A lot of people are complaining about FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. We’re doing something about it.
Earlier this year, we wrote about why this Nexstar/TEGNA merger is illegal and why it matters. We filed a formal petition to deny the merger with Free Press, Public Knowledge, and two unions representing journalists and broadcast workers. We submitted declarations from UCC members across the country showing how media consolidation hurts their communities. We made our case at the FCC.
The FCC approved the merger last week, without a hearing, through a staff decision that exceeds its authority. It ignored a law that says a company can’t reach more than 39% of the national TV audience, when Nexstar will reach 80%! The FCC didn’t even bother to analyze our detailed 143-page petition.
So we’re going to court.
UCC Media Justice, together with our partners, all represented by Democracy Forward, just filed an emergency petition in federal court seeking an immediate stay and legal review. You can read our Notice of Appeal and our Emergency Motion to Stay. The law is on our side. Congress set a 39% cap on the share of American households that any single broadcaster can reach. Nexstar’s acquisition of TEGNA would blow past that limit, reaching 80% of TV homes in this country. The FCC does not have the authority to waive a statutory cap, and no amount of political pressure from the White House changes that.
This is what UCC Media Justice was built to do. In 1966, our founders forced the FCC to revoke the broadcast license of WLBT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, because the station refused to cover the Civil Rights Movement fairly. That case established the legal right of ordinary citizens to be heard before the FCC. We are using that same right now.
What’s at stake
If this merger stands, one company will own 265 television stations in 44 states. In some cities, Nexstar would control three or four local stations. In many markets, it would own half or more of the commercial news stations airing English-language news. That’s a monopoly over local information.
We’ve already seen what consolidated power looks like at Nexstar. When FCC Chair Brendan Carr criticized ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel for his comments about Charlie Kirk’s murder, Nexstar was only too quick to fall in line — cutting off speech to exactly the result it wanted — approval of this merger. Just like CBS’s capitulation, this merger approval sends a message to every journalist and every newsroom: fall in line.
At a time when ICE is operating without restraint, when Black journalists are being arrested, when communities need reliable local reporting more than ever, this is exactly the wrong direction.
And this won’t be the last merger. If the FCC gets away with ignoring the ownership cap for Nexstar, other companies will line up for the same treatment. The 39% cap will be dead in practice, and the era of locally controlled television will be over.
Why we fight
The United Church of Christ believes that communication is a human right. Without fair, local, accountable media, our members cannot fulfill their faithful obligation to love their neighbors. They can’t know what their elected officials are doing. They can’t hold anyone accountable. They lose the local journalism that holds communities together.
Without fair, local, accountable media, our church members cannot fulfill their faithful obligation to love their neighbors. It becomes impossible for anyone to know what their elected officials are doing or hold them accountable. Communities lose the local journalism that knits them together.
We’ve been at this since 1959. We’ve been to court before and won. The technology changes. The fight for fairness doesn’t.
We will keep you updated as the court challenge moves forward. Please sustain this critical work with a gift of any amount to UCC Media Justice today.