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posted by martyb on Sunday April 19 2015, @04:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the can't-harm-competition-where-there-is-none dept.

Ever since Time Warner and Comcast announced their intent to seek a merger, public opinion has been fiercely against the idea. The discussions over whether the merger should be allowed have sparked increased discussion around the effective oligopoly and profound anticompetitive nature of American broadband. Now, news has broken that the US government’s regulators are considering killing the deal.

There’s been little serious argument that the merger should be allowed to proceed. While the two companies protested that allowing them to merge wouldn’t harm competition, the maps they produced to demonstrate this wound up illustrating just how anti-competitive the current system already is.

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/203664-us-regulators-reportedly-gearing-up-to-kill-time-warner-comcast-merger?

[Related]: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-17/u-s-antitrust-lawyers-said-to-be-leaning-against-comcast-merger

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Sunday April 19 2015, @07:18PM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Sunday April 19 2015, @07:18PM (#172904) Journal

    Actually I would argue the opposite is true...sure you still have the old money firms doing that strategy but you are seeing more like the Koch bros and George Soros on the opposite side trying to use their money to influence an election one way or another, hell look at the way the Koch Bros bought the tea party (look up "Tea Party Express Koch Bros" if you want to know more) so they could turn the tea party from a simple "no new taxes" platform into "no new taxes on the wealthy, no unions, no minimum wage" platform. By covering their movement in a grass roots veneer they are able to get more voters (who don't realize the original tea party and TPE are two different things) to go along which gives them more power at the early stages than simply throwing money at it would ever get them.

    While I think this kind of "astroturf movements" are despicable and disgusting no matter which side of the fence they are on you have to give 'em credit, its a slick way of hiding who is pulling the strings and gives them more influence and ability to manipulate than they had before.

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    ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @02:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @02:35AM (#172999)

    You are describing the difference between influencing policy and buying specific legislation. Soros and the Kochs want to change general policy, but somebody like Comcast does not give a damn about policy, they just want narrow legislation that immediately affects their operations.

  • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday April 20 2015, @07:29PM

    by RamiK (1813) on Monday April 20 2015, @07:29PM (#173248)

    Look, 10 years ago, before crazy talk like "smart-phones are insecure wiretap" and "the government is recording everything you're saying" was so popular, I would have just pointed you to how the Koch's PAC just recently made a few modest donations to democratic candidates and been done with this conversation.
    But, seeing as this IS the age of conspiracies, and I DO love sounding like a complete nutter, I'd be honest and say I've long since believed the Democratic and Republican parties are more akin to the fictional QueeQueg and Pequod coffee shops in Deus Ex: Invisible Wars than to actual ideological rivals.
    To make the argument a little more sane sounding, my point is that the Democratic and Republican parties are so similar in ideologies and course of action, especially to someone such as myself who has the misfortune of enjoying the diversity of a multi-party parliamentary government, that when I see the likes of Koch or Soros, I only see sports fan sponsoring their team of choice, knowing regardless their policy of choice is "too-big-to-fail".

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    • (Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday April 21 2015, @12:14AM

      by Hairyfeet (75) <{bassbeast1968} {at} {gmail.com}> on Tuesday April 21 2015, @12:14AM (#173337) Journal

      Here is the part of the equation you are missing friend...Ayn Rand and the SJWs. I live next to a conservative college and let me tell you the Ayn Randiates? Think poor folks starving in the streets would be just hunky dory, same as the SJWs believe that anybody who isn't white is always right and that whether you are allowed to be heard should be based on the progressive stack.

      You see what you are missing friend is unlike the corps of old, who just did this shit because it was the easiest way to make more money, these nutters....they actually believe their bullshit which IMHO makes them a LOT more dangerous than your average corp just trying to bribe all the sides so they get sweetheart deals. Try talking to a neocon or ultraleft SJW sometime...it's fucking scary, and these people are throwing SERIOUS MONEY trying to get their views forced down everybody's throats...again VERY fucking scary.

      --
      ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.