President Donald Trump gave the greenlight Saturday to the proposed media merger between broadcasters Nexstar and Tegna, a merger that critics warn would have “devastating consequences” for the media landscape.
“We need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks,” Trump wrote Saturday on his social media platform Truth Social.
“Letting Good Deals get done like Nexstar – Tegna will help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition, and at a higher and more sophisticated level. Those that are opposed don’t fully understand how good the concept of this Deal is for them, but they will in the future. GET THAT DEAL DONE!”
The proposed merger has proved controversial, with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) warning that the deal would “directly” violate federal law by giving the hypothetical merged company a collective reach of around 80% of U.S. households, far above the Federal Communications Commission’s cap of 39%.
Nexstar executives have directly appealed to Trump in their efforts to have the merger approved, even adopting “buzzword language that Trump often uses” in its plea for approval.
“To be clear, in an age of disinformation and political agendas, we are the anti-fake news,” reads Nexstar’s application to the FCC.
“Our news is delivered by trusted, familiar voices – journalists who live in the community – not a chat-bot or social media influencers. And yet, we are prohibited from broadcasting trusted local news and programming to hundreds of communities across the country because of antiquated regulatory constraints.”