There may be no better illustration of that problem than the Justice Department's effort to block AT&T's purchase of Time Warner on antitrust grounds. Although the department has rarely challenged that kind of "vertical integration" in recent years, the merger would give the companies more power to harm competing video services and their customers. Thanks to Trump's comments about Time Warner's CNN, however, the lawsuit seems more like presidentially directed payback than an honest attempt to protect competition in video services. The case is now being tried in federal court in Washington.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 28, 2018 19:41 UTC