As Sinclair makes a bid to overtake E.W. Scirpps and TEGNA and Nexstar Media Group hope to merge, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy has been vehement in his opposition.
Some have questioned how likely the moves are to receive government approval. However, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has started a procedure to review ownership limits instituted by the Reagan administration in the 1980s.
Currently, ownership groups are limited to owning stations that reach 39% of the total U.S. TV marketplace. However, Nexstar Media Group is already above that cap and looking to increase.
Carr has argued that a potential revocation of the ownership limits would help broadcasters compete against Big Tech. Ruddy disagrees.
“The answer to Big Tech consolidation is not to give left-wing TV broadcasters massive consolidation and power too,” Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said. “We don’t need anti-Trump media controlling everything.”
He added that, due to what he shared as a perception of bias against President Donald Trump, he was floored that Brendan Carr would be so open to a move that could give them a monopoly of the airwaves.
“It shocks me President Trump’s FCC chairman has made his main priority giving the TV broadcasters more power and control, especially over local news,” Ruddy said.
Ruddy’s comments come after conservative legal scholar Brian T. Fitzpatrick argued on the network that the FCC has “no lawful authority” to alter the nation’s television ownership limits.
“Agencies are subordinate to Congress, not the other way around,” Fitzpatrick wrote in an opinion filed to the FCC earlier this week.
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If Chris Ruddy thinks Sinclair and Nexstar are left leaning, he must be one step to the left of falling off the face of the earth. And this comment is coming from someone who’s been accused of being to the right of Atilla the Hun.
You are so right about that. I watch NewsNation and it’s the most fair of any network on television. Meanwhile Sinclair is anything but left. Ruddy fears more competition because he’s in a fight for survival.