AT&T and Time Warner chiefs appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to help sell their $85 billion merger — but a Democratic lawmaker put the two execs on the hot seat over whether CNN would preserve its independence.
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 Senate hearing was the first time government officials have heard from the chief executives directly about their rationale for a combination.
The merger would combine AT&T’s 100 million-plus subscribers with one of the world’s biggest media companies, whose lineup also includes the Warner Bros. movie studio and HBO.
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.”
Blumenthal asked AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes for assurances that CNN’s independence wouldn’t be sacrificed for a regulatory rubber stamp.
They both confirmed it would not be.
“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?” Blumenthal asked Bewkes.
“The independence of our journalism, we have always vigorously defended that and we will continue to defend it,” Bewkes said.
Blumenthal, a member of the subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy & Consumer Rights, questioned Bewkes and Stephenson at length about his concerns that the public interest be protected surrounding CNN’s news role.
Both executives said the deal could lead to lower costs, better service and innovation.