This just in: Comcast wants to buy Time Warner Cable for $45 billion. The deal would transform a media behemoth into a 40 million subscriber goliath.

This deal should be inconceivable. There’s no reason the largest cable provider should be able to buy its next biggest rival. This will restrict consumer choice and competition in a market with too little choice already. This is not about improving service for consumers. It’s about making more money for shareholders.

Alas, Comcast and Time Warner wouldn’t even be trying this if they weren’t convinced regulators in Washington will give them a pass –like they did in 2011 when Comcast bought NBC.

“This is so over the top that it ought to be dead on arrival at the FCC. The proposed deal runs roughshod over competition and consumer choice and is an affront to the public interest,” said Michael Copps, special adviser to Common Cause’s Media and Democracy Reform Initiative. As an FCC commissioner in 2009, Copps cast the lone vote against Comcast’s merger with NBC/Universal.

This is a terrible idea, full stop. Join us in opposing this ridiculous plot to harm the public interest and add your name to our petition!

Follow @ttoboyle and @coppsm for the latest from the Media and Democracy Reform Initiative.