Rob Bonta & Tish James’ war on local information: – Latest News
Among state Attorney General Tish James’ different misadventures are her headline-hunting “consumer protection” fits which are something however.
She commonly groups up with different self-promoting AGs like California’s Rob Bonta in vendettas, like making an attempt to stop the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal and to dam Nexstar’s acquisition of Tegna.
Their success on that final would undermine local information and competitors within the industry, the precise reverse of their acknowledged objectives — however then getting on the information is all both AG understands in regards to the media industry.
The Federal Communications Commission this month tossed the outdated guidelines for what counts as media “market dominance,” a delusion central to the AGs’ case towards Nexstar-Tegna.
This is the new actuality: Broadcast TV and cable stations, film studios and theaters all now compete with streamers, YouTube and different online video, in addition to podcasts and each different content-creator (together with us!) and supplier in search of to grab your eyes and/or ears.
So the AG’s declare that Nexstar-Tegna would in some way dominate more than 60% of some local-news market is insane — it might own beneath 15% of all US local-broadcast stations and beneath 5% of all TV-viewing.
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DirecTV — one other competitor within the huge media blob — began this swimsuit as a result of the deal would possible pressure it to pay more to local stations for the appropriate to sell the content material they create.
James and Bonta jumped in to play hero, claiming the deal would hurt local information reporting — which is demonstrably opposite to reality.
Trustworthy faces reporting local information is about the one method broadcast-TV stations can compete now: Consumers can get nearly the whole lot else from different sources.
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That’s why Nexstar invests in journalism, boosting the hours of local information its stations broadcast by almost 20% these final 5 years.
And why it was overjoyed to signal an settlement with Ohio’s AG to drop out of the swimsuit as long because it dedicated to persevering with with this strategy — and why federal regulators OK’d the deal within the first place.
The AGs are merely (ab)utilizing their powers within the identify of the public good — serving to DirecTV, which is more likely to repay them with more fats marketing campaign donations.
Independent information raters deem each Nexstar outlet to be “reliable” and politically impartial; identical for its national-news affiliate, cable’s NewsNation.
Bonta, James & Co. don’t care; the taxpayers fund all their headline-hunting legal malpractice.
Oh, for public servants who actually serve the public, not themselves.
