If it is indeed bad for America for AT&T to subsume Time Warner in violation of a longstanding regulatory rubber stamp for so-called vertical mergers (where the buyer and seller don’t directly compete), why would it be okay for President Trump’s Department of Justice (DoJ) to allow the two-step (2009 and 2013) Comcast acquisition of NBCUniversal to stand? After all, it was President Obama’s DoJ that allowed it; and so far it seems that this President’s idea of what to do during his time in office is pretty much limited to undoing what Obama did during his time in office (whether good, bad or indifferent). But allow me to step back a moment. I am not advocating for that to happen. I’m just pointing out it ain’t fair. (Which, of course, has become irrelevant.) I would also like to reinforce the truth of today’s media marketplace: ya’ gotta be really big to compete with the edge players of FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google).
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