Both houses of Congress are gearing up to go after Netflix’s attempted takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Recently, the House of Representatives held a hearing on the potential merger. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who in a letter called the a “potential abuse of the review process,” is planning on holding what he promises will be an “intense” hearing on the other side of the Capitol building on the same issue.

The pro-merger case was portrayed by advocates thusly: turn on your TV, pick from a massive content library, and relax. The deal, as one advocate wrote, will “work to the benefit of consumers.”

This spin is implausible, and it is spin the Trump administration has not thus far been buying. Before the hearing, President Donald Trump expressed skepticism with the deal, saying it “could be a problem” in terms of antitrust issues.

To be fair, advocates for the deal have an impossible task: convince decision-makers that a deal which will objectively allow Netflix to dominate streaming services is not an antitrust issue. But the tack they took (attacking past antitrust actions) failed to land. One........

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