FINALLY: Attorneys general JOIN TOGETHER against Trump

I'm joined now by All Rise News' Adam. Klasfeld. Adam, there was major news. just a couple of days ago that a merger. was approved by Trump's FCC where Tegna. and Nexstar would be able to combine. Obviously, this would help the Trump. administration who's looking for more. favorable coverage, but it doesn't seem. like this is actually getting the glide. path that they wanted thanks to a major. new lawsuit. Can you explain what that. is? Absolutely, Brian. Eight Democratic. Attorneys General from eight different. states led by Rob Bonta in California. filed a federal lawsuit, an antitrust.

lawsuit under the Clayton Act seeking to. block this merger. Now, the Trump FCC. has approved this deal, but these. attorneys general have asked a federal. judge to put an end to this merger, which if. completed to fruition, would create one. in the words of the lawsuit, broadcast. behemoth reaching 80%. of US households. Now, to put this into. perspective here,

Tegna is the fourth largest broadcaster. in the United States. The merger is. between Nexstar and Tegna. Nexstar is. the single largest broadcaster in the. United States. And these are both. companies that own a big four affiliated. local TV channels across country. So, you might be looking at your local ABC. News or NBC, CBS, Fox, but it's not. owned by that company. It's owned by.

Nexstar or Tegna. In some markets, like. for example, in Washington, D.C., uh this could consolidate multiple local. news channels that had been under. different corporate umbrellas. If one. had been under a Tegna umbrella, the. other one had been under a Nexstar. umbrella. But the long and the short of. it means fewer choices. We might see. newsrooms being gutted, less probing. journalism. Nexstar is widely known to.

be a conservative broadcaster, so we're. going to see more ideological conformity. among different TV stations. And the. sheer size of this, the fact that it's. reaching 80% of households in the United. States is alarming. I I have to ask the obvious question. here. Don't we have antitrust laws in. place to prevent exactly this? How is. this kind of thing approved if you're. going to have consolidation of what, 80%.

of local TV stations all under one. umbrella? Well, it gets approved if you have a. federal government that is all for it, and Trump is all for it. He personally. encouraged this deal on social media. saying that it's going to strike a blow. against fake news, and in irony of. irony, create competition. It's not. going to create competition, it's going. to eliminate competition by putting them. all on a under a single umbrella. You. have his FCC chair, Brendan Carr, saying.

that he supported the deal, and of. course he ultimately uh he ultimately. approved the deal. So, what we have here. is this really unusual situation where. you have state AGs being forced to step. up to the plate. As a matter of fact, I. listened into the press conference when. they were announcing this lawsuit, and. people were asking them, "Hey, by the. way, why is it only Democratic state AGs. that are stepping up to the plate?" And. it seems like the obvious answer here is.

that Republican state AGs are afraid of. crossing Trump. And let's be clear here, uh they they make the point that this. should be bipartisan. I'm speaking to. you from New York, and very close to. where. uh I am sitting right now, there's a. federal court trial happening in an. antitrust case with both Democratic and. Republican state AGs. There are probably. Republican state AGs where folks are.

watching us speak right now. that have people who are concerned about. media consolidation. And if they are. concerned, they should probably remind. their state AGs that they too can and. should join this lawsuit. So, my my principal question here is if. the Trump administration and the FCC. specifically are the are the ones who. have the power to declare whether. something what to declare whether a. merger is lawful or not, when you have a.

lawsuit by these state AGs. is there enough force behind this. lawsuit to push back on what the AGs are. trying to get? Like, are the state AGs. basically just pissing into the wind. here by lodging their protest against an. agency that at the end of the day has. full power to do what they're doing? Well, this is a federal lawsuit and if a. federal judge decides that this is in. contravention to the Clayton Act, the. defendants in this lawsuit.

aren't the federal government. They are. Nexstar and Tegna. And so, we will see. how this progresses. But what makes this. case so unusual, and we'll see whether. or not it's successful, is that usually. you see rarely rarely see state AGs. pursuing a regulatory action without. their federal counterpart. But here, the. federal counterparts are all in favor of. it. But I guess I guess the broader question.

is it's not like the FCC's approval of. this merger is without recourse. Like. there are still avenues like there is. still a a valid lawsuit that could be. lodged here and it's not like when the. FCC says it, it's sacrosanct and there's. no there's no recourse. Like this is. something that could actually like the. the lawsuit that's being waged by these. uh by these attorneys general is. perfectly valid and they have standing. here to stop this if a judge finds that. the law was violated, correct?

