Protest Postcards and More: Nexstar Media and FCC Chair Brendan Carr

Key Points (from Business Insider)

Jimmy Kimmel's show was suspended by ABC following criticism by FCC chair Brendan Carr.
The two biggest local TV operators also came out swinging against Kimmel before his show was pulled.
The companies are both pursuing, or considering, M&A deals that would require FCC approval.

The Jimmy Kimmel Live ban continues even though Disney/ABC walked it back. Nexstar Media and Sinclair Broadcasting said they will not resume screening the show on their ABC stations, which are more than 25% of the roughly 250 ABC affiliates nationwide. The two companies reach about 23% of U.S. households. I wrote about Sinclair in the previous post and am focusing on Nexstar in this post. Nexstar owns 23 ABC affiliates and has nine partner ABC affiliates.

Perry Sook, Chairman, President and CEO of Nexstar Broadcasting Group

Nexstar has grown substantially over the latest two decades, becoming the biggest operator of local TV stations in the U.S. Danilo Yanich, professor of public policy at the University of Delaware, says the company is the “biggest duplicator” of news content today — pointing to recent research he worked on that looked at how often local TV news used the exact same words in at least 50% on their broadcasts. (See Sinclair video in previous post for how this works).

FCC (Federal Communications Commission) Chair Brendan Carr warned that local broadcasters who aired Kimmel could face fines or loss of licenses and said "it's time for them to step up." Carr's comments were bad news for local TV operators who own ABC affiliate stations. These affiliate stations carry ABC programming under contract but aren't owned by Disney/ABC itself. Carr has praised Nexstar and Sinclair for deciding to stop airing the show.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr

Carr's threats have been comparing only half joking to mafia style threats.

"This is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney. We can do this the easy way or the hard way," Carr, a Trump appointee, had warned on Wednesday, in reaction to Kimmel's remarks. "These companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead."

Speaking on his podcast, Ted Cruz said, "That's right out of Goodfellas. That's right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going 'Nice bar you have here. It'd be a shame if something happened to it.'"

The Proposed Merger

Nexstar owns 23 ABC affiliates and has nine partner ABC affiliates and needs FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna. Nexstar oversees more than 200 owned and partner stations in 116 markets nationwide today and also runs networks like The CW and NewsNation. Meanwhile, Tegna owns 64 news stations across 51 markets.

Nexstar Media Group is buying broadcast rival Tegna for $6.2 billion. Brendan Carr will need to give the transaction the green light. On Aug. 7, the FCC announced that it would be repealing 98 broadcast rules and requirements that it identified as “obsolete, outdated, or unnecessary.” In late July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit also vacated the FCC’s “top four” rule, which has long prohibited ownership of more than one of the top four stations in a single market.

In other words, Nexstar has good reason to keep Brendan Carr happy.

Carr needs to be stopped!

In 2022, a right-leaning think tank asked Mr. Carr to write the chapter on the F.C.C. for Project 2025. Journalist Ahmed Baba, who has written extensively about Trump's alleged ties to Project 2025, wrote on X, "Trump picked Brendan Carr, the literal author of Project 2025's chapter on the FCC, to be Chairman of the FCC. Can't say we didn't warn you."

Critics have recently called Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, dangerous and a national censor. His response? Bring it.

Mr. Carr has reopened complaints that accuse ABC, NBC and CBS of biased programming during the 2024 election — including investigating “Saturday Night Live” for a pre-election episode in which then-Vice President Kamala Harris was a guest. He is investigating PBS and NPR over accusations that the public news organizations violated rules that prevented them from airing commercials. He has also warned that he can block media mergers that may harm local stations’ independence. He has suggested the F.C.C. should investigate ABC’s daytime talk show “The View” over its political content.

Note: He protects free speech for right wing media. There has been no blow back from him over Brian Kilmeade of fox "news" suggesting homeless people should be euthanized.