Time Warner, AOL Merger

I must take issue with Michael Clough on the cultural subtext of the AOL-Time Warner merger (“A Merger That Puts New York on Top,� Opinion, Jan. 16). To claim that this merger was anything but an attempt to control the future information network by unifying a broadband delivery outlet (Time Warner cable) and content provider (Warner Bros., Time, etc.) with a huge consumer base of information junkies (AOL’s subscriber base) is simply absurd. Any cultural coup this might represent on the part of the East Coast establishment is a stretch at best, a hallucination at worst.

In reality, the only sincere and successful attempt at unseating the New York Stock Exchange came from NASDAQ in Chicago, not the Pacific Exchange. There has never been an attempt here in L.A. to favor high-tech and service firms over sweatshops. L.A.’s own failures have only facilitated New York’s resurgence: the Getty and Skirball are not nearly as accessible to the masses as any of New York’s crown jewels, downtown revitalization remains a pipe dream and our billionaires care far less about such matters than New York’s do.

PAYAM MINOOFAR

Los Angeles

* Robert Scheer, commenting on the AOL-Time Warner merger (Commentary, Jan. 14), opines: “What a perfect match they are, the bland of the new and the bland of the old.� This sounds like a classic case of the bland leading the bland.

HOWARD SHAPIRO

West Newton, Mass.

*

Scheer asks if Ted Turner has sold out CNN. If its recent, gushing five-minute “news story� on the AOL-Time Warner merger is any indication, the answer is “You bet!�

ALLAN RABINOWITZ

Los Angeles