News

Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly urged a top executive at CNN’s parent company to fire a fifth of its staff over its coverage of the presidential election.

If Hillary Clinton had been elected president, this week’s news that the Department of Justice was seeking tough remedies from AT&T before allowing it to take over Time Warner would have been lauded by consumer campaigners and condemned by pro-business Republicans.

The merger between AT&T and Time Warner is a problem, with or without CNN.

President Trump, who has repeatedly derided CNN’s coverage of his administration as “fake news,” has loomed over the deal since the companies announced it.

AT&T’s proposed $85-billion purchase of Time Warner is encountering stiff resistance from the Department of Justice, which is pressuring the companies to sell Time Warner’s news channel, CNN, to win approval of the deal.

The opposition — which some analysts called “unprecedented” — threatens to scuttle a massive media deal.

The Justice Department has informed AT&T that it will oppose the company’s planned $85-billion merger unless it sells off CNN — a network frequently derided by President Trump.

WASHINGTON — The U.S Department of Justice has told AT&T executives that they may need to divest Time Warner’s Turner Networks — including CNN — for the regulator to approve AT&T’s multibillion-dollar acquisition of the media giant, according to several media reports on Wednesday.

The Justice Department is requesting that AT&T-Time Warner sell off Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting, which includes CNN, before it would clear the merger.

Will AT&T give up on its quest for Time Warner if it can’t hang on to some of its most valuable assets?

Reports from The New York Times, CNN and other outlets, citing unidentified people, said the Justice Department wants to require the companies to sell Turner Broadcasting, which houses CNN, TBS and TNT; or to sell satellite TV provider DIRECTV, which AT&T bought in 2015.