Sen. Franken Airs Concerns About Comcast-NBCU Merger
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) questioned assistant attorney general for antitrust Christine Varney on the Justice Department's review of the proposed Comcast-NBCU merger in a Senate Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on June 9.
Voicing his concerns about the merger's potential effect on programming diversity and consumer price increases, Franken repeatedly underlined that "it matters who runs our media companies".
Varney told Franken that the Justice Department would not rely on any stakeholders' promises when vetting the mega merger.
"Let me assure you Senator that we don't rely on promises," Varney stated. "If a transaction is anticompetitive and violates the prohibition on substantially lessening competition we will block it. We will go to court and we will block it."
If the transaction is approved, Varney asserted that the Justice Department will continue oversight of a merged Comcast-NBCU and will impose heavy penalties for violations of any conditions imposed by the Justice Department and the FCC.
The Communications Workers of America have joined forces with two of the nation's top consumer advocacy groups to bring attention to the reasons that the Comcast-NBC Universal merger should be stopped.
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