State AGs suing to block Nexstar takeover of Tegna: Trumpers aiming to create TV monopoly

FCC chair Brendan Carr wants to change a federal rule that bars a single multimedia company from reaching more than 39 percent of U.S. households, so that the Trump-friendly Nexstar Media Group can buy out the Northern Virginia-based Tegna, in a move that would give Nexstar reach into 60 percent of U.S. households.

Attorney General Jay Jones is on the case – Jones has joined a coalition of eight Democratic state AGs in a lawsuit to block the takeover, which would create the largest broadcast station group in the country, and one that is friendly to the MAGA side.

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“Our free press is under constant threat from Donald Trump, and Virginians simply cannot afford to lose more independent local news voices. Unfortunately, we already know what happens when Nexstar comes to town to buy local television stations – stations close, jobs are cut, and local news quality is reduced,” Jones said.

A press release from the Jones AG office notes that if Nexstar gets its hands on Tegna, it would control the three major network affiliates in the Norfolk TV market, the 44th-biggest TV market in the nation, covering 779,000 households.

“Reports show that over 65 percent of Virginians trust local news to report accurately, compared to less than 46 percent for national news. Trust that is built by the independent local news voices heard in homes throughout Virginia every day,” Jones said.

“When stations close and those voices are eliminated, ties to the community become strained or broken altogether. Virginians deserve to get their news from the diverse, community-focused reporting that they trust, not recycled content created to serve only the bottom line,” Jones said.

I’m not sure what local TV news Jones is watching – all I seem to get from our local TV news is stories about car accidents, fires and 4-H clubs, around the weather report.

But anyway, people obviously watch.