The FCC Dodges Questions on Nexstar/Tegna

The halls of the NAB Show are usually filled with the hum of high-tech gear and the optimism of the next big "pivot to video," but this week, the air felt more like a wake for operational stability. While the industry reels from the Nexstar-Tegna merger devolving into a legal and regulatory quagmire, the three FCC officials who took the stage on Monday afternoon seemed more interested in perfecting the art of the dodge than offering a roadmap for a workforce left in limbo. For the journalists and newsroom leaders at Tegna, the silence from the dais was deafening, reinforcing the reality that their parent company is currently a rudderless ship drifting through a sea of federal injunctions and antitrust lawsuits.

The session was supposed to provide clarity on a transaction that has effectively blown past the 39% national ownership cap, yet David Brown, Chief of the FCC’s Video Division, met every pointed inquiry from NAB moderator Larry Walke with a bureaucratic stiff-arm. When pressed on whether the commission actually possessed the authority to rewrite ownership rules on the fly to greenlight this specific deal—a move even some commissioners have decried—Brown hid behind the "active proceeding" veil, suggesting that attendees simply read the existing order if they wanted answers. It was a cold comfort for newsrooms wondering who will actually be signing their checks or setting their editorial direction six months from now.

The leadership vacuum was further underscored by the absence of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, whose aggressive rhetoric on license renewals and equal-time provisions has already put many news directors on edge. In his stead, Deputy Bureau Chiefs Evan Morris and Alexander Sanjenis spent the hour-and-20-minute session deferring to a chairman who wasn't there, leaving the audience with a convivial but ultimately hollow discussion about ATSC 3.0 and streaming sports. This "cozy" regulatory atmosphere stood in stark contrast to the chaos on the ground, where a federal judge’s preliminary injunction has frozen the deal in its tracks following a DirecTV lawsuit. The result is a Tegna workforce caught in a corporate "no man's land," unable to move forward with Nexstar’s resources but unable to return to its pre-merger independence.

Even the Department of Justice seemed content to speak in riddles. Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Charlie Beller stuck to conceptual platitudes about a "competitive landscape" while completely ignoring the fact that his department was recently lambasted by a U.S. District Judge for failing to flag glaring antitrust issues. As the DOJ maintains that broadcasters are simply one of many options in a fragmented market, the reality for the journalists on the front lines is much grimmer. They are watching a station giant double in size while the regulatory bodies meant to oversee the transition offer nothing but a masterclass in deflection. For those in the Tegna footprint, the message from Washington was clear: you are on your own while we figure out the paperwork.