Setting aside whether it is appropriate for the U.S. president to encourage economic retaliation against a U.S. telecom for the politics of one of its subsidiaries—and, let's be clear, it is not—the effort would appear futile. For one thing, AT&T is among the world's largest telecommunications companies. It owns a substantial market share of wireless services, in addition to DirecTV, and recently purchased CNN's parent company, Time Warner—a conglomerate that includes HBO, Warner Bros., and Turner Broadcasting. Because cable companies rarely attempt to compete with each other, the United States is dominated by a small number of local and regional cable monopolies—including AT&T, which dominates much of the South.