journalist. Now, it's true that I can and do assume that anyone who uses that construction is lying to me and I assume that every single thing they've said that doesn't have proof is utterly fabricated. But they're still wrong to report hearsay to begin with and we should take an absolute stand against that. I would go so far as to demand that anyone who publishes stories like that should be forced to resign from any outlet that wishes to be regarded as reputable.

    17. Re:Made up? by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      HST proved: It's perfectly acceptable to start a rumor among the campaign press corps, then report there are rumors among the campaign press...

      CNN has just gone full Gonzo! You just have to watch it for humor and entertainment, not news.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  9. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The "Russian thing" is true, with regard to activate manipulation of the election. The rest of it is garbage.

  10. CNN is not the press by DeplorableCodeMonkey · · Score: 0

    The Press is part of the checks and balances of the government.

    The press referenced in the first amendment is the printing press, which refers to the concept of being free to publish your speech. There is absolutely not one iota of protection in the first amendment for journalism as a profession. Their "rights" are the same as yours and nothing more: to speak and publish freely without prior restraint. The professional behavior of journalists is very much a matter of public scrutiny as issues such as corporate behavior and protecting sources are extra-constitutional matters of statutory and common law, not constitutional rights.

    1. Re:CNN is not the press by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The press referenced in the first amendment is the printing press, which refers to the concept of being free to publish your speech. There is absolutely not one iota of protection in the first amendment for journalism as a profession.

      Your first sentence proves your second one false.

      No I did not read your entire post. I saw no reason to read any more after that blatant contradiction.

      (Ok, I did read it, and you did kinda clarify what you meant. But how many others will have just stopped after the second sentence? If you want your message to spread, you need to make sure to word it in such a way to not immediately turn people away.)

      (Yes I am aware that I basically am falling into the same trap you did.)

    2. Re:CNN is not the press by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      that same hairsplitting works on the 2nd amendment too. lets see how THAT works out...

    3. Re:CNN is not the press by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      Historically, the press is called 'The Fourth Estate' and they are considered a crucial part of any democracy. While you are correct it is not codified in law, it is a thing that simply cannot be ignored either.

      "The Fourth Estate (or fourth power) is a segment of society that wields an indirect but significant influence on society even though it is not a formally recognized part of the political system.[1] The most commonly recognized part of the fourth estate is the news media, or press." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      Good-bye
    4. Re:CNN is not the press by tmshort · · Score: 1

      The first amendment explicitly separates out freedom of speech and the freedom of the press. Perhaps in the eyes of a Constitutional originalist, would one possibly only consider the printing press as being a medium of free speech. But given that they are listed separately, a non-originalist might consider that a free press and free speech are different from each other. Also, being an originalist, one might limit the freedom to the medium generated on a printing printing press. But time moves on, cars supplant trains which supplant horses; the press is now considered to be not just newspapers, but new media such as TV, radio, the Internet, etc.

      Yes, the professional behavior of journalists is a matter of public scrutiny, but having the government require the firing of a journalist and/or editor (here I consider the president of CNN a journalist and/or editor, an originalist might just think he's management) to make a business deal is effectively government interference in the press.

    5. Re:CNN is not the press by Pfhorrest · · Score: 1

      Pro-gun people usually do split the hairs of the 2nd amendment in exactly that same way: the amendment guarantees an individual right to do a kind of activity (have and use a weapon or printing press), it doesn't enshrine any specific institution ("the press" or "the militia").

      That said, the freedom of the press being an individual right doesn't say anything against people exercising that freedom being an important part of keeping our government in check, so it was kind of a non-sequitur on DeplorableCodeMonkey's part. I guess it's not technically a part of the "checks and balances" in the sense of "separation of powers" (since "the press" as an institution don't have any special legal powers), and maybe that's all he meant?

      --
      -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
      "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  11. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They can't do both? These days, those two things aren't mutually exclusive...

  12. Who the heck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CNN bragged, as breaking news, about finding and humiliating the person who made a gif about them. I have no sympathy for them or their daddy companies. I dont want to see Trump win. I want to see AT&T-Bag broken.

    1. Re:Who the heck by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Whoever loses, we win?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  13. Fuck him by Ryanrule · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Goddamn facist asshole.

    1. Re:Fuck him by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 0

      You mean Jeff Zucker, couldn't agree more....

    2. Re:Fuck him by doug141 · · Score: 1

      If the merger is not being evaluated with respect to the good of Americans, I'm afraid this, too, might be overlooked by any Trump supporters that have been seduced by the cult of personality.

    3. Re:Fuck him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Zucker, Soros, Rothchilds = jews. Barbara Spectre (jew) says jews cause culture collision to divide nations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFE0qAiofMQ/ and are the source of it. Tons of rapes in Sweden. None in Poland. Do the math or use common sense.

    4. Re:Fuck him by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

      Post your address

    5. Re:Fuck him by Ryanrule · · Score: 1

      you tarded? oh yeah, you tarded.

    6. Re:Fuck him by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  14. Re:If this was a liberal administration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So in 2014, when Fox tried (and bailed on their own accord) what was the coverage like? Humm..... if only there were a way to know what happened 3 years ago in a D controlled white house?

    you are so full of shit its coming out your ears

  15. Soros losers accept it (u lost) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Soros losers accept it (u lost): CNN's John Bonnifield (producer) admits CNN's Russia bs = bs. It makes CNN pure bs FAKE news.

    1. Re:Soros losers accept it (u lost) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Van Jones said the "russia narrative" = a big 'nothing burger' too (bs by CNN etc.) and they downmod you for speaking truth?

    2. Re: Soros losers accept it (u lost) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ur one of them thar texans that cant speak right huh?

  16. Friend of a friend by randomErr · · Score: 1
    Daily Caller cites an article from Bloomberg.

    Trump told a friend in the last few weeks that he still considers the merger to be a bad deal, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the conversation was private.

    The basis of article is an anonymous source. I can't belive anything an unknown source say in these times of 'fake news'. I need solid facts.

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
  17. Re: If this was a liberal administration by hey! · · Score: 2, Informative

    I wouldn't be applauding. The executive branch shouldn't be using it's powers to extort favorable coverage or to carry out the president's personal vendettas.

    Now here's an interesting question. Name a liberal president who would consider doing such a thing.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  18. Balance by JBMcB · · Score: 3, Interesting

    On the one hand, Trump is a bit of a cry-bully and CNN can say anything they want.

    On the other, when an "unnamed source" says that Trump said something mean to someone in the oval office and CNN covers it for five hours straight, you tend to wonder what the hell is going on. There's some crazy deal going on with Qatar that's just a *bit* more important, why aren't they covering that more?

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
    1. Re:Balance by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 1

      On the other, when an "unnamed source" says that Trump said something mean to someone in the oval office and CNN covers it for five hours straight, you tend to wonder what the hell is going on. There's some crazy deal going on with Qatar that's just a *bit* more important, why aren't they covering that more?

