Blumenthal: Threat to Use Antitrust Enforcement to Silence News Coverage is Abhorrent

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – In a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights held to discuss the impact of the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) rigorously questioned Randall Stephenson, Chairman and CEO of AT&T, and Jeffrey Bewkes, the Chairman and CEO of Time Warner, regarding their commitment to independent journalism in the face of threats made by President-elect Donald Trump.

“What concerns me is the reason that he gave [for opposing the merger], which is that he is very unhappy with CNN’s news coverage. For a public official to use the blunt, heavy instrument of law enforcement to try to silence or change coverage by a news department of any company is, for me, absolutely abhorrent,” Blumenthal said.

A video of Blumenthal speaking at today’s hearing is available for download here.

In response to a question from Blumenthal regarding the President-elect’s proposed enforcement of laws targeting specific companies, Mr. Bewkes dismissed the President-elect’s well-documented remarks, attempting to compare them to dissimilar statements made by other Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates.

Blumenthal responded, “My point here is not that other candidates may have commented or not about this merger. It is perfectly appropriate for a public official or a candidate to comment on the merits of antitrust enforcement. But to threaten more vigorous or adverse enforcement against a particular company because he doesn’t like the news coverage is a threat to the First Amendment. That’s the fundamental point here.”

In October, President-elect Donald Trump justified his opposition to the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger by deriding media coverage of his campaign and accusing media companies of “trying to poison the mind of the American voter.” Under the antitrust laws, the President’s view of a media company’s political perspective is legally irrelevant, and government action based on such criteria is questionable under the First Amendment. President-elect Trump specifically highlighted the negative campaign coverage produced by CNN – a Time Warner subsidiary – before announcing that the AT&T-Time Warner merger is “a deal we will not approve in my administration.” In contrast, Senator Sanders requested that the Justice Department enforce antitrust laws and block the proposed merger, while Secretary Clinton pledged to conduct a thorough analysis before making a decision.

President-elect Trump has also threatened enforcement action against other media companies who conduct coverage he does not agree with. In the same speech, President-elect Trump criticized the Comcast-NBC merger, basing his argument not on antitrust grounds, but on NBC, a news organization, “trying to tell voters to think and what to do.” President-elect Trump also threatened to bring an antitrust case against Amazon following reports that the Washington Post, which is owned by Amazon, had assigned a group of reporters to investigate the President-elect’s background.

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