Absolutely. State AGs can bring. regulatory action. There's one happening. in New York City right now in the. Ticketmaster Live Nation case. So, it. has been known to happen and those suits. absolutely can succeed, but they take. time to process and we'll see what. happens. In the meantime, while these. suits are processing, what happens to. the actual merger in and of itself? Does. that go through and until and unless a. judge steps in and rules in the favor of.

these eight attorneys general and says, "No, you have to disband." then they're. combined as as far as we know or can it. not go through pending, you know, a. decision by the judge in this case? Yeah. I'm already seeing on social media. people who work for some of these small. local TV stations saying they're under. new corporate ownership, bracing for the. road ahead, and preparing their viewers. for what might come. And so, there are.

there are people who have been putting. out their segments about how the fact. that they're under new corporate. ownership may affect them. So, I think. it's still in flux. I think this was. announced just yesterday. Uh but as I. understand it, this is underway and the. and it was announced just one day after. this lawsuit was filed. Is there a world. where these attorneys general could ask. a judge for a temporary restraining.

order while this case is actually. litigated and ultimately adjudicated? I would imagine that that could. absolutely be coming very soon. The. complaint that was filed and the. complaint that I read requested a. preliminary injunction, but that was. before the announcement of the approval. of the merger. Things might move very. quickly from here, but I can't say for. certain. Adam, it's worth asking here. You know, we did see something of a. preview of all of this when we saw the.

effort by the FCC in the Trump. administration and some of these local. stations. to to prevent Jimmy Kimmel from having. his voice heard on the air. And so, does. that forebode something in terms of what. we can expect to see when this merger. actually does, you know, get completed? So, the Jimmy Kimmel situation was. absolutely a foreshadowing of what was. ahead. Folks may remember when Brendan. Carr said, "We can do this the easy way.

or the hard way." And even Ted Cruz. likened that to kind of mob boss type. threat. And what happened in the. immediate wake of that, people might. remember Nexstar was one of the first. companies to suspend Jimmy Kimmel's show. on their ABC affiliates. That was Those. were the stations that wouldn't air his. show. Also, Sinclair. and Sinclair obviously isn't part of. this merger, but they are one of these.

broadcasters that owns large numbers of. local TV stations across the country. And people suspected at that time that. Nexstar folded so quickly because they. wanted to facilitate this merger Yeah. with Tegna. And now it's happening. It's. a $6.2. billion merger that has been approved. Okay, so you mentioned Sinclair. We've. obviously spoken about Nexstar and. Tegna. Is it crazy to think that what we're.

seeing here in this space is the. consolidation to the point where the. only local outlets that are available or. left are right-leaning outlets and that. the the news that's going to be. broadcast into everybody's home who does. opt to watch local news is we're going. to get to a point where it's 100%. conservative? Well, we're pretty close to that. already. I mean, to put this into. perspective this new broadcast BMF in. the in the words of this lawsuit.

reaches 80% of US health households. >> Right. And that doesn't even count that. doesn't even include Sinclair, which we. all know which we all know because those. those clips of those of those news. anchors reading the same script. obviously that went viral a few years. ago, but that's a notably kind of. unabashedly conservative. company. Absolutely. And I'm glad you brought up. that viral clip, Brian, because I. encourage people to watch it again. It. was their quote-unquote fake news clip.

where they were all warning in the same. very serious tone about the. proliferation of fake news with the. identical script. Now, that raises the. whole phenomenon of what is called news. duplication. If you look at the lawsuit. trying to prevent this Nexstar merger. there is a study about news duplication. The worst offender in that category. according to that study is Nexstar. So, however.

many people have seen that chilling. viral video of all of these purportedly. independent local TV stations giving. identical coverage, well, it's not an. aberration and it's not limited to one. right-wing company, Sinclair. And finally, Adam, let's finish off with. this. How long do you anticipate this. whole legal process will go because as. far as I know, this is this feels.

unprecedented in terms of the. consolidation of this big of a portion. of local news in this country. Right. In terms of timing, I feel like. we are in a whole new world. I have. never seen a situation where the federal. government approves a deal that state. AGs are trying to block and it's. happening in real time. Will this unfold. quickly? Will this unfold too late? Uh I.

My guess is as good as yours. Well, look, I want to take this opportunity. for folks who are watching recognizing. the landscape that we already operate in. and recognizing the extent to which it's. going to get worse. This is the perfect. moment to support independent media that. you trust and I want to, you know, again. take this opportunity to say that there. is no voice who offers more trustworthy. news, legal analysis than Adam here. And. so I'm going to put a link to All Rise. News right here on the screen. It is a. resource that I use all the time. I. could not recommend it highly enough.

And if you're looking for news that. isn't slanted to the right in blind. deference to this administration. and that isn't owned by some major media. conglomerate that is basically doing the. bidding of the federal government so. that they could get approvals for some. mergers. This is none of that. This is. legitimate legal analysis and there is. no better than All Rise News. So again, that link is right here on the screen. and also in the post description of this. video. If you're not yet signed up, please do yourself a favor. Please. support Adam's work and go ahead and. sign up. Adam, as always, I appreciate. the time. Always a pleasure, Brian.

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