On Monday, as her regular readers may recall, Batgirl offered an exhaustively researched and excruciatingly boring post on the antitrust implications of the Pyrrhic Victory mess. Team Batgirl's conclusion was that, by apparently colluding, the cable nonproviders have provided Pyrrhic Victory with the potential for a massive antitrust verdict---Cattoor & Co.'s best negotiating chip for ending this stand-off. Now, as the Strib is reporting, the cable nonproviders are using the possibility of antitrust liability as an excuse to avoid non-binding mediation. This raises two points. First, there is nothing about one-on-one mediation that should raise antitrust concerns, unless the nonproviders are already colluding. What is fairly ironic about the nonproviders' current position is that they are using faux adherence to the antitrust laws as an excuse to continue to do what they already want to do---continue their noncompetitive and potentially illegal group boycott. Finally, and truly priceless from a legal standpoint, is the apparently joint and simultaneous decision of the nonproviders not to enter mediation, which in and of itself provides some of the best evidence yet of collusion. After all, did they reach this joint decision by telepathy? To Team Batgirl's nose, each and every step the nonproviders have taken reeks of collective and cooperative action, a major no-no under the antitrust laws. While Batgirl has her problems with PV1, she knows when something stinks. After suffering through the late-90s, what Twins fan doesn't?

The question is: given all the evidence, is Attorney General Mike Hatch looking into the case? Maybe we should ask him to?

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