Democracy Wire

“Fake news” is President Trump’s favorite whipping boy, but a report this morning documents how his administration’s policies are bolstering a few big media companies and undermining their smaller competitors.

In the current surge of news media consolidation and homogenization, the Sinclair-Tribune merger proposal may be the most alarming yet.

The regulatory review of Sinclair Broadcasting’s $3.9 billion plan to acquire the Tribune Media Group is moving into a critical phase with today’s deadline for submission of comments on the merger to the Federal Communications Commission.

The proposed purchase of Tribune Publishing by Gannett Co. is likely to reduce competition and diminish news coverage.

When Comcast tried to merge with Time Warner Cable last year, reaction was swift and negative. Not many people liked the idea of America’s largest and least loved cable company getting any bigger; the deal collapsed after hundreds of thousands of Americans spoke out and federal regulators signaled that they would not let it go forward

Of course I was thrilled this past April when the Federal Communications Commission indicated it was leaning against approval of the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger.