Civil Rights Groups Call on FCC to Reject Broadcast Consolidation
A host of civil rights groups made joint filings last week calling on the FCC to reject Nexstar/Tegna; Gray Media’s proposed purchases of stations from Allen Media, Block Communications and Sagamore Hill; and a Sinclair/Scripps combination, if one is proposed. “These transactions would diminish competition, weaken local journalism, narrow editorial diversity, and further constrain opportunities for underrepresented communities in broadcasting,” said the filing from 23 groups including Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ), the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, the NAACP, the National Urban League, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
“These transactions would create extreme local concentration and erode competition,” the filing said. DOJ “has consistently treated similar concentrations as anticompetitive in prior broadcast transactions, requiring divestitures to preserve competition,” the filing said. “Several of the stations included in Gray’s applications were themselves previously subject to DOJ-imposed divestiture requirements designed to mitigate undue concentration.” The problems caused by broadcast consolidation are amplified for communities of color, the filings said. “Latino, Black, Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and rural audiences all rely heavily on local broadcast journalism for trustworthy, accessible news.” Those are also the communities “that most often experience under-representation in newsroom staffing, limited culturally relevant reporting, and the disappearance of local beats.”
The FCC’s public interest standard “requires more than deference to industry preferences,” the filing said. “It requires ensuring that the nation’s communications infrastructure serves all communities -- urban and rural, English-language and multilingual, affluent and working-class, majority and minority. Approving these transactions would move the country in the opposite direction.”
AAAJ also called on the FCC to reject the deals in a separate joint filing with other civil rights groups representing Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI), including the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, the Japanese American Citizens League, and Empowering Pacific Islander Communities. “Increased consolidation diminishes the diversity of voices available to the public, particularly to AANHPI audiences. These substantial acquisition proposals would exacerbate these very problems, both nationally and in a concentrated set of local markets.”