2016 Gettysburg Address: Trump: Would not approve an AT&T / Time Warner deal, and would seek to break up Comcast / NBCU

Tom Paine

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In his speech at Gettysburg today, Donald Trump began by criticizing, among other things, what he sees as a concentration of power in a few media companies.

He said that if an AT&T / Time Warner combination came before him as President, it would not be approved. He also said that Comcast + NBCU was too powerful, and his administration would move to break it up.


"Additionally, Comcast's purchase of NBC concentrates far too much power in one massive entity that is trying to tell the voters what to think and what to do. Deals like this destroy democracy," Trump said.

"We'll look at breaking those deals up like that and other deals like that. This should have never ever been approved in the first place. They are trying to poison the mind of the American voter."

Trump also attacked Amazon for not paying (he must have meant not collecting) taxes. Amazon customers are now required to pay sales tax on their Amazon purchases in 29 states.

Trump comment's followed his complaints about media bias, against his campaign specifically.

Trump has several gripes against NBC (including, presumably, whomever leaked that video), and has been a frequent critic of the coverage of him by CNN (Time Warner) and the Washington Post, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

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Republished from five years ago: Where I dismiss the very idea of a Trurmp candidacy

Tom Paine

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As the 2012 election approached, I wrote a brief post on the possibility of two Penn grads, Jon Huntsman Jr. and one Donald Trump, running for President.

Huntsman never gained traction in the GOP prmaries, and Trump chose not to run, presumably never to be mentioned again as a potential candidate.

QVC in the news: Comcast lives; the real Trump connection

Tom Paine

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The Inquirer ran an excellent article by Suzette Parmley on QVC Friday, but notice the words on the sign at the very bottom of the photo (you may have to click on photo to enlarge to see the bottom) :

QVC expanding overseas as it cuts jobs https://t.co/xjaRHF9NE9 via @PhillyBusiness

— tom paine (@phillytechnews) March 13, 2016

Comcast exited from its ownership position in QVC in 2003. Nothing wrong with using an old file photo (credited to Bloomberg), but in this day and age it may be hard to justify a stringer, if the reporter can't make the trek to West Chester and shoot the photo. On the other hand, I think its inclusion may have been purposeful. There's s slide show with some other photos attached to the article as well.

And then there's Bloomberg's very funny spot portraying Donald Trump (from an actual post-primary appearance last week) as a QVC host, of which for some reason the embed code won't work, but you can link to it here.


But the real Trump /QVC connection came from his current wife Melania, who had jewelry and cosmetic lines on QVC, though that relationship has apparently ended, as the Daily Beast recounts.