      Narcissism.

      --
      Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    2. Re:Balance by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      The same conservatives who complain about CNN's shenanigans have ignored similar crap from Fox News.

      Cable news in general is crap: their MO is to get the audience frothed up so that they come back for more froth. That's how they can sell more ad eyeballs. They all should be spanked.
         

    3. Re:Balance by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      The same conservatives who complain about CNN's shenanigans have ignored similar crap from Fox News.

      ..and what of the non-conservatives that are complaining? What sort of wide-swath bullshit wave-away do you have to "invalidate" them?

      Exactly how many people are you going to throw under the bus defending CNN?

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    4. Re:Balance by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      So if I find conservatives complaining about Fox, we are "even"? I'm not sure what your point or "rule" is.

      And I'm not really defending CNN, only saying that focusing on JUST their sins is misleading and often hypocritical. It appears to be part of a bigger problem.

    5. Re:Balance by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      The problems with FOX has been focused on for a very long time now.

      Suddenly when CNN is the focus, you guys are all like "but what about FOX?"

      Spare us your fake claims that you arent defending CNN. You are.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    6. Re:Balance by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      The problems with FOX has been focused on for a very long time now.

      Not by most conservatives. They denied or ignored it.

    7. Re:Balance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a) CNN uses at least 2 sources regularly with exceptions. They pulled on article when that was violated, and publicly got lambasted still.
      b) The main exception aside from editor's oversight/error/mistake is when the unnamed source is a bigger name leaking it, like Conway. Despite what you hear, most of the unnamed are very well known to them and they weigh their position in the administration.
      c) CNN repeats stories every hour as they change who delivers the news, hence the repeat you hate. Every news anchor is going to cover the main stories in their own way, which causes lots of repeat.
      d) Trump says something mean all the time. It's still news if the president is always an asshole even to his own team, day in, day out, esp when it's beyond normal for you and I (but not him). Let's not desensitize because Trump is always an ass. CNN even remarks when he behaves himself too, so they are pretty level..
      e) Qatar "news" is administration created re their restoration to the anti-Iran and anti-news stances. Basically, Saudi Arabia owns our ass with gas prices and the Russia relationship, so they can do whatever else they want. Also, CNN still spent plenty of time on it. I know. I watch CNN from time to time. I got sick of the various Qatar stories. The Qatar shit is pretty stagnant anyways, since nothing much is going to change unless bombs start to drop, and that's not happening either way with the US involved with both.

    8. Re:Balance by strikethree · · Score: 1

      There's some crazy deal going on with Qatar that's just a *bit* more important, why aren't they covering that more?

      Because your opinion on Qatar does not matter so why should they try to give you an opinion on that subject?

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  19. The president elbow-deep munging the media? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is that serious? In which way is that then different from Turkey's Erdogan or Hungary's Orbán? Or Kim-Yong-Un?

  20. Re:News about Mars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only if Trump is first on board with a one-way ticket. The world would jump with joy.

  21. Unnamed Sources, no actions... by jafiwam · · Score: 1

    Sooo... unnamed sources say "might" and "could" and "maybe" and some person with a persecution complex (who's actually stomping on citizens right to free speech) complains that his multi-100's of billion merger might not work if someone else interferes... maybe?

    WTF. This isn't fucking news. Call me when they actually DO something against the merger.

    1. Re:Unnamed Sources, no actions... by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 0, Troll

      These are the same "unnamed sources" that said that Comey was going to tell everyone that Trump was a big fat liar, and he was always under investigation? Those "unnamed sources" ?

      In other news, Trump shook hands with Putin which is all I need to show the RUSSIANS HACKED THE ELECTION!!!!!

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    2. Re:Unnamed Sources, no actions... by _Sharp'r_ · · Score: 1

      I have a simple solution to this problem, which maybe both Parties can get behind, don't allow the government to take this power in the first place. In other words, let's not require government approval for people to merge their businesses. Then people aren't as dependent on the goodwill of whoever happens to be in power at the moment. Simple, right?

      As for this specific case, the only actual quote in the article from someone with decision-making power was from Dalrahim, “I don’t see this as a major antitrust problem.” That doesn't exactly sound like someone who is planning to stop the merger.

      --
      The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
    3. Re:Unnamed Sources, no actions... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The merger is a terrible thing for anyone that wants decent internet service. If you think you have high costs and crappy service NOW, just wait until what little competition there is has been driven out or bought up.

      Call me when the merger is proven to be a good thing for consumers, and the Trump White House blocks it anyway. THEN there might be something to complain about.

    4. Re:Unnamed Sources, no actions... by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      They aren't even trying "a source familiar with President Trump's thinking." They aren't even pretending he said any of this. They are straight up mind reading now.

    5. Re: Unnamed Sources, no actions... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a dumb idea. Go read history and learn why we have the Sherman Act.

      As to why it's not applied recently... Sure needs to be, across many sectors of the economy

    6. Re: Unnamed Sources, no actions... by _Sharp'r_ · · Score: 0

      We have laws the Sherman act in order to protect and benefit the friends of politicians and bureaucrats at the expense of regular people/consumers. Why are you against freedom and economic prosperity and poor people? That's what these laws hurt.

      Go read some public choice economics and learn how the government actually works. As a bonus, go read some economic papers on monopolies to see why laws like the Sherman Act are bad ideas (and maybe get some history in about the economic results of Teddy's attempts to use it. Hint: Not pretty, Can you say Panic of 1907?), then go read the Supreme Court decisions specifically about the Sherman Act's illegality.

      Then when you're done, we can have a reasonable discussion about the topic from a position of knowledge.

      (Note, the above is a reaction to the dismissive attitude in the comment being replied to, so take that into account)

      --
      The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
  22. CNN is 4th estate nonsense, needs its cable cut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just go look at #cnnblackmail on twitter and you will see why CNN needs its cable cut.

    We don't need some propaganda fake network news brand anymore. Nobody watches it. Get it out of airports. CNN advertisers should also be shamed. The entire network is a joke, unless you are into fake news galore!

    Oh, and by the way, everyone should put their best burn CNN meme idea into the list here: https://goo.gl/Jt4UTb

  23. And in other news about going to Mars... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Employees of Elon Musk's 'Red Company' are complaining about lack of pay and employment termination resulting in employee termination, along with the horrible working conditions and an environment in which sexual favors are required just to recieve your paycheck or stay employed.

    The future is bright indeed... or is that the oxygen deprivation?!?!

  24. The real story here by guruevi · · Score: 1, Insightful

    AT&T is trying to merge with TW which is also part of Comcast. As if you didn't have choices before, now they'll have virtually all of the DSL, Cable and Wireless market as well as all the media companies that come along under one big corporation. I thought Ma Bell was split up to prevent these kinds of things.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    1. Re:The real story here by Freischutz · · Score: 1

      AT&T is trying to merge with TW which is also part of Comcast. As if you didn't have choices before, now they'll have virtually all of the DSL, Cable and Wireless market as well as all the media companies that come along under one big corporation. I thought Ma Bell was split up to prevent these kinds of things.

