Seems like Rupert is playing poker. He's betting on the fact that the buyout (let's stop calling it a merger, shall we?) won't be approved, and then he can swoop in and bid less than he did the first time since there won't be any competition. Shrewd. My guess is he'll also be most vocal in trying to block the sale.
Personally, I think this thing will go through. Charlie's point about the chief competition being cable and only having a 17% share of the pay-television market is a good one. There are many, many cable monopolies out there, and blocking this deal would open up the field for a lot more lawsuits.
It'll be interesting to see how things go. But from what I've heard and read, Charlie's got his eggs in a row and has a very convincing argument for getting this through.