Item — HN Reader

This is nonsense.

The DOJ is asking for either DirecTV or Turner Broadcasting be excluded from the deal, because being under the same roof would be a huge boost to DirectTV over its competitors - cable companies and Dish Network.

Turner Broadcasting includes several channels. Both TNT and TBS are probably more important to the deal than CNN (the former has higher ratings than CNN across the board; the latter does in primetime); the idea that it's the sole focus for DOJ is highly questionable.

Furthermore, how does DOJ's actual demand hurt CNN? AT&T could spin out Time Warner and keep the Turner channels. Or even if Time Warner spun out the Turner channels, they wouldn't go away (they were independent of Time Warner in the 1990s).

I'm as anti-Trump as the next guy, but the idea that there's not a rational basis for DOJ's demand is simply mistaken.

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The DOJ approved the merger of Comcast and NBC Universal in 2011 without requiring any major divestitures. It was a similar vertical merger involving a cable company and a content producer. It hasn't resulted in NBC Universal content being restricted to Comcast or large increases in carriage fees charged to competitors which are the major potential issues the DOJ raises. I think the DOJ is going to have a tough row to hoe in court.

The reason AT&T is purchasing Time Warner is to gain their content production capability. You don't see how forcing the sale of a major part of that would affect AT&T's reasons for even doing the merger?

The issue with forcing the spin off of Turner isn't the believe that Turner including CNN would somehow no longer exist. It is the believe that it is being to done for political purposes to allow a journalistic outlet critical of the administration to be purchased by an organization friendly to it.

This along with the FCC media ownership changes are despot 101, gain control of the media.

I think it makes plenty of sense to criticize the consistency of the DOJ.

What I'm saying is that "Trump doesn't like CNN" is a silly explanation for DOJ wanting either AT&T to spin off DTV or for Time Warner to spin off Turner Broadcasting.

Maybe the latter scenario somehow influences CNN's coverage, but it's an extremely tenuous link.