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Concerns Raised About the Independence of CNN if AT&T Buys Time Warner

Dec 8, 2016  •  Post A Comment

The proposed $85 billion merger of AT&T and Time Warner was in the spotlight on Capitol Hill Wednesday as the heads of the companies appeared at a Senate hearing where they were grilled over whether CNN would be able to maintain its independence if the merger went through.

“Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said he feared Time Warner’s cable news network would become a pro-Donald Trump outlet in order to win approval from the president-elect’s Department of Justice,” The New York Post reports.

“Trump, an outspoken critic of CNN due to what he has called its biased coverage of his presidential run, said on the campaign trail he was not in favor of the deal because it would result in ‘too much concentration of power in the hands of too few,'” the report notes.

Blumenthal sought assurances from AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes that CNN’s independence would be retained.

The senator, who is a member of the subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights, asked Bewkes: “For a public official to use the blunt, heavy instrument of law enforcement to try to silence and change news coverage by a news department is abhorrent, would you agree?”

Bewkes said: “The independence of our journalism, we have always vigorously defended that and we will continue to defend it.”

5 Comments

  1. Independence?

    You are apparently referring to the brand of independence that is part and parcel of lovingly moving its collective tongue up and down the buttcrack of the Democrat National Committee.

    Leaked Debate Questions for $500, Alex…

  2. Long ago in another lifetime, when CNN first started and was owned by Ted Turner, it was independent and objective in it’s coverage. Times have changed.

  3. It seems to me that if you don’t like a news organizations coverage of your favorite political party or candidate, then they are in cahoots with the opposite ideology. Perhaps you would be happier getting your news from Facebook where you can pick and choose the news that fits your own personal beliefs rather than reality.

  4. So Trump thinks it could concentrate too much power and Blumenthal is worried about too much power. There is a political disconnect. The left’s hatred of Trump clouds any perspective or view of reality.

  5. CNN’s problem for the past decade or more isn’t any sort of overt political bias, but just a general mediocrity in the quality of their journalism. It really has gone downhill since Ted Turner was driven out of an active role in managing CNN by Time-Warner. While I don’t think highly of AT&T or the proposed merger, my suspicion is that CNN won’t be changed much if the merger goes through.

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