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In other words, in my opinion, the Fang-Hearst deal creates an appearance that the Justice Department's antitrust operation, either knowingly or ignorantly, allowed itself to be used to grind a whole lot of money out of the Hearst Corp., to the benefit of a family that just happens to be very close to Willie Brown, who just happens to have serious stroke with the Clinton administration. In fact, the Justice Department all but blessed the deal beforehand, agreeing to limit the review period for the Fang acquisition of the Examiner to just 10 days.
It is hard to feel sorry for Hearst, which has plenty of money and has, in my view, behaved shamefully (and shown it will cave when the stakes are high enough, thereby making itself vulnerable to repeated mau-mauing here in the home of the mau-mau). But it is easy to believe that there is something strange-looking about the role the antitrust section of the Justice Department played in this deal.
It's even easier to think that another part of the Justice Department -- perhaps its public integrity section -- needs to investigate this entire matter, to find out whether Justice has done justice, or just danced the San Francisco mau-mau, to a cockeyed tune played by political hacks.
