Local U.S. TV News Will Soon Be Entirely Right Wing Propaganda

Just a quick programming note: my 90-year-old father passed away over the weekend, so posts will be less frequent and more sporadic over the next month. I appreciate your understanding and continued readership.

Last week Republicans took the final steps toward destroying what's left of U.S. media consolidation laws. It didn't warrant much attention by the press; in part because corporate consolidation has been deadly for U.S. journalism already.

Republicans and their media arm(s) have two unsubtle goals: massive consolidation among right wing local broadcast companies, and the befuddlement of the U.S. electorate by way of propaganda pretending to be useful local TV news.

The Trump administration has been taking specific aim at the National Television Ownership Rule, which is supposed to prevent a single broadcast station owner from reaching more than 39 percent of all TV households in the U.S.

They're doing this to the benefit of Nexstar Media Group and Tegna, who combined own more than 330 local TV news stations. Both companies have a history of kissing Donald Trump's ass, and are pursuing a $6.2 billion merger giving the new, bigger company dominion over more than half of U.S. households.

Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr has been telling right wing propaganda websites this is all necessary to "restore balance" in media. Carr's announcement falsely claims he's looking to restore trust in media...by ensuring local broadcast TV news is dominated by a small handful of Trump-friendly broadcasters.

Carr's fellow Democratic FCC Commissioner, Anna Gomez, was quick to point out that this is technically theft of purportedly publicly-owned airwaves. And because Congressional law demands the FCC enforce media consolidation limits, the whole thing is brazenly illegal:

“This unlawful effort to hand control of the public airwaves to billionaire buddies of this administration will destroy local newsrooms, silence community reporting, and drive-up…