Report: Rupert Murdoch Advising Trump on FCC Boss Pick
A "well-placed source" tells New York Magazine that Trump has turned to News Corporation boss and acting Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch for advice on who should be the next boss of the FCC. According to the report, Murdoch is keen to have conditions placed on AT&T's $100 billion acquisition of Time Warner for obvious competitive reasons, and "could lobby Trump to make that happen."
A Bloomberg report, citing "people close to the president-elect," this week stated that Trump remains opposed to AT&T's latest mega-merger. The report quickly drove down Time Warner stock in yesterday afternoon trading.
Trump insisted his administration would block the deal in a speech back in October.
"As an example of the power structure I'm fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few," Trump claimed.
But the President Elect took things one step further, also claiming his administration would somehow break up the already completed Comcast NBC Universal merger.
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The problem is that the current rumored shortlist for FCC boss includes the kinds of folks eager to aggressively pare back regulatory oversight of industry entirely, which would obviously be inconsistent with blocking mergers or applying onerous conditions to these deals. Said shortlist includes existing FCC Commissioner (and former Verizon lawyer) Ajit Pai, or current Trump telecom advisor (and long-time Verizon consultant) Jeffrey Eisenach.
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Report-Rupert-Murdoch-Advising-Trump-on-FCC-Boss-Pick-138659
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