On March 19, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and United States Department of Justice (DOJ) approved the merger between media companies TEGNA and Nexstar.
This deal will provide Nexstar with dominance over several news stations in Denver, Colorado, including 9NEWS KUSA and KTVD. It already operated KDVR and KWGN prior to the deal. Several of these stations will be combined, according to Nexstar’s chairman and CEO Perry Sook. The impact of this acquisition, however, goes far beyond Colorado, as Nexstar will own 259 television stations across the United States, making it the biggest “local” broadcasting company.
Nexstar accepted the minimal cost of the acquisition, which came in the form of divesting from six stations throughout America.
Eight states, including New York, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Oregon, and Virginia have filed a lawsuit to resist the merger. This is with good reason, as the merger violates federal law. A media company’s reach is legally limited to 39% of homes in the United States; the merger allows Nexstar to reach 54.5% homes in the country. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser warned that a smaller diversity of voices could be heard in the media landscape post-acquisition, costs for American consumers will increase as a result of a monopolistic market, and that journalists and other newsroom workers may be fired.
While Nexstar has not exhibited as much egregious partisanship as Sinclair Broadcasting, which infamously had its local reporters recite a pro-Trump monologue against the mainstream media, it has blown a dog whistle to Trump by calling itself, “the anti-fake news,” a term Trump and other authoritarians have used to discredit oppositional and independent media.
