Former Comedian Is Senate Antitrust Hawk

Former Saturday Night Live comedian Al Franken, now a U.S. senator, has gained a reputation for being well-studied on the issues. One issue close to the heart of the man once known for his portrayal of Stuart Smalley, self-help guru, is consolidation in the media industry, and he has become the Senate’s most staunch and articulate opponent of media mega-mergers, sometimes alluding to his personal experience with big media as an entertainer. He failed to stop the Comcast-NBC Universal merger, but now is leading the opposition to the proposed merger of the nation’s two largest cable companies, Comcast and Time Warner Cable.