President Donald Trump has expressed support for the pending merger of Nexstar and Tegna.
Trump shared his thoughts on the deal, which is under review by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), on “Truth Social” on Saturday and wrote in support of the merger, saying it “will help eliminate fake news.”
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“We need more competition with the enemy, the fake news national television networks. Getting good deals like Nexstar-Tegna done will help weed out fake news because there will be more competition, and at a higher, more sophisticated level,” the president wrote. “Those naysayers don’t fully understand how good the concept of this deal is for them, but they will. Get the deal done! President DJT.”
In August, Nexstar and Tegna reached a final merger agreement that will give the former company ownership of 265 local stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 132 of the country’s 210 television DMAs or Nielsen designated market areas. In total, this will reach 80% of U.S. TV households.
Although the merger has not yet been approved by the FCC, Chairman Brendan Kahl on Saturday retweeted Trump’s social media post in support of the deal.
“President Trump is absolutely right,” Carr wrote on Saturday. “National networks like Comcast and Disney have accumulated too much power. They’ve been promoting Hollywood and New York shows across the country for years without real checks.”
“Let’s get this done and give them real competition,” the FCC chairman concluded.
Nexstar CEO Perry Sook issued a statement in November, saying: “Nexstar’s acquisition of TEGNA will provide us with the scale local journalism needs to thrive in a media landscape dominated by large technology and traditional media companies, allowing us to not only continue to invest in high-quality journalism and local news, but also to best serve local communities.”
“To be clear, in an era when disinformation and political agendas are prevalent, we are the voice against fake news,” Suker said. “Our news is delivered by trusted, familiar voices – journalists who live in communities – not chatbots or social media influencers. Yet due to outdated regulatory restrictions, we are prohibited from broadcasting trusted local news and programming to hundreds of communities across the country. In an era when political discourse has become increasingly polarized and violent, our democracy demands that Americans have easy access to reliable, fact-based news and community forums to debate the issues of the day safely and respectfully.”
