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Morning News

Mixed Reaction Greets FCC Approval of AOL-Time Warner Merger

Aired January 12, 2001 - 11:40 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: If you've been with us at all this morning, you know that the merger of America Online and Time Warner -- the parent company of this company, CNN -- has been approved. The final hurtle: approval by the FCC. That came through yesterday.

We have with us now the chairman of the FCC, William Kennard, joining us from Washington.

Mr. chairman, good morning. Thanks for joining us.

WILLIAM KENNARD, FCC CHAIRMAN: Good morning, my pleasure.

KAGAN: This was a long one in coming. And your final approval from the FCC did come with some restrictions and conditions. Are you satisfied with the final compromise?

KENNARD: Oh, absolutely. I think that the FCC ensured that what we all cherish in the Internet space -- which is an open, competitive marketplace -- will be preserved. And that was what was most important to this agency. And that's what's most important to most consumers.

KAGAN: Critics on both sides of this compromise: You have critics saying that this is still a monopoly, that AOL-Time Warner is still too powerful of a company. And on the other side, we had one of your fellow commissioners on earlier today saying that the government shouldn't be putting restrictions on this, that it is impacting fair trade and free business?

KENNARD: Well, Daryn, that probably means that we got it right. And I do believe that we did. We had to balance the interests of consumers. Our paramount goal: to protect them against the harm that we might be overly intrusive, overly regulatory. And I think that, by basically doing what the company said that they would do all along -- which is to allow competitors access to their systems -- we've done that.

And I feel very confident that, as we move ahead, these companies will be able to merge and innovate and offer new services, but not the at expense of competition for consumers.

KAGAN: We were able to listen in your news conference earlier this hour and heard you say that this is pretty much it for you and the FCC. You are moving on ahead of your time. Your term actually goes until June. Are you leaving because George W. Bush is coming into office?

KENNARD: Well, I'm really leaving because I believe I've accomplished what I came here to do. We've had a really exciting time the last three years during my tenure. I feel very privileged that I had this job at a time when communications has become so important to our economy and to the public. And I feel that it's time to move on. We've really accomplished a lot to bring competition to consumers and ensure that no consumers are left behind in this information age. So I feel very good about that.

KAGAN: What are you going to do?

KENNARD: Well, immediately, I'm going to go to the Aspen Institute, which is a Washington think-tank. And I'm going to spend some time doing some speaking and writing and then figure out what I do next.

KAGAN: Well, very good. We wish you well.

KENNARD: Thank you so much.

KAGAN: Thanks for stopping by.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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