      Ma Bell monopoly was indeed broken up to increase competition and it has taken the Republicans and Corporate Democrats decades of non stop corruption and anti competitive activism to undo the damage of that mistake.

    2. Re:The real story here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It appears that you are confusing Time Warner Inc. with Time Warner Cable, and Time Warner Cable ultimately merged with Charter, not Comcast, and is now called "Spectrum". Spectrum is not connected with Time Warner Inc., and is not part of this proposed merger.

    3. Re:The real story here by Sir+Holo · · Score: 2

      AT&T is trying to merge with TW which is also part of Comcast. As if you didn't have choices before, now they'll have virtually all of the DSL, Cable and Wireless market as well as all the media companies that come along under one big corporation. I thought Ma Bell was split up to prevent these kinds of things.

      It was.

      Fortunately for me, as HOA president, I made sure that every unit (~100) was wired for FiOS, in addition to the existing telephone and cable. Verizon sold off its fiber-optic biz in my area to Frontier. Now we have actual market competition. (I know, it is likely brief.)

      As evidence: Just last week, Frontier bumped all 50/50 Mbps clients to 100/100 Mbps. This was with no increase in monthly rates at all. I had anticipated this sort of thing, and opted to buy my home WiFi router –one capable of 300/300. In the home, between computers, we get that. To the outside world, it's 100/100 at the moment.

    4. Re:The real story here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had anticipated this sort of thing, and opted to buy my home WiFi router –one capable of 300/300. In the home, between computers, we get that. To the outside world, it's 100/100 at the moment.

      Your wifi routers 300/300 upstream bandwidth limitations have zero effect on your local 'in the home' network. The home side of your wifi router is most likely gige...so any machine on your private network is running at that, and not 100mbps nor 300mbps...

    5. Re:The real story here by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Telecoms on average have been ranking 2nd worse in customer satisfaction, behind airlines. This is strong evidence that merging has reduced competition. And I can personally vouch for telecom suckage, as a consumer. When you are right up there with screaming babies and lost luggage, something bigly is wrong.

    6. Re:The real story here by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      it has taken the Republicans and Corporate Democrats decades of non stop corruption and anti competitive activism to undo the damage of that mistake.

      Notice how even though it was Bill Clinton, you begin with "the Republicans..." and then amazingly qualify the rest as "..and the Corporate Democrats" ... so all Republicans and just some of the Democrats... not all Democrats and just some of the Republicans.

      Isnt that weird? Isnt it weird that a Democrats is blaming the Republicans again for what the Democrats signed into law? Isnt that weird?

      With any luck the Democrats party will disintegrate in the next 4 years. Only then can the Republican disintegrate. This is so due to the Democrats being so bad.. so awful... that the Republicans look like the good guys. Its your fault Democrats. Clean up your shit so that these two parties can finally die.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    7. Re:The real story here by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Informative

      +5 insightful? TimeWarner Cable is not part of Comcast.

    8. Re:The real story here by mishehu · · Score: 1

      The T1000 reformed again to be Ma Bell except without all that pesky regulation they used to need to be in compliance with. Also now there's no Bell Labs or other real R&D like there was in the old days. In the meantime, unless i throw a mortgage payment at them every month, I won't get any internet service from them even though my neighborhood IS wired for their old 6mbps/768kbps dsl service, and I'm well within range of the DSLAM.

    9. Re:The real story here by orgelspieler · · Score: 1

      Standard Oil was split up, too. But they're almost completely back together now, as well. Everything cycles.

    10. Re:The real story here by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't be so sure, Time Warner Inc. has various holdings (eg. Hulu) together with Comcast. Time Warner Inc. and Comcast have also been investing in various ventures together since. Comcast also owns AT&T Broadband.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    11. Re:The real story here by strikethree · · Score: 1

      +5 insightful? TimeWarner Cable is not part of Comcast.

      Yet.

      Time is an odd thing. Perhaps the database holding the comments made on Slashdot had a piece of information inserted into it from 20 years in the future?

      It should be noted that the comment you are disgruntled about is, correctly, no longer +5.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  25. This is not "small government" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The GOP promise is small government. A government that gets out of the way and lets business do what it wants. Yet the GOP seems to really really like getting in there and making things personal. This is the exact opposite of small government.

    1. Re:This is not "small government" by w3woody · · Score: 1

      I think the real problem is that, at the bottom of the ontological stack, we don't really have a coherent theory of what government should actually be.

      I mean, on the Right it's basically a limited laundry list, more or less corresponding to the enumerated powers in the Constitution (and forgetting the 10th Amendment, prior to the 12th, permitted States to do whatever the hell they wanted, including religious tests to qualify for state office--meaning we'd have 50 little tyrannies instead of one big one). And for the Left, it's basically a utopian vision of the future for which government should intervene (meddling and even restricting little liberties if it serves this Star-Trek utopian vision).

      That is, we define government by our laundry list of pet projects, rather than defining government based on what government should actually be--what role government serves in the greater society.

      So of course both sides are completely contradictory: the whole "big government"/"small government" seems hypocritical because they're just branding: slogans they use to help sell their laundry list of pet projects.

      Personally, I believe government is three things.

      First, it is the agency which assures trust between citizens. Thus, things like the police and the FDA and agencies which makes sure when you buy a new car you don't buy a lemon. That is, it helps guarantee trust between strangers so we can build a complex economic society based on complex interactions with people we barely know. (Do you know the name of the manager at the bank which holds thousands of your money?)

      Second, it is an agency capable of mobilizing a massive first response in the event of an emergency. (Again, think police officers and fire fighters who arrive on scene when an airplane crash lands, or when a tornado strikes.)

      And third, it is the agency capable of funding or managing projects where there is a market failure, where normal market forces run contrary to desired social outcomes. (Think, for example, of government back-stopping the desperately ill, or funding the interstate highway system.) The key, however, is "market failure"; sadly too many people want to claim a market failure because they hate their neighbors. I believe this power needs to be limited in light of the first point as well; having the government claim "market failure" left and right actually reduces trust.

      In light of this, I think we can then have a debate over which laundry list items on the Left and the Right actually belong on the government's plate. (And yes, I know; the third point makes that debate contentious because the Left sees market failures in the fact that you ate a banana this morning while I didn't, while the Right sees no market failures when an insurance company drops someone because they got cancer. But at least we're having the right debate.)

    2. Re:This is not "small government" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There can be no trust when whoever is in power can use the IRS to go after their political enemies.

  26. Re:If this was a liberal administration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But mommy, the other team would have done the same thing

    Really?

  27. Re: If this was a liberal administration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Name a liberal president who would consider doing such a thing.

