Trump should be impeached for trying to force AT&T to sell CNN to Murdoch.
By the way Randall Stephenson is the President of the Boy Scouts, he was probably the one that told Trump that the infamous speech he gave to the Boy Scouts in the summer was the best ever. Just to prove that sucking up doesnāt work long term.
He wants CNN to be sold to Sinclair Broadcast Group, which are just as just as wingnut as Fox, but donāt have a cable news channel.
I am willing to put money that it will happen as AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson is a spineless bootlicker, who will get his 9 digit bonus (which he determined himself ) for the merger regardless of what happens to CNN.
Stephenson is no fool. He is communicating to the judiciary that Don the Con is blocking the AT&T/Time Warner merger out of petty spite at CNN.
Stephenson is far from a spineless boot licker. His statement and that of his general counsel reveal steady confidence the DOJās lawsuit will get thrown out.
Not a lawyer but I think itās arguable thereās a smidge of evidence in the public record that Trump bears a certain animus toward CNN and the media in general and would not shrink from trying to intimidate their owners. Also the First Amendmentās pretty foundational.
110% correct. It is a fact that this is a 180 degree shift from how Bush and Obama DOJ has handled prior vertical media mergers, and no one w/o an ideological bent would view the only anti-big business change in the first year of Trump w/o suspicion. It is just not believable that the Trump/Sessions DOJ suddenly is tough on business, and oh it involves ATT.
ATT will try this case as a political fix, and expect the first fights to be over requests for all documents between DOJ and anyone in the White House, as well as internal e-mails, etc. ATT will fight very hard for information to show an ulterior motive, and if they get a good judge, we can all sit back and see what real lawyers can do to the Trumpites.
Literately $100s of Billions are at stake, and ATT sees this as key to corporate relevance in the future. Trump just made himself a very major corporate enemy.
You might say that:
Is CNN any safer in ATTās hands?
Trump is a petulant mob-wannabe.
Trump is very good at making enemies out of friends. Itās who he is.
More fodder from the Trump criminal enterprise. Paging Mr. Mueller. Mr. Mueller.
OT. Anyone else notice how Trump has started hugging himself lately? He is telegraphing his insecurity and fear.
Always his thread.
(Aside: The watchdog Protect Democracy, mentioned in tweet #11, is named after a line Obama used in his farewell speech and run by lawyers from the Obama admin.)
@rollinnolan OT. Anyone else notice how Trump has started hugging himself lately? He is telegraphing his insecurity and fear.
I hadnāt noticed, but will start looking for it. That photo is from a meeting in late June this year, so the body language could be put down to other causes, or it might be premonitory.
Once again, weāre living in bizarro world. Media supermergers are bad for all normal people, especially as net neutrality is being dismantled. The only reason to want this to go through is because trump and his cronies are against it. Itās like relying on the FBI and NSA to safeguard our civil liberties.
Oh, wait.
āStephenson is no fool. He is communicating to the judiciary that Don the Con is blocking the AT&T/Time Warner merger out of petty spite at CNN.ā
Entirely correct.
Morning folks.
I just saw Craig Moffett, who knows this stuff for a living as well as any non-lawyer, and probably advises people who side with ATT and some who donātāmaybe even ATT Comcast and Verizon. He says there is enough precedent to cover the DOJ in bringing the action. And that ATT has ample precedent to argue it should be thrown out. And that Trump still doesnāt control the Federal Courts.
My ātakeā --if they lose itās a big black eye for the DOJ. And it wonāt bother the DOJ holdovers one bit.
@mattinpa @rollinnolan @geofu54 @demyankee
I like the way he crosses his arms and puts on his pouty face when he doesnāt like press questions.