While much of what goes on in Congress and Washington, D.C., today is marked by partisan gridlock, there are actually some moments when voices on the complete opposite sides of the political spectrum can come together in unity. For us, the pending merger between AT&T and Time Warner is one of those moments.

The Justice Department got it right when it filed a lawsuit to block the deal between these two massive conglomerates, and you don’t have to be from a particular side of the aisle to see why. While some paint the government’s opposition to the deal as purely political interference from the president, the reality is that this deal is bad on the merits and bad for consumers.

After purchasing DirectTV two years ago, AT&T is the country’s top pay-TV firm, the No. 2 wireless provider and No. 3 broadband company. In addition to owning CNN and HBO, Time Warner owns three of the top five general entertainment cable networks, and the second largest movie studio in Warner Brothers. Certainly, these are highly successful companies in their own rights, but this pending merger raises some very serious First Amendment issues for us.

Today, millions of Americans enjoy a wide range of news, sports and entertainment programming offered by a variety of providers. As proposed, we worry that this deal would reduce, or even eliminate, some programming choices and allow one company to control the news and entertainment consumers have access to while promoting its own products or agenda. This is especially true in more rural, underserved parts of the country where broadcast and broadband access are limited.