    Nixon! (he's a liberal by today's standards)

  28. Only IF this happens... by w3woody · · Score: 1

    Sure, Trump may have groused to several of the people who he works with--but for this to be made a condition of the sale would open a huge legal can of worms.

    Which is why I would take a wait and see attitude here. My guess is it won't happen: the Trump Administration won't meddle with the inner workings of CNN as a condition of the sale.

    On the flip side, if the Trump Administration does do this, pop some popcorn and watch the feathers fly! Because this would guarantee that the anti-trust regulations and the business regulation powers of the government would fly up against some hard Constitutional limits--and my guess is it would define how we see the SEC in the news for at least a few years. Worse, I think this would make some very interesting bedfellows as right-of-center anti-regulation conservatives (who think mergers like this should never require oversight) find themselves in bed with left-of-center "don't mess with my journalism we hate Trump" types.

  29. Did by the_skywise · · Score: 1
    1. Re:Did by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 2, Informative

      Right wing nut jobs trying to pass themselves off as legitimate....

    2. Re:Did by Highdude702 · · Score: 0

      Can say the same of CNN, WaPo, NYT, WSJ. just saying. If the shoe fits buy the other one..

    3. Re:Did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Can say the same of CNN, WaPo, NYT, WSJ. just saying. If the shoe fits buy the other one..

      No, those aren't the same at all. A newspaper or TV news network is not the same as avowedly conservative watchdog group (or 'educational foundation' as they put it).

    4. Re: Did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow you guys really don't understand anything. Ok then.

    5. Re:Did by Joviex · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Can say the same of CNN, WaPo, NYT, WSJ. just saying. If the shoe fits buy the other one..

      LOL, wut? You retarded, mate?

      AN established institution of news, decades, some over a century, versus right-wing positive agenda driven rags?

      You made me laugh my ass off with your utter retardation. Thanks.

    6. Re:Did by sexconker · · Score: 1

      Your fallacy is that of an appeal to authority. Being "an established institution" doesn't mean anything.

      All of the listed media groups have shown themselves to be absolutely unethical and without any shred of journalistic integrity.

    7. Re:Did by Joviex · · Score: 1

      Your fallacy is that of an appeal to authority.

      Yours is a complete dismissal of history due to cherry picked instances.

      The analogy is so banal. While the teacher was turned, someone shouted out, when no one would say who, they all got punished.

      Hyperbolic? Sure, but so is your logic.

      Either they have they been lying their entire institutional lives or everyone is so stupid, including you, that we just allow it to persist, for decades, centuries even? ok.

    8. Re:Did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Being "an established institution" doesn't mean anything.

      Having a century long track record of accurate news reporting means a LOT. It makes them a lot more credible than fucking "judicialwatch". sexconker, you're a fucking moron. Have another Troll mod.

    9. Re:Did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      CNN has outright been making shit up since day fucking one, for example.

      I'd love to see some examples of this, but I'm pretty confident you're talking out of your ass. CNN quite simply does not make shit up. That's a myth from your god, DJT.

      sexconker, you're a fucking moron. Have another Troll mod.

    10. Re:Did by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Come and see the cognitive dissonance! Right here ^^^^^^^

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  30. does not bode well by evolutionary · · Score: 1

    Okay, while the merger I am not in favor of, using this as leverage by the government is basically manipulating the press which the government is not supposed to (okay, we know they do it, we know they give "recommendations" on what to publish but not blatantly bullying the press). The "leader of the free world" is trying to lead us into "A Brave New World" that could bring us closer to "The Handmaid's Tale". . This is getting scary.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  31. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    B..b..but her emails...

  32. Obama? by tacokill · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'll take Obama for $1000 Alex

    1. Re:Obama? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not even remotely comparable, and you know it.

    2. Re:Obama? by Sir+Holo · · Score: 2

      I'll take Obama for $1000 Alex

      BS.

      The video takes each clip entirely out of context. That alters Obama appears to be only focusing on.

      Each conversation covered other media outlets, except for the last one, where George Stephanopolous kept prompting Obama to say "Fox News", which Obama avoided for the first few attempts.

      The fact is, Fox News actually did broadcast anti-Obama pieces frequently, and even had "talking points" – specific phrases – for every talking head to repeat. . . an attempt at making something false believable if every reporter *cough* at Fox News repeated the same line. So, yes, your uncle who only watches Fox News would be un-debatable because logic** can never prevail against a mind which does not use it.

      ** Discussion in which only provable premises are allowed for use in the next step of the discussion thread.

    3. Re:Obama? by tacokill · · Score: 1

      The fact is, Fox News actually did broadcast anti-Obama pieces frequently, and even had "talking points" â" specific phrases â" for every talking head to repeat

      The fact is, CNN News actually did broadcast anti-Trump pieces frequently, and even had "talking points" â" specific phrases â" for every talking head to repeat

  33. Re:If this was a liberal administration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No we wouldn't.

  34. Re:Thank you Trump! by kilfarsnar · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Oh dear, this is slashdot, you cant go telling people the truth here dude.

    They dont want to know, they still praying for the Russian thing to be true despite reality having already interjected.

    Oh, has the investigation been completed? No? Then how do you know? Or do you think it will be like when the Republicans investigated Hillary Clinton about Benghazi! over and over again, finding nothing but continuing to fuck that chicken anyway? Yeah, maybe it'll be like that.

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  35. Whose Justice Department is it again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The most troubling phrase in this entire article is "Mr. Trump's Justice Department will decide."

    True, the Justice Department is in the Executive branch of the US government but its duty is not to carry out the wishes of the President. Its duty is to enforce the laws of the land and execute justice proceedings. I suppose I'm naive to think this is what actually happens.

  36. We can only hope he does by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, CNN.

  37. Re:Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This would be +5 insightful in a world without libtards and paid shills.

    Since last November the knuckle draggers are out in force...

  38. Re: If this was a liberal administration by penandpaper · · Score: 1

    Has Trump done that or is it speculation from "a source familiar with President Trump's thinking"? The sad thing is, now the well is poisoned. Even if the merger was blocked for legitimate reasons this will be thrown out as the excuse regardless of reality. Should AT&T and Time-Warner be able to merge? Other similar mergers were blocked before without much complaint.

    Too much 'could', 'maybe', and 'might' makes this entire opinion piece pure speculation designed to poised the well so that useful idiots that think "everything Trump == bad" will support the merger. How else do you get people that are normally opposed to mergers like this to support it? Use Trump and 'could' in the same sentence.

  39. If that happens... by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 1

    If that happens, this "person" who happens to be in the oval office will be committing an act of personal vengeance using the power of his office. That is UNACCEPTABLE. It is unethical and economically disastrous. What kind of business environment would we be fostering if companies could not rely on being treated fairly under the law?

    1. Re:If that happens... by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      If that happens, this "person" who happens to be in the oval office will be committing an act of personal vengeance using the power of his office.

      That is UNACCEPTABLE. It is unethical and economically disastrous.

