A 60 Minutes puff piece on Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan was the sour cherry on top of this past weekend’s NFL Sunday.
At best, the 60 Minutes interview was a missed opportunity for CBS to critically examine the antitrust and consumer protection record of the Biden-Harris FTC. At worst, the interview was an act of journalistic malpractice designed to grease the skids for Khan to stay in power after her term ends.
Khan’s future in a potential Harris administration has kicked off a flurry of media speculation. Harris’s progressive supporters want Khan to remain as FTC Chair, Harris’s corporate donors oppose Khan’s anti-merger agenda and want Khan to go. Khan has repeatedly expressed her desire to stay at the FTC should Harris win. Harris herself has kept mum on Khan’s future, and the establishment media has not meaningfully pressured Harris to reveal Khan’s future because it would risk fracturing Harris’s base.
As fun as speculating over Khan’s future may be, it is important to tune out the media noise and focus on what we know. Khan’s term expires today, September 25th 2024. Unlike other agencies, Khan can serve indefinitely after her term expires, and does not have to leave her post until her successor is nominated by the next president and confirmed by the Senate.
Khan would have an exceedingly tough time earning Senate confirmation if renominated as FTC Chair, as Semafor’s Joseph Zeballos-Raig has accurately reported. Given that one of Harris’s only policy proposals is a grocery store price control regime that would massively empower the FTC, it is a safe bet to assume that Harris wants to keep Khan right where she is. The Biden-Harris administration has already done this with Julie Su, who has served as Acting Labor Secretary for over a year without Senate confirmation because Democrats do not have the votes to haul her over the finish line.
Should Harris win, the high likelihood that Khan would continue serving without Senate approval makes it especially important for the fourth estate to critically examine Khan’s record as FTC Chair. On this score, the 60 Minutes segment failed in three ways.
First, interviewer Lesley Stahl (who may have an even weaker understanding of American business than Khan) failed to provide viewers any understanding of the consumer welfare standard that has anchored antitrust law for five decades. The consumer welfare standard directs antitrust enforcers to examine whether a proposed merger or acquisition would harm consumers through tangible effects like higher prices, reduced quality, or lower output. The segment contained no on-camera explanation of how Khan has abandoned the consumer welfare standard in her quest to use antitrust law to pick economic winners and losers.
Second, Stahl failed to ask any questions about the various scandals that have rocked the FTC during Khan’s tenure. The “culture of fear” Khan has created at the agency has destroyed staff morale and caused an exodus of career staff. Khan has consistently refused to recuse herself from FTC lawsuits against companies that Khan is vociferously biased against. Khan has sent staff overseas to help European bureaucrats implement the “Digital Services Act,” a law designed to steal tens of billions of dollars from American companies. Khan has personally colluded with the European Commission to kill at least one merger.
Third, 60 Minutes framed Khan as a David-like figure fighting against the Goliaths of corporate America. While that may be Khan’s preferred narrative, it is inaccurate. You would not glean this from the 60 Minutes segment, but Khan has suffered huge losses in court because her cases are flawed, not because corporate America has rigged the legal system in its favor. Khan herself has admitted that she pursues losing cases to pressure lawmakers into changing antitrust law, and bragged in her 60 Minutes interview that she is proud of her aggressive approach deterring mergers and acquisitions. A more accurate framing would have been Khan versus consumers and the rule of law.
For decades, the famous “tick-tick-tick” that followed the afternoon slate of NFL games signaled the beginning of an hour of hard-hitting journalism. The embarrassing 60 Minutes segment on Lina Khan signals those days are long gone.
