Trump ordered top economic adviser Gary Cohn to pressure the Justice Department to file a lawsuit to block the ATT-Time Warner merger
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It's the why. He specifically did it because he wanted to hurt CNN.
No, I'm pretty sure the corruption of law enforcement for political ends (the silencing of critical press) is not, under any definition, "good."
When its being used as a weapon against journalism, not so much.
If Trump has succeeded in blocking this merger for the reasons he had then it would have been a very bad thing as it would set a ridiculously bad precedent.
Would love to see conservatives reaction to things like this if the the headline was the same but changed it to Obama.
OP
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You think that it's okay for the president to retaliate against news organizations because he doesn't like what they report on him, simply because it would block a merger?
I don't care what the results are, a president successfully meddling in a merger because he wanted to punish journalists would have been a catastrophic precedent.
You know...call me crazy, but the more of these articles I read, the more I fear our president is a complete moron.
I know a few here that will like this news. (I guess good for Disney that Trump likes Murdoch?)
No, not when its aim was to stifle free press while letting way worse mergers go through.
Wasn't this obvious from the get go?
When it's suggested that his close friend Rupert Murdoch wants to merge his media behemoth with Disney and wants his 'blessing' for the deal it's not a problem but when the parent company of CNN is getting merged it's a different thing entirely.
When it's suggested that his close friend Rupert Murdoch wants to merge his media behemoth with Disney and wants his 'blessing' for the deal it's not a problem but when the parent company of CNN is getting merged it's a different thing entirely.
I mean you could just nuke both headquarters and that'd probably stop it too, but typically you'd want to stop mergers by legal means.
This Hill tweet is based on the New Yorker story. So far it's one source and one story. Once the story is confirmed/corroborated by multiple news outlets, there will be no escape. However, there is already a docket of investigations in the House committees and in part in the Senate, where this fits in with spearheading an impeachment effort (besides the obvious single case for impeachment it represents) I'm not sure. Is there any overlap here with Mueller, for instance? Hoping to see followup reporting with clearer details on this.
Time Warner owns CNN. Trump doesn't like CNN's coverage of him so he tried to punish its parent company by blocking the merger Time Warner wanted.
How would CNN be in better shape after the merger? TBS, TRU, and TNT seem to be in worse shape if I understand the recent news correctly?
Is that even allowed, I mean as POTUS ?
pretty sure its illegal solely because of the "why".
and the why is, to punish CNN for reporting on trump.
no, but when has that stopped Trump? In any case, per the New Yorker story this is sourced from, Cohn was very opposed to pressuring DOJ about the merger and didn't do it, but it's possible someone else (looking at you, John Kelly) did end up making the call. We don't know. This might be like the times he ordered someone to fire Mueller but the person he gave the order to realized it would be a bad idea and just... didn't.
It's totally illegal, but since Republicans no longer believe Rule of Law is in their best interests, they'll ignore this.
Unless a Democrat President did similar, then, because if there's one thing Republicans can't stand, it's hypocrisy, they'll punish that President to the fullest extent that Rule of Law allows.
Oh sure. Interfering with a giant business merger to destroy your political enemies in the media is "impeachable" now.
I suppose committing huge bank and campaign finance and emoluments fraud and breaching national security and nepotism are impeachable too. Next you're going to say that destroying records and obstruction of justice are impeachable too.
The only president impeached in our lifetime was Bill Clinton - specifically for a series of brutal and grisly murders that he admitted to and definitely did, that were the original reason for the Starr report in the first place.
This picture still cracks me up by how insanely evil they both look.
Probably him and Perlmutter.
Lmao why does everyone surrounding Trump look like a fucking Bond villain