SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the too-big-to-care-about-the-customer dept.
AT&T is expected to announce on Saturday evening that it will purchase Time Warner Inc. for over $80 billion:
AT&T Inc. has reached an agreement to buy Time Warner Inc. for $86 billion, according to a person familiar with the plans, in a deal that would transform the phone company into a media giant. The wireless carrier agreed to pay $107.50 a share, the person said. The deal is half cash and half stock, according to people familiar with the transaction.
[...] For Time Warner, the deal represents a victory for [Chief Executive Mr. Jeff Bewkes], 64, who took some heat from investors for rebuffing a takeover bid two years ago from 21st Century Fox at $85 a share. [...] A merger of the companies would be the most ambitious marriage of content and distribution in the media and telecom industries since Comcast Corp.'s purchase of NBCUniversal and would create a behemoth to rival that cable giant. A rigorous regulatory review is expected and the acquisition of Time Warner likely wouldn't close until late 2017, people close to the process said.
Donald Trump has said that he would block the proposed merger and other media company mergers.
Also at Washington Post, NYT, CNN, and Reuters.
Update: Confirmed by AT&T.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 23 2016, @08:19PM
FTFY
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @09:15PM
Poor little autistic buzzard, can't deal with the complexity of human nature so he has to resort to reductive reasoning to keep his brain from hurting.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 23 2016, @09:23PM
I'm not artistic. I can't even draw a circle.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday October 23 2016, @10:55PM
It's far worse than that! The Martenly Buzzarhd cannot even connect the dots! Alternative to involuntary taxation? Ha! You know what Leon Trotsky said, don't ya?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 24 2016, @12:44AM
"Ow! Shit! I stubbed my toe!" but in russian.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @11:06PM
> I'm not artistic. I can't even draw a circle.
That's odd, your logic is usually perfectly circular.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 24 2016, @12:43AM
Only in a roundabout sort of way.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 23 2016, @09:39PM
Senator Paul Wellstone [wikipedia.org] was all about public service.
He always sought out the path that would do the most good for the greatest number of people.
There are those who are convinced he was killed for that.
He skipped a fundraiser to fly to the funeral of a working stiff.
The plane crashed killing him, his wife, and daughter.
Wellstone had been receiving death threats from Reactionaries since he took office.
The FBI had to sort through a whole bunch of leads before they finally dismissed foul play as a cause of the crash.
Many think they gave up too easily.
He campaigned for president multiple times.
We might have had this guy instead of the mostly-dreadful choices we have gotten since his day.
Painting an entire class with a broad brush is a dangerous practice.
Hey, the other day I conceded that all Capitalists aren't assholes. [soylentnews.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 23 2016, @09:48PM
Hyperbole, man, hyperbole. But only just.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 24 2016, @01:33AM
And that's how you enable political corruption.
When you chose to treat them as if they are all equally venal, then there is no incentive for them to do anything but live down to the worst expectations. By abdicating an expectation of good governance your attitude is the single greatest enabler of corruption in a democratic system of government.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 24 2016, @01:51AM
That's funny, that is. As if me going lalala what a wonderful and pure world will keep greedy fucks from seeking power.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 24 2016, @02:36AM
What, you think you are the only idiot who thinks like that?
Narcissist much?
Individually you are nothing, but together your combined idiocy is how we got exactly where we are today.
That's right, the uber individualist is just another sheeple in the herd after all.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 24 2016, @10:19AM
The entire nation sticking their heads up their asses and thinking happy happy thoughts wouldn't make a shit bit of difference to those who seek power. I have a whole bag of clues here, would you like one?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday October 24 2016, @03:02PM
Not sure if you're intentionally making a hypocrisy joke here or not.
You call him a narcissist then in the very next breath trot out "sheeple," which implies you think you're one of the tiny sane minority.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday October 24 2016, @03:05PM
He's not saying you should ostrich about it; you should establish some metric for evilness and do what you can to punish the more-evil more.
Wrong is still wrong but more wrong is worse.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 24 2016, @06:24PM
Nah, zero tolerance is the only way to go.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday October 24 2016, @06:54PM
inb4 you destroy all government ever
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 24 2016, @11:01PM
Hey, it'd work for a little while. We'd eventually be right back where we are but for a time there would be a government you could believe in.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday October 25 2016, @02:00PM
I refuse to believe in a lack of government!
God forbid we should ever be 20. years without such a rebellion. The people can not be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. [...] What country ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
- Thomas Jefferson [monticello.org]
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 24 2016, @07:20AM
And that's how you enable political corruption.
When you chose to treat them as if they are all equally venal, then there is no incentive for them to do anything but live down to the worst expectations.
Recognizing reality doesn't necessarily enable corruption, but voting for the 'lesser evil' certainly does. Also, merely acknowledging the indisputable fact that a grand, grand, grand, grand majority of politicians are lying scumbags is not the same as saying they all lie the same amount. There is a reason that people have low opinions of politicians; that profession attracts sociopaths, psychopaths, and other scum.
By abdicating an expectation of good governance
I don't have an expectation of good governance, and anyone who does it a blind moron. I hope to have a good government and work towards that goal, but I don't really expect any such thing to happen.
your attitude is the single greatest enabler of corruption in a democratic system of government.
One-person-one-vote is not democratic; it encourages people to vote for the 'lesser evil', which makes change very difficult. It's not democratic to force third parties to waste a significant portion of their already limited resources going through various procedures to get on the ballots in 50 individual states. It's not democratic to hinder third parties' ballot access by finding utterly preposterous reasons to reject the work they did to get on the ballot. Winner-take-all systems aren't democratic either. The US is barely democratic at all, and the mere fact that some countries are even worse does not make the US good. Our two-party system is a huge enabler of corruption, and it is very difficult to motivate the average person enough to stand against it; most people don't vote, and the ones who do vote tend to foolishly vote for a 'lesser evil' as if that's going to end our two-party system.