Tag: anti-trust

Antitrust Guidelines and Overthrowing a Corrupt Priesthood

Submitted by Ben Lurken

Guest Post by Matt Stoller

A year ago, the antitrust agencies got thousands of comments from us. And now they are telling us how they are acting. This is the nerdy stuff that matters, and you can participate.

Today’s issue is about an obscure but important document on corporate power released this week known as merger guidelines. It is in many ways the overthrow of the corrupt antitrust priesthood.

If you already know what these are and want to help, then tell the government what you think about mergers and antitrust by submitting a comment here. If you need more information, read on. Because this particular issue of BIG is important. There aren’t a lot of real actions people can take to influence government, but this one is real, and will make a meaningful difference in whether we truly address corporate power.

As Talleyrand said of the Bourbon kings, “They have learned nothing, and they have forgotten nothing.” I am putting this quote in a caption of a Larry Summers photo for no particular reason.

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DOJ Invites 24 State AGs to Jeff Sessions Meeting About Breaking Up Google, Facebook

Via PJ Media

On Thursday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that nearly half of the state attorneys general would be invited to a September 25 meeting with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to discuss whether social media companies are violating anti-trust laws. The DOJ announced the meeting last week, following the congressional testimony of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

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President Trump To The Liberal Media: Hands Up, Stop Monopolizing

Guest Post by Kurt Schlichter

This festive season – made all the more festive by our Republican victory – marks the one-year anniversary of CNN’s Don Lemon sourly cutting my mic on air because I refused to stop pointing out Hillary’s all-encompassing evil. Sure, when discussing her myriad misdeeds and cover-ups and how they dwarfed the unproven accusations against Donald Trump, my description of her hubby’s intern depredations was a bit colorful. But I didn’t get cut off for being colorful. I got cut off because I refused to abide by CNN’s official narrative. And now President Trump will have to make a decision about whether he is going to let the same people who tried to gag me control the narrative for all of America.

AT&T and Time Warner (the parent company of CNN), now want to merge because, apparently, America’s giant media corporations are insufficiently gigantic. AT&T has the distribution side – a vast mobile network of 130 million-plus smartphone users, a cable company, DirectTV, and more – while Time Warner has the content – CNN, HBO, Turner, DC Comics, and others. So, basically, AT&Behemoth would be like a company that owns the reservoir, the water, the pipes that carry the water, and all the pipes in your house – and that makes you sit on hold for three hours to get a plumber to maybe show up between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m., a week from next Christmas.

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