Court Blocks Republican Push To (Further) Dominate And Destroy Local Broadcast News
from the 24/7-agitprop dept
Last month FCC boss Brendan Carr illegally ignored remaining U.S. media consolidation laws to rubber stamp Nexstar’s $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna. It’s part of the generational Republican quest to steadily consolidate media, then replace whatever journalism remains with a soggy mish mash of lazy infotainment and right wing propaganda (see: Sinclair Broadcasting).
But there’s trouble in paradise: a judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking the merger from proceeding. For now.
“Defendants must immediately cease all ongoing actions relating to integration and consolidation of Nexstar and Tegna,” wrote Troy Nunley, the chief judge in US District Court for the Eastern District of California.
The savior in this case is curiously DirecTV, not-long-ago spun off from its own disastrous union with AT&T. DirecTV filed suit saying that the consolidation in local broadcast TV will erode what’s left of competition in the local broadcast TV sector, harming product quality, opinion diversity, and labor, while resulting in higher overall prices (for everyone) in exchange for even worse product.
From the restraining order:
“Nexstar admits the merger will greatly increase its already huge “scale” and its “leverage,” i.e., the ability to force its TV distribution customers, including Plaintiff, to pay even
higher fees for local news, live sports, and other content they distribute to their subscribers.
Plaintiff alleges Nexstar will also shut down local newsrooms in dozens of markets, reducing the amount, variety, and quality of local broadcast news that Americans rely on for trusted
information about their communities. Plaintiff asserts those harms from reduced
competition are precisely what antitrust laws are designed to prevent.”
Nexstar was so certain the merger was a done deal, it had begun changing the physical signs and logos on many of the acquired stations it had begun integrating, something it’s since been forced to reverse. The company has also tried to insist it can’t comply with some of the Judge’s demands because some aspects of the early integration “can’t be undone.”
The deal would combine Nexstar’s stable of more than local 200 stations with Tegna’s 65 outlets in major markets nationwide, blowing past restrictions that no company can control more than 39 percent of households (the new combined company reaches 54.5 percent). In addition to the NexStar lawsuit, the companies are also being sued by a coalition of eight attorneys general and consumer groups.
Since Rupert Murdoch convinced Ronald Reagan to eliminate laws preventing one mogul from owning a paper and TV station in one market, Republican policies (and corporations) have pushed relentlessly to pursue the goal of a monolithic, highly consolidated media in exclusive service to the extraction class and corporate power. The result has been anything but subtle.
Media scholars have been warning about the perils of this for decades, but only recently, under the ham-fisted efforts of Trumpism, have people truly begun seeing the full outline of the threat. The media sector (like most U.S. sectors) desperately needs an antitrust renaissance; and if the federal government is no longer willing to engage in adult supervision, other parties will have to fill the void.
Filed Under: agitprop, antitrust, competition, consolidation, fcc, mergers, propaganda, republican, troy nunley, tv
Companies: nexstar, tegna
Comments on “Court Blocks Republican Push To (Further) Dominate And Destroy Local Broadcast News”
Yeah, the court doesn’t actually have the power to do that.
It would be like ordering the Biden administration to actually enforce the border.
Re:
He did actually enforce the border. But there was a massive crisis caused by Republican politicians & right wing pundits screaming “OPEN BORDERS”.
There were never open borders.
Re:
Courts don’t have the power to issue an injunction when someone sues to say a law is being broken, causing harm?!?
Dude, turn in your law degree and ask for a refund. That’s exactly what courts have the power to do.
“…because some aspects of the early integration “can’t be undone.”
“Dad, she’s sort of pregnant.”
“Son, the Republicans won’t like it, but there is an answer to the problem.”
get an abortion
“…because some aspects of the early integration “can’t be undone.”
“Dad, she’s sort of pregnant.”
“Son, the Republicans won’t like it, but there is an answer to the problem.”
They know AM Radio will be dead entirely within the next decade, with FM likely to follow soon after, so they’re trying to find a new medlum they can dominate and speak directly to racist pensioners, because Facebook alone isn’t enough.
Re:
see also the groups pushing to have AM/FM radios mandatory in every car as a ‘safety feature’ forever.
Just Imagine For A Moment...
Just imagine if we had a framework where “early integrations” can’t be done until all parties due diligence and lawsuits are done. IE: if 8 states are currently suing to block it, it can’t be finalized.
“Can’t be undone” is just a bald lie. If it can be integrated, it can be separated. If you can’t go back to an older system, you can still replace the combined system with a different one. You can revoke access to people. You can move managers away and put other people in place.
All they really mean is “it’ll cost money” and “we don’t want to” – to which the proper response is “do it anyway.”
They made their bed. Make then lie in it.
“can’t be undone.”
If the MA is blocked, it had better be undone. Tarriff nonsense is not precedent.
And it would (will) be undone in a hurry, to maximize synergies, if the merger passes, once they’ve milked and destroyed everything they want to, when they sell off the smouldering dregs, as one does.