Justice Department Finds Ally In Battle Over AT&T Time Warner: Former Trump Advisor Carter Page
The Justice Department has found a new ally in its legal battle to block the proposed merger of AT&T and Time Warner: former Trump campaign foreign policy advisor Carter Page.
Page, who is not a lawyer, filed a proposed friend-of-the-court brief, arguing that the deal should be blocked because it would concentrate too much power in the hands of “a few large dominant media corporate telecommunications-media conglomerates.”
In Tuesday’s filing, Page argues that big-media mergers encourage “extreme levels of journalistic recklessness and impropriety” and embolden news organizations to “effectively crush” opposing views “no matter how factually and legally solid” these voices might be.
President Donald Trump is no fan of CNN’s, repeatedly attacking the network’s coverage as “fake news.”
Page, who refers to himself as a “junior, unpaid, informal advisor” to Trump’s 2016 campaign, cites his own experience with Yahoo News and the Huffington Post, which he has sued for defamation over a story that said he was under investigation for meeting Russian officials who meddled in the election.
In today’s court filing, he recycled those grievances, calling the article “dangerous, reckless, irresponsible.”
Page argued that an AT&T’s proposed merger with CNN-parent Time Warner would only make matter worse, enabling what he called “overly-empowered media outlets” to undermine federal institutions and American democracy — including the free speech rights afforded under the First Amendment.
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