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Justice Department Tells Time Warner It Must Sell CNN Or DirecTV To Approve Its AT&T Merger (nytimes.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source): The Justice Department has called on AT&T and Time Warner to sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of cable channels that includes CNN, as a potential requirement for approving the companies' pending $85.4 billion deal, people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. The other potential way the merger could win approval would be for AT&T to sell its DirecTV division, two of these people added. As originally envisioned, combining AT&T and Time Warner would yield a giant company offering wireless and broadband internet service, DirecTV, the Warner Brothers movie studio and cable channels like HBO and CNN. If the Justice Department formally makes either demand a requisite for approval, AT&T and Time Warner would almost certainly take the matter to court to challenge the government's legal basis for blocking their deal.
Used to be this kind of chicanery was done in the shade, not in the open.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
There is much speculation that the Justice Department is doing this because its master, El Presidente is all mad at CNN for "Fake News"...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I see how it is, as soon as Trump leaves the country they go and try to do something that is in the best interest of the public.
Your mistake is believing it's accidental. If it's a billing error, it means it was a billing "error" in their favor (or you wouldn't be calling them about it).
Think about it this way - if they can screw maybe 10% of their subscriber base out a few extra bucks a month, that's a few million in the bank. Sure they'll call and bitch, but eventually they'll give up of the 2 hour + times on the phone dealing with a $3 overcharge
And heck, they probably know what phone numbers you call from, so they can "all agents are currently busy andd we'll handle your call in priority order" you for an extra half hour or more.
The goal is to make it not worth your time to call them to fix it so they can keep dinging you an extra few bucks a month.
Same with the "you'll see a credit on your next bill". They hope you'll forget about the money by then, too.
Time Warner doesn't care about CNN's political positions except as insofar as it would buy future Democrat compliance in other large mergers.
Democrats should be wary of everyone's motivations vis-a-vis "protecting The People".
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
So... Where is this standard applied to the FCC allowing the Sinclair Broadcasting acquisition of Tribune Media assets? This will essentially create the single largest TV broadcasting conglomerate on the face of the planet (conservative friendly, of course). Such a conglomerate would control multiple news media outlets, in many locations, essentially dominating local news for much of the US...
^^^^ This.
As an Argentinian some parallels between Trump and recent Peronist administrations are chilling, to say the last. Google Cristina Kirchner's "Ley de Medios" (Media Law), an ill-fated attempt to push legislation reforming media licenses. It main goal was to kill the Clarin Media Group, a stern oppositor, and they weren't really subtle about it either.