Who Owns the Media: AT&T

AT&T 🐔🐔🐔

Capitulation Rank: Capitulating
Category: Telecommunications 
Market Cap: $199.3 billion

AT&T has a long history of cooperation and compliance with federal law-enforcement agencies. It has a $146 million contract for services with the Department for Homeland Security involving the agency’s “national security and emergency preparedness mission.” 

More than a  decade ago, it emerged that the company was helping the NSA spy on massive swaths of internet traffic. More recently, CEO John Stankey has secured multiple contracts with the U.S. government to expand its network infrastructure, including fiber-optic cables, on military bases.

Prior to Trump’s 2024 election, Stankey said he was optimistic that Republican tax cuts would “get the economy moving in the right direction.” He later congratulated Trump’s FCC chairman, telling shareholders that Brendan Carr and the Trump administration’s deregulatory stance “will be good for American competitiveness.” What it won’t be good for, however, is American consumers. In April, Stankey admitted to investors that Trump’s tariffs will exact a toll on the cost of producing smartphones, a price increase that AT&T fully intends to pass on to customers.

DEI Doublespeak:

After Trump’s 2024 election, AT&T began rolling back its diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Unlike Comcast and Verizon, which have been targeted for investigations by the FCC, AT&T appears to be obeying in advance, reportedly ending DEI-focused employee training while cutting off funding for the Trevor Project, a suicide-prevention group for LGBTQIA+ youth, and Turn Up the Love, a series of Pride events that partners with musical artists.

What It Owns:

AT&T offers wired home internet and other telecommunications services in 22 U.S. states, and wireless telecom services across the United States. At the end of 2024, AT&T reported 15.4 million home-broadband customers and 141 million wireless subscriptions. AT&T is the parent company of prepaid carrier Cricket Wireless. AT&T’s controlling stake in DirecTV (sale pending) makes it the ultimate corporate parent of DirecTV’s Regional Sports Networks in the Denver, Houston and Pittsburgh markets. AT&T also controls a number of other integrated-communications companies serving U.S. businesses, including CCPR Services, GCI Inc., ResortWiFi and The Woodbury Telephone Company.

Money & Influence Game:

AT&T board member William Kennard served as FCC chairman during the Clinton administration. AT&T paid lobbyists $12,050,000 in 2024, and AT&T employees made $5,950,059 in contributions to political candidates (2024 cycle). (SOURCE: Center for Responsive Politics)