      What kind of business environment would we be fostering if companies could not rely on being treated fairly under the law?

      There is no need for me to answer your rhetorical question because anyone who has read 20th-century history can answer that question. Easily.

      The answer is facile and fascinating, but I won't give any hints. . .

    2. Re:If that happens... by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      Well the answer to the question is "the kind of business environment we have now is the kind you get when companies cant rely on being treated fairly under the law."

      I dont see how that is facile tho, nor is it really fascinating.

      If businesses were treated fairly under the law, there wouldnt be nearly as much lobbying. New industries in America pay what is literally the highest tax rate in the world, and they continue to do so until they lobby federal and local governments for the same tax breaks and tax incentives that congress and local governments has given to older industries that have already lobbied. If the highest tax rate in the world is too oppressive for the new industry to compete on a global level, the lobbying never happens, the industry never has the cash to lobby, and America is lesser for it.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
  40. "a source familiar with President Trump's thinking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "a source familiar with President Trump's thinking." Anyone else notice this? No basis in anything just flamebait

  41. Re:Thank you Trump! by fredrated · · Score: 0

    You wouldn't know the truth if it kicked you in the ass with a steel-toed boot. Fool.

  42. NYT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well if the New York Times says so...

  43. abuse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This isn't a feud between parties, this is Trump acting like a spoiled child per usual. He's abusing his power, also per usual, this time to shut down a conduit of free speech.

  44. Re:Thank you Trump! by KiloByte · · Score: 1

    These days, it seems to me that the US is a lost cause. So here's an idea: everyone who voted for either Hillary or Trump should be fucking shot. Those who plead they voted so only because they believe the other to be a bigger evil might be let off with only a thorough spanking.

    And some other candidates, like Jill Stein, are even worse.

    In most countries, we have a mix of batshit insane parties and ones which are only thoroughly corrupt, promoting shit like ACTA but then backpedaling as soon as there are protests, etc -- but at least they're semi-acceptable.

    Not so in the US: there's not such thing as a sane party there.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  45. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What are you about 9 years old?

  46. Re:Thank you Trump! by paiute · · Score: 2, Insightful

    everyone who voted for either Hillary or Trump should be fucking shot.

    Fuck off, pal. I voted for Clinton because she was one of the most qualified candidates in recent memory. This bullshit of equating the two persons is just insane.

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
  47. Re:Thank you Trump! by Highdude702 · · Score: 0

    Are you using the "They did it so why cant I?" excuse?? I thought we were all adults here.

  48. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The entire American people are considered a joke and a sarcastic comment, just like the comment you responded to.

    On one hand, you have someone who leaked emails and on the other, someone who can't control his temper. You were fucked either way lolol

  49. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    TIL that the various intelligence agencies of the US are libtards.... /s

  50. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice username. What kinds of paranoid conspiracies are you into?

  51. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They only raised their knuckled hands from the pavement long enough to put on their pussy hats.

  52. Re:Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CNN is garbage. They're much more interested in getting Trump impeached then they are reporting the news.

    I find it hard to distinguish the difference these days, to be honest. Too much correlation.

  53. Re:Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Those who plead they voted so only because they believe the other to be a bigger evil might be let off with only a thorough spanking.

    I like a nice spanking.

  54. Trump don't think by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a source familiar with President Trump's thinking

    This simply doesn't happen

  55. Re: Thank you Trump! by Dutchmaan · · Score: 1

    "libtard" - anything after that is pretty much invalidated.

  56. Re:Thank you Trump! by kilfarsnar · · Score: 0

    Are you using the "They did it so why cant I?" excuse?? I thought we were all adults here.

    I'm not sure where you got the idea that we are all adults here. I'm not using the "They did it so why can't I?" excuse. I hate that mode of argument because it defends behavior relative to that of others rather than on the result of the behavior itself. In fact, I pointed out that the investigation into Russia's interference, if any, is ongoing. Therefore we cannot conclude that there is or was nothing going on, or that "reality [has] already interjected" as the GP asserts. I then jeeringly pointed out that the political side that most wants this Russia business to go away had no problem commencing investigation after investigation into something they really wanted to be true, even though they came up empty every time.

    On the one hand these guys (Republicans and those on the political right) want to disbelieve the idea that Russia interfered in the election without any investigation, and yet also refused to give up repeated investigations into something that actually didn't happen (Hillary being at fault for what happened at the American Consulate in Libya). It's almost as if they have an agenda and don't want any facts getting in the way.

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  57. Re:If this was a liberal administration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, your team just used the power of the IRS to stifle all opposition, then conveniently wiped all evidence off the computers used. For 8 years the news media refused to do their job and cheer-leaded for "their" president.

  58. Re:Thank you Trump! by WrongMonkey · · Score: 1

    What were her qualifications? One and a half terms as senator with no substantial legislation and one term as Secretary of State with a lot of questionable policy decisions. That's hardly the most qualified candidate in recent memory. She wasn't even the most qualified candidate in this election. That goes to Gary Johnson who served two full terms as Governor.

  59. Fake News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Fake News has found its way to Slashdot.

  60. Re:Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BILL CLINTON is a RAPIST

  61. Trump is the Swamp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Using government power to punish someone you don't like, that's the very essence of the swamp.

  62. Re:Thank you Trump! by MightyMartian · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So a lot like the right wing press during the Clinton and Obama administrations then...

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  63. Firing folks is SOP in mergers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whenever mergers happen, plenty of staff is made "redundant". Even management who loses the power struggle gets pushed out. So why won't Jeff Zuker take one for the team? Those sociopaths who want to run government like a business should be happy that somebody is taking them at their word!

  64. Re:Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and FOX news is better? fuck you, too.

  65. Re: If this was a liberal administration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FDR's racism cause him to deport and incarcerate citizens of Japanese ancestry in camps in the western US. Can you imagine the outrage if Trump started putting Muslim citizens in internment camps? FDR is a democrat so it's ok.

  66. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    care for some koo-laid

  67. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You voted for because cnn told you to. Tired of people thinking all of there talking points are original.

  68. Re:Thank you Trump! by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Not so in the US: there's not such thing as a sane party there.

    Yeah, the parties are made up of people who advocate shooting others who voted 'wrongly.' In some cases, they only advocate spanking.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  69. This merger makes me think. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know when you go into a public restroom and they only have one sit down stall. You notice its clogged up with someone's shit but you don't have a choice so you just shit and then it all merges into one bowl of filth. The next guy that comes along doesn't have a choice on which stall to use but it doesn't matter because the toilet bowl was full of shit to begin with. The point is they need to put in another stall so people have options not just combine all the shit into one giant shit bowl.

  70. Re: Thank you Trump! by sexconker · · Score: 0

    What are you about? 9 year olds?

  71. Re: Thank you Trump! by sexconker · · Score: 0, Troll

    Only because you crawled into your safe space, stuck your fingers in your ears, and started crying.

