Newsmax continued its fight against the planned merger of TV station ownership groups Nexstar and Tegna, as well as the FCC’s approval of it, in a March 29 article:
Two prominent organizations, the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), have filed amicus curiae briefs supporting Newsmax and other petitioners seeking to block the FCC’s approval of Nexstar’s acquisition of TEGNA broadcast stations.
The briefs filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenge a March 19, 2026, order by the FCC’s Media Bureau at the behest of chair Brendan Carr that approved the transfer of broadcast licenses to Nexstar.
The FCC approval, plaintiffs argue, violates federal law and accelerates dangerous consolidation in the television industry.
[…]Also, CPAC had previously filed an amicus with the Newsmax case, arguing that the FCC’s unusual process of waiving the federal statute — along with its furtive efforts to approve the merger — followed by an unprecedented closing just minutes after, should move the court to stay the transaction.
Meanwhile, this weekend, Federal Judge Troy Nunley in the Eastern District of California granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) to halt further integration of the Nexstar–TEGNA merger.
The case was brought by DirecTV, citing immediate and potentially irreversible competitive harm if the transaction was allowed.
Newsmax went on to attack the FCC for signing off on the merger in an April 1 article:
Senate Commerce Committee leaders Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., have demanded answers from Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr over the agency’s approval of Nexstar’s $6.2 billion acquisition of Tegna.
The decision has sparked legal challenges, industry backlash, and renewed scrutiny of federal media ownership rules.
In a strongly worded March 30 letter to Carr, Cruz, the committee chair, and Cantwell, its ranking member, questioned why the agency used its Media Bureau — rather than the full commission — to approve what they described as a sweeping and unprecedented transaction.
[…]Lawmakers emphasized that the scale of the deal — not to mention the FCC’s effort to circumvent the law — should have triggered a vote by the full commission rather than a bureau-level decision.
[…]Newsmax, in filings with six cable industry associations, argued in a separate federal court action that the FCC’s decision violates the national ownership cap and undermines long-standing protections designed to preserve competition and viewpoint diversity.
Those filings echo broader concerns that the transaction concentrates too much control over local news and programming in a single company.
Beyond the substance of the ruling, Cruz and Cantwell raised alarms about the procedural implications of the FCC’s approach — particularly its impact on judicial review.
Newsmax also repeated an old falsehood:
The Nexstar-Tegna approval has quickly become one of the most contentious media policy decisions in recent years, drawing bipartisan scrutiny in Congress and strong reactions across the broadcasting and cable industries.
“Brendan Carr has worked closely with Nexstar, one of the most liberal TV groups in the nation, to give them unprecedented reach in perhaps one of the overreaching merger approvals,” Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said
Newsmax has noted that Nexstar owns the left-wing NewsNation channel, whose prime time is led by former CNN host Chris Cuomo.
As we’ve documented, NewsNation is very much a right-leaning channel despite the presence of Cuomo.