Trumpian · The Verge
The future of local TV news has taken a Trumpian turn
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The schemes and shenanigans behind the Nexstar-Tegna deal.
Key facts
- In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission laid down a rule designed to prevent a monopoly: No one company could broadcast to more than 39 percent of all the TV households
- But then Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025
- Coincidentally, days before the deal was finalized, NewsNation began ramping up its explicitly pro-Trump content, tweeting a clip of CNN’s Kaitlan Collins being berated by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, along with the comment “going to leave this here
- Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) sent the chairman a joint letter admonishing him for allowing his staff to waive the regulations to let the merger pass, instead of having the full
Summary
In 2004, the Federal Communications Commission laid down a rule designed to prevent a monopoly: No one company could broadcast to more than 39 percent of all the TV households in the United States. If you ask Nexstar why it’s pursuing a merger that would give it control of over 80 percent of the market, it’d point to Big Tech as the culprit. But the second Trump administration handles regulatory hurdles a little differently than others, and companies have found that it’s faster to get what they want if they bypass the agencies and talk (read: suck up) to Trump directly. However, Nexstar’s loyalty to Trump himself was not enough to win over his most powerful MAGA supporters. The Nexstar-Tegna MAGA makeover then took a more subtle turn.