Group Charges AT&T Ad Promoting Merger is Deceptive

Opening up a new front in the fight to stop AT&T's $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile, public interest law firm Media Access Project is going after AT&T's TV ad promoting the merger.

In a letter to WUSA, Gannett's CBS affiliate, one of the Washington (DC) stations airing the ad, MAP charges the ad is deceptive and misleading, and therefore, the station has a public interest obligation to make sure the ad is accurate or pull it from the airwaves. AT&T’s TV ad claiming that it's proposed merger with T-Mobile will create 96,000 jobs and invest $8 billion, pushes all the right buttons in a strained economy. It's also hard to miss, airing frequently across all the major network affiliates and on cable news. Since MAP can't appeal to the Federal Trade Commission (AT&T isn't selling a product), it referred to the Federal Communications Commission's public interest programming rule from 1960 that states: "With respect to advertising material, the licensee has the additional responsibility to take all reasonable measures to eliminate any false, misleading or deceptive matter...." In a letter to WUSA general manager Alan Horlick, MAP argues that AT&T's jobs and investment claims are unsupported by the Economic Policy Institute study on which the claim relies, and that the math behind the $8 billion investment claim doesn't add up. At the very least, MAP wants WUSA to ask AT&T "to explain."

Sending a letter to a TV station, may not accomplish much, said Scott Flick, a partner with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. "It's a long shot at best. I would be surprised if stations would stop airing it for the issues raised. This issue doesn't seem very clean cut and it would be a very awkward position for a station to take."