  72. Trick Question. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trick Question.

    The US has never had a liberal president.

  73. The Other Way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What about CNN's feud with Trump???
    CNN started this feud.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX2uR-KqD8o
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P843ju6YYI4

  74. Re:Thank you Trump! by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    Give me a break. CNN has gone way downhill, but it's standard reporting. The problem with it is that they stick in too much fluff reporting and obsessing on the same story over and over. Just stop picking political sides and you'll see that all the stations are equally lousy. CNN and others report on the Russian hacking things because that is what is interesting, and that makes money. The only political bias you have at any station is deciding how to get the most viewers, and that determines which close minded bubble aim for. So the logic here is not "let's run more Russian hacking stories to make Trump look bad", but "people are still watching these stories so keep running them!"

  75. Unnamed sources & history [Re:Friend of a frie by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Unnamed sources are and have been common in news. "Deep Throat" in the Nixon scandal was an unnamed source (and a key). The news org is usually confident enough in the source to publish the results. If the org calls wolf too many times, their reputation is damaged. The org is betting on their reputation when they do it.

    CNN should get some kudos for withdrawing their quote after publishing it. They didn't have to. New info often comes up later; it's why it's called "news".

  76. Did you miss the Obama-Fox News Feud? by zerofoo · · Score: 1

    Since you are asking for speculation - I'll give it to you.

    Obama was at war with Fox News during his entire administration:

    http://www.newsweek.com/when-o...

    Don't think for a minute that if the opportunity to put the screws to Fox presented itself, Obama would have passed.

    1. Re:Did you miss the Obama-Fox News Feud? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't think for a minute that if the opportunity to put the screws to Fox presented itself, Obama would have passed.

      Sure. It's just that there is a large difference of what Trump perceives as an opportunity and what Obama did.

  77. Re:Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >These days, it seems to me that the US is a lost cause. So here's an idea: everyone who voted for either Hillary or Trump should be fucking shot.

    Kill yourself. That'd be 130 million dead.

  78. Re:Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > I really do believe we should have a test to see if you're going to be allowed to vote.

    From this:

    https://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=10835581&cid=54763667

    You already have a criminal record. Ironically, you'd be first on the chopping block for voting rights, especially with bullshit three strikes laws. Three strikes, and that felony conviction means that you lose your ability to vote, which is bullshit.

    Seriously, of all the ironic things that you've said, this one probably takes the cake. There are 2.2 million prisoners in America (WOO PRIVATE PRISONS, POLICE BRUTALITY AND ELECTED JUDGES!), and most of them would vote liberal, along with most Americans, were they forced/heavily encouraged to vote.

    That's the thing with idiots like you - chances are QUITE good that you or someone you care about would get assblasted by whatever punishment you come up.

  79. Re:Thank you Trump! by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    It was indeed a lousy election. The DNC just decided to field only one candidate, one with very well known weakness and known to be highly polarizing, although Bernie went against the plan. The RNC had a lot of ho-hum candidates, many of which I would not have minded being president, along with some real nutcases who stole the show. I can remember back to Nixon running, and I've never seen a more screwed up bizarre election than this last one.

  80. Re:Thank you Trump! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Secretary of State with a lot of questionable policy decisions

    If you're talking about the emails, a good many politicians, including Republican, have made comparable snafu's. There should have been review grunts around her inspecting stuff better so she could focus on policy instead of technology.

    As far as foreign policy decisions, it's probably one of the toughest parts of any DC job. The Middle East is Medusa's and Godzilla's possessed offspring.

    I challenge you to identify one important decision she made as SS that a Republican or even Gary Johnson likely would NOT have made.

    I agree she is not that skilled politically. But she is quite competent in terms of the "mechanics" and administration of decision making. For one, she doesn't have Trump's A.D.D.

  81. He got the RDF from Jobs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CNN has clearly failed. They're organizing witch hunts because someone posted silly insults about them on the internet. It would be perfectly reasonable for Trump to block further media collusion and defend Net Neutrality by blocking some of the largest ISP/news sources from consolidating and leaving the people with no alternatives.

  82. What jews believe from their talmud by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jews believe this about others they call goyim/gentiles: Jews = biggest racists of all (for which they "jew guilt" you for no less! They're hypocrites known as thieves all thru history or were Argentines in the 1940 under Perrone, Spanish inquistion, France (1306), Egypt (despoiled/robbed by jews), Arabs (pre & post 1948), England (1330 Edward longshanks), Romans under titus, Russia pogroms and Germany who got rid of them from their nations nazi german's too? No. Should anyone doubt any of this see Jacob Javits' crony Rosenthal spill the beans on it https://justice4poland.com/2016/12/12/the-hidden-tyranny-shocking-1976-interview-with-zionist-harold-wallace-rosenthal/ where he called all Christianity fools for helping Israel and the biggest scam of all time per their beliefs below from their Talmud. This is the province of the synagogue of Satan (Khazar/Pharisees whom Jesus Christ himself kicked to the curb out of the temple):

    1. Sanhedrin 59a: "Murdering Goyim is like killing a wild animal."

    2. Abodah Zara 26b: "Even the best of the Gentiles should be killed."

    3. Sanhedrin 59a: "A goy (Gentile) who pries into The Law (Talmud) is guilty of death."

    4. Yebhamoth 11b: "Sexual intercourse with a little girl is permitted if she is three years of age."

    5. Schabouth Hag. 6d: "Jews may swear falsely by use of subterfuge wording."

    6. Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Do not save Goyim in danger of death."

    7. Hilkkoth Akum X1: "Show no mercy to the Goyim."

    8. Choschen Hamm 388, 15: "If it can be proven that someone has given the money of Israelites to the Goyim, a way must be found after prudent consideration to wipe him off the face of the earth."

    9. Choschen Hamm 266,1: "A Jew may keep anything he finds which belongs to the Akum (Gentile). For he who returns lost property (to Gentiles) sins against the Law by increasing the power of the transgressors of the Law. It is praiseworthy, however, to return lost property if it is done to honor the name of God, namely, if by so doing, Christians will praise the Jews and look upon them as honorable people."

    10. Szaaloth-Utszabot, The Book of Jore Dia 17: "A Jew should and must make a false oath when the Goyim asks if our books contain anything against them."

    11. Baba Necia 114, 6: "The Jews are human beings, but the nations of the world are not human beings but beasts."

    12. Simeon Haddarsen, fol. 56-D: "When the Messiah comes every Jew will have 2800 slaves."

    13. Nidrasch Talpioth, p. 225-L: "Jehovah created the non-Jew in human form so that the Jew would not have to be served by beasts. The non-Jew is consequently an animal in human form, and condemned to serve the Jew day and night."

    14. Aboda Sarah 37a: "A Gentile girl who is three years old can be violated."

    15. Gad. Shas. 2:2: "A Jew may violate but not marry a non-Jewish girl."

    16. Tosefta. Aboda Zara B, 5: "If a goy kills a goy or a Jew, he is responsible; but if a Jew kills a goy, he is NOT responsible."

