Ownership

[Commentary] In 2017, I predicted the government’s case to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner would most likely be the antitrust case of the decade.

Randall Stephenson, AT&T's CEO, predicted that T-Mobile USA and Sprint will have a difficult time getting their merger approved because the deal would eliminate a major competitor. "I think [T-Mobile and Sprint] have a tough hill to climb, I mean, it's a classic horizontal merger where you're taking a competitor out of the marketplace," Stephenson said.

Facebook is shutting down its ill-fated "trending" news section after four years. The company claims the tool is outdated and wasn't popular. But the trending section also proved problematic in ways that would presage Facebook's later problems with fake news, political balance and the limitations of artificial intelligence in managing the messy human world. 

As Facebook and Alphabet's Google continue to dominate digital ad sales, publishers are increasingly teaming up to give themselves a better shot at competing with the tech giants. New York Media, PopSugar and Rolling Stone are all joining Concert, a digital advertising marketplace operated by Vox Media. Concert shares ad revenue with publishers in the network, but declined to disclose the share each party keeps. Concert, which is a joint venture of Vox Media and Comcast’s NBCUniversal, still lags far behind the biggest tech giants in terms of global audience size.

President Donald Trump blasted TBS over comedian Samantha Bee’s recent use of a vulgar slur to describe first daughter Ivanka Trump.  In an early morning tweet, President Trump questioned why Bee hasn’t been fired for calling his daughter a “feckless c—.” “Why aren’t they firing no talent Samantha Bee for the horrible language used on her low ratings show?” he tweeted. “A total double standard but that’s O.K., we are Winning, and will be doing so for a long time to come!”

Sinclair provided the Federal Communications Commission with information in response to the commission's request for information following Sinclair's latest, and expected to be last, variation on its Tribune merger proposal.  The FCC was apparently looking for historical data on retransmission consent and ad revenue.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) went after Google for displaying “Nazism” as one of the ideologies of the California Republican Party. A search on the site for “California Republican Party” apparently returned with a sidebar result listing Nazism as an ideology alongside “conservativism” and “market liberalism.” Majority Leader McCarthy noted the sidebar in a tweet at the company.

Ivanka Trump sparked online outrage recently when she tweeted a photo of herself with her younger son around the same time as reports circulated that the US government had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children in 2017. During a segment May 30 criticizing the administration’s immigration practices, “Full Frontal” host Samantha Bee directed choice words at the first daughter. “You know, Ivanka, that’s a beautiful photo of you and your child,” Bee said. “Let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad’s immigration practices, you feckless c—. He listens to you.”

President Donald Trump is continuing to react to the controversy over the cancellation of “Roseanne,” which was taken off the air May 29 after lead actress Roseanne Barr posted offensive and racist tweets. President Trump on May 31 repeated his complaint that Disney chief Bob Iger has not apologized to him for anti-Trump comments made by ABC personalities, something he believes is a double standard since Iger got in touch with Valerie Jarrett, the former top aide to President Barack Obama who was the target of Barr’s racist comments.