Letter To Senator Ernest Hollings On Media Antitrust Review

January 22, 2002

The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings
Chairman, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510-6125

Dear Mr. Chairman:

We are writing to express our deep concern about the Bush administration's plans to transfer the oversight of media industry mergers from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to the Department of Justice (DOJ). While we understand the desire for expeditious review of mergers, this jurisdictional gerrymandering seems to have been motivated more by politics and ideology than a desire to better serve the public. Such a move would be extremely detrimental to the public interest and to media consumers. We urge you to continue to do your utmost to persuade the administration to abandon its plans.

The FTC's authority over media mergers has cultivated enormous institutional expertise. It has worked out detailed consent decrees in two of the most important mergers in recent years (Time Warner/Turner and AOL/Time Warner), carefully crafting remedies that promote competition and protect consumers in both the video programming and high speed Internet markets. The FTC has the institutional structure to deal with these issues that arise in this increasingly complex area. It established a monitor in the AOL Time Warner merger and has the ability to bring cases before an Administrative Law Judge.

The largest cable merger in U.S. history (ATT/Comcast) is pending while the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is rewriting the structure of media ownership law. Rigorous antitrust oversight is more critical now than ever. The FTC's track record of independence and minimization of partisan influences has meant that diverse points of view are brought to these complex issues.

We have deep concerns about the ability and willingness of the Department of Justice to vigorously administer the antitrust laws; the DOJ has shown more susceptibility to the influence of whatever administration is currently in power. As you may be aware, after winning a unanimous ruling in the case against Microsoft under the previous administration, the new leadership of the Department of Justice agreed to an extremely weak settlement. In recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, we made the case that the settlement not only fails to serve the public interest, but strengthens the hand of the monopolist as well. We fear that this same lack of vigor will pervade all media ownership reviews if the DOJ is allowed to usurp the FTC's role.

We urge you to review this carefully and use your authorizing and appropriating powers to convince the FTC and DOJ to return to an expertise-based review of media mergers. Thank you for your attention to this issue.

Sincerely,

Mark Cooper
Director of Research
Consumer Federation of America

Gene Kimmelman
Co-Director, Washington D.C. Office
Consumers Union Washington DC Office

View Files Sorted By Office: Consumers Union OPI, New York - Washington DC Office
West Coast Regional Office - Southwest Regional Office - Consumer Policy Institute

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