    17. Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 388: "It is permitted to kill a Jewish denunciator everywhere. It is permitted to kill him even before he denounces."

    18. Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 348: "All property of other nations belongs to the Jewish nation, which, consequently, is entitled to seize upon it without any scruples."

    19. Tosefta, Abda Zara VIII, 5: "How to interpret the word 'robbery.' A goy is forbidden to steal, rob, or take women slaves, etc., from a goy or from a Jew. But a Jew is NOT forbidden to do all this to a goy."

    20. Seph. Jp., 92, 1: "God has given the Jews power over the possessions and blood of all nations."

    21. Schulchan Aruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 156: "When a Jew has a Gentile in his clutches, another Jew may go to the same Gentile, lend him money and in turn deceive him, so that the Gentile shall be ruined. For the property of a Gentile, according to ou

  83. Re:Thank you Trump! by WrongMonkey · · Score: 1

    If you're talking about the emails

    I don't give a shit about god damn emails. I'm talking about real policy decisions. Like the complete failure to have any coordinated strategy in response to the Arab Spring.

    I challenge you to identify one important decision she made as SS that a Republican or even Gary Johnson likely would NOT have made.

    That the problem isn't it? The Clintons (both of them) are basically just Republicans when it comes to economic and foreign policy issues. Being a libertarian, Gary Johnson would probably not sponsor a coup in Honduras. http://america.aljazeera.com/o...

  84. Re:Thank you Trump! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Well, I do agree that the US over-meddles. But voters generally seem okay with that, as the Syrian airfield bombing shows. The candidates merely reflect that, and thus I find it hard to "blame" just the candidates. If you want to change it, you'll have to change voter thinking.

  85. Re:Thank you Trump! by KiloByte · · Score: 1

    Yeah, the parties are made up of people who advocate shooting others who voted 'wrongly.' In some cases, they only advocate spanking.

    Hmm, there is a point in your post: while I obviously named these punishments in jest, I should haven't done so -- there are members of such batshit insane parties who do call for the death penalty for the crime of voting differently than them.

    For example, in Poland, a prominent member of our ruling party called for restoring the death penalty specifically for one Donald T., the current president of the European Council, for a variety of crimes such as "diplomatic treason". That party member is Ewa Stankiewicz who doesn't hold any government office, but her idea was seconded by Stanislaw Karczewski, the Marshall of the Senate, who degraded the punishment to only "hard prison" with no parole (there's no such thing as "hard prison" in Polish law since WW2). And no, there's no law that says an elected official must vote according to what the ruling party's leader wants.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  86. Merger should be blocked regardless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not in the public's interest for a major media company to merge with the company that owns the cable. That's building a vertical monopoly.

  87. WHAT abuse of power? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

    Because the NYT alleges that Trump might use his power to influence approval of a merger, you accuse him of "open abuse" of presidential powers? He hasn't done anything yet. And if he opposes the merger, it's likely for the same reasons Democrats would oppose such mergers, namely too much media concentration.

    Furthermore, even if he were to try to penalize CNN, it would be the kind of action Clinton heartily approved of, namely executive power to ensure what the executive branch considered "truth", she just wanted to be the one at the levers of power.

  88. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There were grunts around. They raised concerns about the private server and were told to shut up about it.

    Source: FBI investigation.

  89. Re: Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, because people who use the term "libtard" are fucking morons. As are people bitching about imaginary "safe spaces".

    In case that was difficult to understand, I'm calling you a fucking moron. Yes you. sexconker, you're a fucking moron.

    Have a Troll mod.

  90. Re:Thank you Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The DNC just decided to field only one candidate

    Fielding more than one can give rise to problems

  91. The Network Against the Leader of the Free World?? by orgelspieler · · Score: 1

    I'm confused. What does CNN have against Angela Merkel?

  92. good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obama whined and complained for 8 years about the only channel that was in any way critical of him, Fox News. In a normal world, the other news outlets should have been insulted to be considered Democrat lapdogs, but nearly every network was run by people with relatives working in the Obama administration. Obama classed a fox journalist as having connections to terrorism and spied on him and his relatives (there was no substance to the claim and atty gen Holder lied to congress about the whole mess, contributing to his being the first atty gen ever to be ruled in contempt of congress). Obama froze Fox out of a number of pressers (uhntil the rest of the press corps got worried about the precedent he was setting) and so on. During that 8 years, Fox surely had on people like Hannity who were 100% anti-Obama, but they also had on neutral and pro-Obama voices and when analyzed by independent media analysts Fox was found to have been only about 60% hostile to Obama in its stories.

    Contrast this with CNN and Trump. CNN has been found (by an MIT affilliate if I recall properly) to be over 90% negative on Trump. They have repeatedly run blatantly false stories backed-up by anonymous sources (which might well be just between the ears of the "reporters" for all anybody else knows) - reports about meetings that never happened, documents that did not exist, etc.

    Obama only had ONE network asking tough questions of him; all the other networks and most of the nation's newspapers were on his side. Trump has only ONE network on his side (about 60% of the time, the news folks are not and at least half of the pundits are not) If the news people in America are neutral and unbiased (and thus deserving of special protections as guardians of democracy) then this simply cannot be statistically true - there should be a more even distribution of pro- and con- and nuetral on any politicians. CBS tried to use fake documents and stories to destroy the GW Bush administration, and now NBC and CNN are trying to use fake documents and stories to destroy the Trump administration - that's not the job of a "free press".

  93. Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When any news outlet, be it Fox or CNN or MSNBC, says something like that about any politician, what do you REALLY know???

    what's the actual content? is it valid? Why would you trust it?

    Plug in "Joe Biden" or "Hillary Clinton" or anybody else. Why would you pay it ANY attention. How do you know it's not the typical Washington DC crap of some journalist just making stuff up, or some "anonymous" bureucrat making stuff up to make himself seem more connected or important? Even if you believe the reporter actually talked to somebody other than his own sock puppet, how do you know if that "source" is actually honest, informed, etc and not just making crap up to push a personal agenda?

