FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Moira Bulloch (mbulloch@cwa-union.org), CWA Communications, 202-434-1168
The National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians–Communications Workers of America (NABET-CWA) and The NewsGuild-CWA jointly released the following statement in response to the FCC’s decision to approve Nexstar Media Group’s acquisition of Tegna:
With its decision to greenlight Nexstar Media Group’s $6 billion acquisition of Tegna, Brandon Carr’s FCC has aligned itself with the billionaires against the Constitution’s guarantee of a free press. The so-called guardrails granting Nexstar a two-year waiver of divestiture requirements are wide enough to drive a truck through.
Longstanding ownership limits have been crucial to protecting a free and competitive media market, yet the FCC has waived and worked around these fair laws on behalf of a company that aided the administration in censoring Jimmy Fallon just a few short months ago. In a current climate in which FCC Chairman Carr uses the power of his office to coerce and censor media coverage of the Iran war, or political criticism, the approval of the Nexstar-Tegna merger can only be seen as an attack on our democracy and the freedom of the press.
NABET-CWA and The NewsGuild-CWA condemn the FCC’s approval of Nexstar’s acquisition of local news stations that consolidates corporate control of the media, allowing a single entity to reach 80 percent of U.S. households.
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About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.