People who think FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is a killjoy—just because he goes around trying to threaten comedians off of the national airwaves, and apparently spends more time than anybody outside Joy Behar’s immediate family worrying about The View—should remind themselves that Carr can be a pretty fun, permissive guy. Just read the statement he issued today, in which Carr granted FCC approval for the long-brewing deal between local TV station owners Nexstar and Tegna, which would leave the former company owning a measly, insignificant “less than 15 percent” of all the TV stations in the country. It’s no big deal, dawg, which is why Carr happily had the FCC waive its long-standing rules about companies owning more than two stations in the same market, or stations in more than 39 percent of all the markets in the country, in order to give it a big, chill thumbs up.
In a memo explaining the decision to approve the $6.2 billion deal, Carr spends a weirdly large amount of time bemoaning the good old days of local newspapers and “gumshoe reporting,” framing the Nexstar purchase as a triumph for “localism” in news. (Which feels a little strange, in so far as the New York-based Nexstar will now own stations in more than half the markets in the country, and hasn’t been shy about directing its stations to act en masse to do things like pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air. It’s also promised to be the “anti-fake news,” which certainly suggests a consolidation of viewpoints that feels like it comes from the top down.) Carr went on to suggest that anybody worried about one company owning so much of the country’s local news infrastructure was, themselves, giving in to backwards-looking thinking, asserting that in waiving all those pesky ownership rules “the FCC acts mindful of the media marketplace that exists today—not the one from decades past—and the agency ensures that these broadcasters have the resources to continue investing in their local news operations.”
Statistics-wise, the FCC was certainly in a “live and let live” mood: The Commission hand-waved overlaps in 23 designated market areas where Nexstar will now own at least three local stations, and 17 where it’ll own two. It also decided to be super-chill about the company’s now-265 (up from 201) stations covering 44 states and Washington D.C., adding up to 62 percent of all markets—way more than the standing rules that limit ownership to 39 percent of national markets. Not that Carr can’t be a bit of a hard-ass when he has to be, though! The FCC did require Nexstar to get rid of 6 of its stations across its portfolio, and make undisclosed promises about “affordability” and “localism” in the process.
For those keeping track: Nexstar has also claimed to have cleared antitrust regulations from the Department Of Justice—despite attorneys general in eight different states making last-ditch moves to try to block it on Thursday—although those officials haven’t been quite so chill about making their “no worries” stance public.
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