    There was a day long ago when much of American Journalism was about WHO, WHAT, WHERE, and WHEN. It was never perfect, but the journalists at least tried to pretend to be objective and tell the public stuff they personally observed and stuff the subjects of the articles actually and provably said and did

    Now we have progressive jerks in the media who do not belive in objective truth and boldly twist the truth to suit their agenda - like CNN's Chris Cillizza who squealed OMG's on Twitter like a little girl as he pointed people to a deceptively edited meeting between Trump and the Polish leaders. He told his audience that the Polish first lady snubbed Trump in a handshake... except in the unedited video the Polish first lady clearly is looking at and heading toward Melania and does not see Donald extend his hand. She shakes Melania's hand, then turns and greets Donald and shakes his hand (i.e. a typical formal meet, including greeting the lady first, and NO SNUB AT ALL)

  94. Taking counsel of your fears again, I see by beer_maker · · Score: 1

    Oddly enough, I read the original article and at no point did they say President Trump HAD actually threatened to kill the merger, instead they were just stirring the pot by suggesting he COULD. The second article allegedly quotes an unidentified WH insider as saying that President Trump liked the idea, but again did NOT say he had made any such threat.
    It may be true, of course, but this is just a big nothing burger again ... it would be just as true to say the "President Trump could dispense the contents of Fort Knox to veterans and the elderly." I expected better of ArsTechnica.. Feel free to hate on the President for what he has actually done, but every time you bandwagon one of these claims you help to bolster the 'fake news' arguement. And no, I voted for the lesser johnson, Gary, not the Donald.

    --
    Hmmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
  95. [facepalm] by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    " So here's an idea: everyone who voted for either Hillary or Trump should be fucking shot."

    No, that's not an idea... it's the sort asinine rant that pretends to be superior and "above it all" but is actually one of the biggest elements of the problem.

    If ANYBODY deserves to be shot for their politics, it's the sort who immediately resort to calling for people they disagree with to be shot.

    The toxicity of politics is being driven by ever-growing government being injected into more and more of everybody's lives. As everything becomes entwined in government, it becomes political (because government is political and run by politicians in reaction to political interest groups. When government has power over something, political groups will use it to shove their preferences and beliefs and policies down the throats of their political opponents... and if those on the receiving end do not like it you get hostility and reaction.

    If we want a return to calm civility, we have a choice: we either shrink government back to a reasonable size and scope OR we eventually go into Stalin mode and listen to jerks like you and start shooting all the people who object to the iron fist of government. I prefer smaller more-civilized and highly-contained government combined with maximum freedom and liberty for the individual.

  96. just read these comments by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You are one terrifyingly historically ignorant pile of hate filled jackholes. You're seriously ok with a president fucking with a merger because he doesn't like the coverage? Fuck every last one of you.

  97. Yt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Iw

  98. Citogenesis by Xenographic · · Score: 1

    > except... pretty much everything leaked from unofficial sources inside the white house has turned out to be completely true. ... according to the other stories citing anonymous, unverifiable sources.

  99. That's irrational by Xenographic · · Score: 1

    > Which, in the case of this administration, would have lead to you dismissing a lot of accurate news reports. Anonymous sources should be treated with caution yes, but not immediate dismissal.

    That's irrational. You should believe things because you have proof, rather than demanding proof before you'll stop believing. A horoscope might be right some of the time, too, but when it's right, it's for the wrong reasons. Otherwise, someone can just point out that anonymous rumors say that you're a creep who does unmentionable things in private. And we're all going to believe that now because you have no way to disprove it. Also, we can dismiss any evidence you do give us because you're a creep. See how that works? Believing things like this just makes people into tools: sad, pathetic, easily-manipulated losers.

    > Which is why CNN only reported on the existence of the dossier, they didn't break it.

    CNN reported that they had evidence they wouldn't show us. Buzzfeed actually showed us the dossier that CNN wouldn't, allowing people to understand just how unreliable the "evidence" CNN was working from was. Honestly, CNN was less ethical here, because they gave the viewers no opportunity to verify anything and they reported absurd rumors they were unable to verify instead of keeping their mouth shut.

    CNN never should have reported on anything but the items they were able to verify from the dossier and never mentioned the rest. Instead they kept telling us how they had secret evidence they weren't going to show us. Then Buzzfeed showed everyone that it was a pile of garbage. It goes right up there with the story that hit Slashdot about the "secret communication with Russian banks" that turned out to be stray DNS queries from a 3rd party marketing server caused by Russian spam (also, who the hell was tapping their DNS...!?)

    > Because there's nothing to retract, it hasn't been falsified.

    The dossier puts one person in the wrong country because they confused him with someone who had the same name. It's true that some of the items are not falsifiable, because no evidence exists whatsoever, but again, it's not rational to believe things that cannot be falsified.

    You might as well tell us that you saw all of this in your crystal ball, it's just as reliable. It's up to you to prove the claims you make. Trying to shift the proof onto others to disprove your claims is not rational. Hearsay is not evidence.

    Again, they should not have reported anything they could not independently validate. Hearsay is not news. Any "journalist" who publishes such--about any person whatsoever--is a disgusting creep who deserves public scorn.

    > CNN published one legitimately inaccurate story, and fired everyone involved.

    CNN's Chris Cuomo, a licensed attorney with an ethical obligation to know better and not to misinform us, falsely told us that Wikileaks was illegal. More credible lawyers quickly told us that was absolute BS.

    CNN ended their association with Donna Brazille, but they never identified the person who actually leaked the questions, let alone did they fire them.

    By all means, hold all of them to that standard. But demand documented proof of everything, on all sides. No, the person CNN blackmailed was not 15, at least according to their Reddit history. No, Trump's commission did not demand non-public voter roll data, you can read the damned letter on NPR. It's amazing how many lazy scumbag "journalists" couldn't be bothered to link the damned thing, including the article that Slashdot linked to.

    It's damned pathetic that supposedly professional "journalists" are so lazy that they're not as good at providing sources as Slashdot comments.

  100. Newsflash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "A source who is familiar with Trumps' thinking". This is news to us all. I bet it is fake news. He doesn't think about anything.

  101. Yikes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No barriers other than Trump for this deal? The govt shouldn't allow it in principle. AT&T will raise prices, then broadcast fake news about how they had no choice because the economy or the technology or the government, to cover the fact they find it more convenient to sit around with their monopoly than to compete by improving their services.

  102. Re:Thank you Trump! by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Not the claim: Fox is an obvious mouthpiece for the RNC. CNN is an obvious mouthpiece for the DNC (along with ABC, CBS, NBC). MSNBC is an obvious 'progressive' echo chamber. etc Every partisan has a media 'safe space', where they won't hear disturbing facts and reporting. Some of the edge cases are (internet/public access channel) only. Even groups of two or three are forming up circle jerks.

    Two years ago, CNN's status as propaganda was _barely_ debateable. Not anymore. Now the only people that dispute it, are just like those that would dispute the status of Fox. Complete partisans that _prove_ the point with every regurgitated argument.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  103. Can it be stopped? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No court has ever tested it as far as I know, but I've always considered press exempt from antitrust regulations. If I want to overcharge for books, the first amendment should let me do that, antitrust not withstanding.

  104. Re: Thank you Trump! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    I meant more about vetting messages, not so much about equipment.

  105. Re:Thank you Trump! by toddestan · · Score: 1

    The biggest problem is that you get some junior senator and former community organizer that comes out of nowhere and knocks your chosen candidate out of the primaries. Granted, Obama turned out just fine for the elites in the end, but they weren't going to have a repeat of that again. Hence in 2016 they decided "it's her turn".