Ted Johnson

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson issued a warning letter to Apple, calling on the company to review its curation of news articles to see if its Apple News is freezing out media outlets on the right, and to take “corrective action” if that is the case. Chairman Ferguson cites a study from Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, that has been monitoring the news choices on Apple News. According to MRC, in January, Apple News “refrained from using any right-leaning outlets in the top 20 articles of its morning editions between Jan. 1 and Jan.

When President Trump endorsed Nexstar‘s proposed merger with Tegna, which would create a broadcast giant reaching 80 percent of the country, it scrambled a feverish Washington (DC) lobbying effort over a transaction that has gotte

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced a review of the relationships between broadcast networks and their affiliates, calling into question contractual restrictions that penalize stations for pre-empting shows and those that prevent them from airing rival programming.

The Supreme Court waded into a two-decade long debate over the extent to which the Federal Communications Commission can relax media ownership rules. At stake are recent FCC moves toward deregulation, allowing the common ownership of a newspaper and broadcast stations in the same market, as well as giving more leeway for media companies to own more than one TV and radio outlet in the same city.

President Donald Trump sent out a couple of tweets Oct 29 pushing back on the idea that he’s called the media the “enemy of the people.” It’s the “fake news” media, he specified. “A very big difference.” The first time that President Trump used the phrase, “enemy of the American people,” he identified the New York Times, NBC News, ABC, CBS, and CNN. He’s also called the Washington Post “fake news” several times. In a Sept 16 tweet, he characterized all of mainstream media as “fake news.” 

The Trump era has now seen two major media mergers halted or almost stopped — Sinclair Broadcast Group’s combination with Tribune Media, and AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner. Both transactions met with turbulence from the feds, but that does not signal that media consolidation will be slowed in the coming years — far from it. In fact, getting far less attention are moves that likely will encourage more media mergers and acquisitions down the road. Here are a few examples: 

The Justice Department is urging a federal judge to block AT&T-Time Warner’s proposed merger or require a significant sale of assets, rather than impose “behavioral” conditions on the deal like an agreement to arbitrate disputes with distribution rivals. In its post-trial brief, the government says that US District Judge Richard Leon could allow the merger on the condition that it not include Time Warner-unit Turner networks, or that AT&T sell off DirecTV.

Most reporters share a sense that covering President Donald Trump is a challenge like no other, at a time when political journalists and the First Amendment are under siege. With the easy accessibility of social media, some political reporters find themselves getting death threats. 

A top executive at Comcast testified at the AT&T-Time Warner antitrust trial that he has “no reason” to believe that the massive merger will have an impact on their company’s negotiations for Turner channels or HBO.  A key argument in the Justice Department’s case is that the merger will give AT&T-Time Warner increased leverage to demand more onerous fees from distribution rivals, ultimately driving up prices for consumers.

A group of Democratic Reps are seeking documents from Attorney General Jeff Sessions relating to the Justice Department’s decision to file a lawsuit to block AT&T’s planned merger with Time Warner. They are interested in whether the decision was in any way impacted by President Donald Trump’s disdain for CNN, a unit of Time Warner. Makan Delrahim, the chief of the Antitrust Division, denies that the lawsuit was influenced by the White House.