Turner Chief Pushes Back on Core Justice Dept. Argument<br />The Justice Department called on Mr. Martin as an adversarial witness in large part to present emails and memos he wrote<br />that revealed how important Turner content is to Time Warner’s business, and how critical Turner is for cable and satellite operators.<br />WASHINGTON — The head of Turner Broadcasting on Wednesday pushed back against one of the central arguments of the government’s case to block the AT&T and Time Warner merger, saying<br />that his company’s channels would not be used as a weapon against rivals if the deal went through.<br />The Justice Department has argued that Turner, which is owned by Time Warner, owns “must-have” channels like CNN and TNT<br />that the merged company would use as leverage in negotiations with other cable and satellite TV operators.<br />“Must-have is another way of saying we have popular programming.”<br />Much of the Justice Department’s argument in the trial, which started last week, has centered on the importance<br />of Turner’s exclusive sports rights, which include professional and college basketball games.<br />During cross-examination by AT&T, Mr. Martin disputed the government’s idea<br />that the merger would give AT&T the incentive to use Turner Broadcasting as a negotiating weapon to extract higher fees from cable, satellite and online streaming providers.<br />Mr. Martin, who joined Time Warner in 1993, was one of the first witnesses called by the Justice Department.
