November, 21 2017, 06:15am EDT
Justice Department Lawsuit to Block AT&T Merger Is the Right Decision
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice moved to block AT&T's $85.4-billion takeover of Time Warner on antitrust grounds.
The proposed deal would combine the nation's largest phone, internet and pay-TV provider with an entertainment and news colossus whose holdings include CNN, HBO, TBS, TNT and Warner Bros. Studios. The resulting enterprise would be worth $300 billion, nearly three times the value of Comcast after it bought NBCUniversal in 2011.
WASHINGTON
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice moved to block AT&T's $85.4-billion takeover of Time Warner on antitrust grounds.
The proposed deal would combine the nation's largest phone, internet and pay-TV provider with an entertainment and news colossus whose holdings include CNN, HBO, TBS, TNT and Warner Bros. Studios. The resulting enterprise would be worth $300 billion, nearly three times the value of Comcast after it bought NBCUniversal in 2011.
Free Press has opposed the massive merger from the start, explaining that the deal would exacerbate the lack of media diversity while giving AT&T even more incentive to violate open-internet protections and prioritize its video content over its competitors'.
Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement:
"Blocking this merger is the right thing to do -- and we hope the Justice Department is doing it for the right reasons. This deal would give AT&T way too much power to undercut competitors and raise costs on TV viewers and internet users everywhere.
"Deals of this scale are driven by Wall Street's insatiable desire for short-term growth at any cost. And while a few executives and bankers would get rich from a combined AT&T-Time Warner, ordinary people would be stuck paying higher prices for internet access and video services since AT&T would need to raise its rates considerably to pay down the enormous debt it would have to take on to complete this deal.
"The harms from vertical mergers are very real, where a distribution company like AT&T buys its programming suppliers. These kinds of transactions let media companies exercise even more control over both content production and distribution.
"It's refreshing to see the Justice Department doing something about this deal. However, we remain very troubled by President Trump's threats to punish outlets like CNN that have aired critical coverage of the administration. The Justice Department must demonstrate that Trump's saber-rattling has nothing to do with this suit. It could start by giving the same level of scrutiny to other mega-deals like Sinclair's proposed merger with Tribune. But the bottom line is that the public would be best served if this merger is scrapped."
Free Press was created to give people a voice in the crucial decisions that shape our media. We believe that positive social change, racial justice and meaningful engagement in public life require equitable access to technology, diverse and independent ownership of media platforms, and journalism that holds leaders accountable and tells people what's actually happening in their communities.
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"If I’m in charge later, we won’t just have a three strikes law," he wrote. "We will quickly try and hang men after three violent crimes. And yes, we will do it in public to deter others."
Lonsdale then added that "our society needs balance," and said that "it's time to bring back masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable."
Lonsdale's views on public hangings being necessary to restore "masculine leadership" drew swift criticism.
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"For months, Peter Thiel guru Curtis Yarvin has been squawking about the need for more severe measures to cement Trump's authoritarian rule," Durán explained. "Peter Thiel is ranting about the Antichrist in a global tour. And now Lonsdale—a Thiel protégé—is fantasizing about a future in which he will have the power to unleash state violence at mass scale."
Taulby Edmondson, an adjunct professor of history, religion, and culture at Virginia Tech, wrote in a post on Bluesky that the rhetoric Lonsdale uses to justify the return of public hangings has even darker intonations than calls for state-backed violence.
"A point of nuance here: 'masculine leadership to protect our most vulnerable' is how lynch mobs are described, not state-sanctioned executions," he observed.
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