Newsmax has been using its higher profile as a publicly-owned company to speak out on things like the proposed merger of TV station groups Nexstar and Tegna, which it opposes. It found a fellow right-wing “news” channel to similarly oppose the merger, as described in a Sept. 7 article:
One America News Network (OAN), the conservative and pro-Trump cable outlet, became the latest high-profile critic of the Nexstar-Tegna merger by calling for keeping TV ownership limitation caps.
The proposed $6.2 billion merger between Nexstar and Tegna would create the largest TV broadcast group in the nation controlling major stations reaching over 80% of the U.S. market — more than double the current federal limit.
Federal broadcast ownership caps currently prohibit any one television broadcasting company from reaching more than 39% of the national audience.
[…]In an X post this past week, OAN President Charles Herring reiterated his network’s long-standing opposition to raising federal broadcast ownership caps.
Herring framed any change in the cap as a fundamental threat to market competition.
“FREE MARKETS V. QUASI-MONOPOLY,” he wrote. “OAN has consistently opposed lifting the 39% BROADCAST OWNERSHIP CAP.”
Herring continued: “Here’s why: broadcast consolidation means HIGHER cable bills. Quasi-monopolistic leverage by broadcasters leads to more BLACKOUTS. Independent & diverse voices will disappear. Only competition (not consolidation) serves Americans. Keep markets open & free. Competition serves the consumer and our democracy.”
Herring’s remarks signal deepening conservative skepticism of the merger, which would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to grant waivers permitting Nexstar to exceed the congressionally mandated cap.
But neither Newsmax nor OAN are broadcast outlets, making their interest in opposing the merger somewhat dubious. But the article gives it a go anyway:
[Matt] Gaetz, who joined OAN earlier this year, has used his platform to criticize what he sees as media conglomerates undermining competition and pushing left-leaning content.Nexstar owns liberal NewsNation, a cable news outlet whose prime time lineup features former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo and former MSNBC host Ashleigh Banfield. During the Biden years, the network was frequently critical of then former President Trump.
As we’ve pointed out, NewsNation is very much a right-leaning channel, not a :liberal” one — it was created in part by former Fox News executives and its lead prime-time host is former Fox News personality Leland Vittert — which would seem to discredit Newsmax’s argument here.