Judge Rules AT&T Merger Will Be Fine

AT&T.

Shortly before 4 p.m. yesterday, a bunch of lawyers, media executives, journalists and other interested parties—some of whom had paid $860 to be there—were locked into a federal courtroom in Washington D.C. with no electronic devices. No one was allowed to leave, announced the judge, except “on a gurney.” That judge, Richard Leon, then delivered his decision in the Justice Department’s antitrust case against AT&T Inc.’s deal to buy Time Warner Inc. To them. And no one else. It was a magical event, a gap in modernity’s space-time continuum. An important thing had happened, in a sealed room, but no one tweeted it. In a sense, had it happened at all? I don’t know what else they did in that room. If I were Judge Leon I would have had a party, or led a séance, or just let everyone talk quietly among themselves for a while. Being in a big room with all your friends, with your phones turned off! Amazing.