Amber M Baker

Another big anti-monopoly win, this one freezing a gigantic TV merger so our lawsuit can proceed, all on the heels of our Ticketmaster win. A federal judge just ordered Nexstar to halt its integration with Tegna while our lawsuit plays out. The two companies have to keep operating separately. For North Carolina, that means local news in Charlotte, the Triad, and beyond stays independent for now. Your local reporters keep their jobs. Your newsrooms stay separate. Quick recap of what happened a few weeks ago: We sued to stop the merger because it would hand one company 228 television stations reaching roughly 80% of American households, more than double the FCC's 39% national ownership cap. Legally, you can't concentrate that much media power in one company. Nexstar sprinted to close the deal before a court could stop them. Less than 24 hours after we filed, the FCC waived its own rules. The USDOJ dropped its investigation the same day. It sure looked like the fix was in. Nexstar declared victory and claimed the deal was done. So we filed an emergency motion, and the court just ruled for us. In a 52-page opinion, the court found that the merger would probably raise prices and reduce competition in dozens of local markets, and that a very-speedy FCC approval is no shield from antitrust law. The ruling freezes Nexstar and Tegna as separate companies while the court hears our full case. No layoffs. No consolidation. Exactly what we asked for. This order came down the same week as our big win in the Ticketmaster case. Another instance of USDOJ allowing a deal that was bad for consumers and state AGs taking it to court and winning. We intend to do that again here.