Newsmax continued to rage against the government-approved merger of TV station groups Nexstar and Tegna in an April 10 wire article:
A U.S. judge on Friday extended an order temporarily freezing Nexstar’s acquisition of rival broadcast station owner Tegna for another week as he decides whether to issue a preliminary injunction.
U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley in Sacramento, California, on March 27 issued an order requiring Nexstar to keep Tegna’s assets separate in response to a federal antitrust lawsuit filed by DirecTV.
He said Friday he will make some changes to the order to address concerns raised by Nexstar.
Newsmax got more good agenda-based news in an April 17 wire article:
A federal judge in Sacramento, California, has blocked a $6.2 billion merger of local television giants Nexstar Media Group and rival Tegna until an antitrust lawsuit is resolved.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley, an Obama appointee, made the ruling late Friday afternoon, finding that eight attorneys general and DirecTV were likely to prevail in their legal bid to stop the merger.
Newsmax took aim at the head of Nexstar in an April 23 article:
Nexstar CEO Perry Sook is openly acknowledging what critics of media consolidation have long feared: The future of local television in the United States may ultimately rest in the hands of just a few powerful station groups.
Sook made the remarks as Nexstar announced plans to nationalize its local news shows across the country with segments provided by NewsNation, the company’s cable news channel.
In candid remarks during a one-on-one interview at the NAB Show in Las Vegas this week, Sook said he believes “two or three companies” will eventually control the nation’s local TV landscape, citing mounting financial pressures across the industry.
[…]Sook’s comments come amid intensifying scrutiny of Nexstar’s aggressive expansion strategy — one that critics say is simply being done to amplify profits at the expense of local news and the public interest.
The article went on to rehash a falsehood yet again:
At the same time Sook says he is doing the merger to support local journalism, Nexstar laid out plans to put national news into its local TV news broadcasts.
Sook envisions NewsNation becoming the “exclusive wire service and national news partner” for Nexstar’s local stations, replacing third-party content providers.
The left-leaning NewsNation is owned by Nexstar and leads its prime-time lineup with Chris Cuomo, among other liberal hosts.
The channel has been highly critical of President Donald Trump and his policies. In the 2024 election, Nexstar employees donated nearly 80% of their campaign donations to Kamala Harris.
Critics argue that putting NewsNation into local TV news could reduce editorial diversity and centralize control over local news content.
As we’ve documented, NewsNation is very much a right-leaning channel, despite Newsmax’s insistence otherwise. The article also stated:
Opposition to the merger has been fierce.
DirecTV, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit along with eight state attorneys general, has accused Nexstar of gaining excessive lverage in retransmission negotiations.
Sook countered by accusing DirecTV of routinely engaging in disputes with broadcasters, noting that a large majority of recent blackout conflicts have involved the satellite provider.
DirecTV has stated its efforts have been to rein in excessive retransmission fees that are passed on to subscribers.
The article’s anonymous author failed to mention that one of the disputes DirecTV has engaged in is with Newsmax, which played the victim by loudly accusing DirecTV of political bias before reaching a new agreement, an apparent result of which was that Newsmax had to walk back its attacks on DirecTV.
Newsmax touted the bipartisan nature of its opposition to the merger in an April 30 article:
A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general is expanding its legal fight to block the proposed merger between Nexstar and Tegna, with three Republican attorneys general now joining 10 Democrats in a case that has also been consolidated with a parallel lawsuit brought by DirecTV.
The newest Republican attorney general participants — Dave Sunday of Pennsylvania, Kris Kobach of Kansas and Todd Rokita of Indiana — have aligned with a group of Democratic attorneys general led by California’s Rob Bonta.
Two additional Democratic-led states also joined the case this week, further strengthening what has become a 13-state coalition challenging the merger on antitrust grounds.
The article again falsely claimed that NewsNation is “liberal.”