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First Trump Administration Moved to Loosen Rules on Media Ownership, Now DOJ Trying to Force Sale of CNN

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Trump Administration Engaging in Assault of a Political Enemy

For more than two years, as a candidate and as president, Donald Trump has viciously attacked CNN, repeatedly calling it “FAKE NEWS” and verbally attacking its reporters. There’s no question CNN is enemy number one to the Trump administration.

So it should come as no surprise that the Dept. of Justice is trying now to force Time Warner to sell CNN before it approves a proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner.

“The Justice Department has called on AT&T and Time Warner to sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of cable channels that includes CNN, as a potential requirement for approving the companies’ pending $85.4 billion deal, people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday,” The New York Times reports today. 

The Times adds, “analysts have said that there were few legal grounds on which to block the transaction.”

AT&T has been told by the US Department of Justice that it needs to sell CNN, Time Warner’s cable news channel, to get its $84.5bn acquisition of the media company approved, according to three people with direct knowledge of the negotiations. 

The Trump administration is engaging in a politicized attack on CNN, pure and simple.

ThinkProgress calls it “Authoritarianism.”

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti‏ saysthe Trump Administration’s push for Time Warner to sell off CNN appears to be illegitimate retaliation against the press.”

How do we know?

Less than two weeks ago the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Republican Ajit Pai (who also is a staunch opponent of net neutrality) announced he is moving to remove a decades-old FCC rule that limits media companies from becoming monopolies in any given market. The rule has prevented newspapers from buying TV stations and vice-versa, if it would mean citizens would have fewer sources of news.

“If you believe, as I do, that the federal government has no business intervening in the news, then we must stop the federal government from intervening in the news business,” Pai told a House communications subcommittee October 25, as Bloomberg News reported. “He said that’s why he offered his rules revision to ‘help pull the government once and for all out of the newsroom.'”

Republicans have been calling, without success, to weaken or kill those rules for more than a decade, and Pai’s ascension to FCC chair as President Donald Trump’s choice gives the party a chance to accomplish that goal. He set a vote for Nov. 16.

Relaxed rules could help Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which earlier told the FCC that its proposed $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media Inc. would violate local-market ownership strictures in 10 cities.

Pai cast his ownership proposals as part of his commitment to the First Amendmentthat guarantees free speech — a live topic since Trump threatened broadcast licenses over news reports.

Sinclair is a right wing media outlet that has been gobbling up local TV news stations then forcing them to broadcast pro-Trump “reports,” including a nightly opinion segment masquerading as news by former Trump staffer Boris Epshteyn.

Sinclair Broadcasting is giving more exposure to political commentator and former Trump administration official Boris Epshteyn by increasing its number of ‘must run’ segments at its 173 local affiliates across the country,” The Hill reported in July.

Sinclair will now require its stations to run nine Epshteyn commentaries per week, an increase from the three per week requirement since the 34-year-old Russian-born former investment banker and attorney joined in April.

Now, FFC Chairman Pai is dead wrong, but so is the DOJ. The AT&T-Time Warner merger isn’t bad for Americans. It doesn’t help make the quality of the news better, but it doesn’t make it worse, either.

The Trump administration is engaging in the assault of a political enemy, and it’s plain as day.

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Ethics Committee Reveals Latest Republican to Come Under Review: Report

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The House Ethics Committee has reportedly announced that U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is facing a review by the Office of Congressional Conduct.

The origin of the review was not been disclosed. Under committee rules, officials are prohibited from stating whether the matter constitutes a formal investigation or identifying its underlying cause. The Committee only stated that there is a “matter regarding Representative Nancy Mace.”

“The Committee notes that the mere fact of a referral or an extension, and the mandatory disclosure of such an extension and the name of the subject of the matter, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee,” the Ethics Committee statement reads. It was posted to social media by congressional journalist Jamie Dupree.

The statement also says the committee will “announce its course of action in this matter on or before March 2, 2026.”

Congresswoman Mace is currently running for governor of South Carolina.

Earlier this month Mace warned that Republicans may lose control of the House, saying they have not “done enough” and could “do a lot more” to implement President Donald Trump’s agenda, The Hill reported.

 

Image via Shutterstock 

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Republican Vows to Block Trump’s Greenland Push

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A prominent Republican lawmaker is vowing to thwart any attempt by President Donald Trump to acquire Greenland through force or financial means.

Speaking from Copenhagen as part of a bipartisan delegation of U.S. congressional lawmakers, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), told reporters it is “an important message for the people of the Kingdom of Denmark to understand” that the United States has “three separate but equal branches” of government.

Reminding them that under the U.S. Constitution it is Congress that controls spending, Senator Murkowski, who has broken ranks and stood up to President Trump at times, said, “In Congress, we have tools at our disposal under our constitutional authority that speaks specifically to the power of the purse through appropriations.”

She noted also that “Congress has a role. Certainly, when it comes to spending authorities, the Congress has a role in basically helping to facilitate the message that comes from our constituents, to be reflected in whether it’s legislation or appropriations, or actions or measures, that can indicate, again, the will of the Congress.”

READ MORE: Trump Dangles Another Insurrection Act Threat for Minnesota

The “vast majority” of Americans do not support the acquisition of Greenland, Senator Murkowski added, noting that “some 75 percent will say we do not think that that is a good idea.”

“Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset,” Murkowski also told reporters.

Politico reported that U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) “also took part in the visit by House and Senate lawmakers,” and “said he would push ahead with legislation to curb Trump’s power to act unilaterally.”

He also denied President Trump’s claims that Greenland is necessary to be owned by the U.S. for national security reasons.

“Are there real, pressing threats to the security of Greenland from China and Russia?” Coons said. “No, not today.”

READ MORE: With Shutdown Looming and Crises Growing Trump Heads Off for Long Mar-a-Lago Weekend

 

Image via Reuters 

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Trump Dangles Another Insurrection Act Threat for Minnesota

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Just one day after threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota, which would allow him to unleash domestic military forces onto American streets, President Donald Trump once again on Friday hinted he would do so while suggesting he may be “forced” to take action.

Trump targeted Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, both Democrats, claiming they “don’t know what to do” after he deployed roughly 3,000 federal troops to the city.

“In Minnesota,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “the Troublemakers, Agitators, and Insurrectionists are, in many cases, highly paid professionals.”

“The Governor and Mayor don’t know what to do, they have totally lost control, and our currently being rendered, USELESS! If, and when, I am forced to act, it will be solved, QUICKLY and EFFECTIVELY!”

The Guardian labeled Trump’s claims that protesters are paid as baseless.

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote: “Note that the Trump admin hasn’t yet been able to produce evidence of a SINGLE ‘paid protestor.’ They’ve had total control of the FBI and the DOJ and ICE HSI and yet despite all of that, they can’t even find ONE person who they can accuse of being paid to protest.”

Separately, The Steady State, a group of over 365 former national security officials, while not referring to Trump’s remarks from Friday morning, noted that the Insurrection Act is “an extraordinary power meant for true emergencies, not a shield for unconstitutional policing. Using it to silence dissent or justify unlawful paramilitary activity at the hand of ICE undermines the rule of law.”

READ MORE: With Shutdown Looming and Crises Growing Trump Heads Off for Long Mar-a-Lago Weekend

 

Image via Reuters

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