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Article snippet: A public spat between the Justice Department and AT&T has prompted critics to question whether the White House is trying to use the company’s proposed $85 billion merger with Time Warner to retaliate against CNN over its coverage of President Trump. Several news outlets reported Wednesday that the Justice Department told AT&T that it would need to sell off CNN or its parent company, Turner Broadcasting, in order for the merger to be approved. Sources at the Justice Department disputed those reports, telling The Hill and other outlets that it was AT&T that had offered to sell CNN in order to get regulators to sign off on the deal. Justice officials rejected the offer as insufficient, according to this account. Still, the reports of Justice pressure on CNN over its reporting raised concerns about politics entering the antitrust process. “If this were any normal president, we wouldn't even being talking about this, which is whether the DOJ is serving as an instrument of a president who's trying to inflict a political vendetta,” said Hal Singer, a fellow at George Washington University's Institute of Public Policy. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson flatly denied the stories on Thursday, saying that he is refusing to even entertain the notion of selling CNN, which he believes is vital for his company to be able to compete for advertising dollars. "First and foremost, irrespective of what you read yesterday, I have never been told that the price of getting th... Link to the full article to read more