AT&T/Time Warner Facing Wave of Conservative Opposition
Opposition to AT&T's proposed $108.7 billion buy of Time Warner is increasingly becoming a conservative cause celebre, with a tide of filings to the FCC in recent days -- an agency not overseeing the deal (see 1701060057). Some say that's not unexpected, even if it's a new flavor for a major deal. Regardless, few see the comments stopping the deal cold.
That the comments are being directed to the FCC is "odd," said Harry First, New York University professor of law. Some have argued viewpoint diversity is a competition issue, but DOJ never accepted that in reviewing media deals, and instead focused more on competitive issues like advertising markets, First said. Comments being generated about media consolidation freezing out programming diversity might land in rocky soil, First said.
"These headline-grabbing, political objections" likely won't have a big role in the DOJ analysis, said Joe Kane, R Street Institute technology policy associate. With wide diversity of viewpoints and online ability to disseminate one's own, objections "that certain viewpoints are going to be stamped out [are] a little odd," Kane said. He and others predicted AT&T/TW likely will be approved with conditions along the lines of Comcast/NBCUniversal. Given the current political environment, "it would be silly to say there won’t be more politically based opposition -- from both the right and the left," said Free State Foundation President Randolph May Tuesday. AT&T said it still expects the deal to close by year's end.
New AT&T "could ... make it more difficult or impossible for consumers to find conservative or more balanced news alternatives," Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning commented in FCC docket 17-214 posted Tuesday, urging DOJ to kill the deal. He said media consolidation leads to the possibility "where one entity can impose a political or cultural point of view on society" through its entertainment products.
AT&T/TW is "the type of consolidation of corporate power that makes Americans uncomfortable," Tea Party Patriots President Jenny Beth Martin commented. She said "politicians across the entire spectrum," including President Donald Trump, have raised concerns about the deal and its potential effects on the market and consumer access. She criticized Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for slowing the confirmation of DOJ antitrust head Makan Delrahim (see 1709270058). Martin emailed us that with a decision on the deal seemingly getting closer, "Tea Party Patriots wanted to make sure that the FCC heard directly from us.”
AT&T/TW "would prevent conservative voices and ideas from being heard" on various media platforms, said Ken Blackwell, former domestic policy advisor to the Trump presidential transition team. He cited concerns about AT&T's ability to discriminate against other channels, like rival Fox, "to further increase CNN's power to push their liberal agenda." He said AT&T's DirecTV added conservative channels One America News and Newsmax after the TW deal was announced as a means of silencing critics. Blackwell's comments also ran in September on conservative website Townhall. Blackwell and Manning didn't comment.
By Tuesday afternoon, the FCC received more than 14,000 comments from a form comment generator on the Stop AT&T Merger website in opposition to AT&T/TW. The comments, citing concerns Trump raised during the campaign (see 1610220002), said new AT&T would have "unprecedented power over the market" and "TV-watching options, including news, being shaped by AT&T’s corporate interests." The site is the work of a group calling itself Americans Against Media Monopolies; AAMM didn't comment. The website's registration leads to a Florida web design firm.
May said AT&T and TW competitors "will do their best to stir up those who want to make political arguments like those of Ken Blackwell" as well as opposition from the political left along the "'bigness-is-inherently-bad' theory." May said despite Trump's earlier opposition, DOJ likely "will take a hard look ... applying traditional antitrust principles and economic analysis."