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Jon Stewart clearly has his biases but he usually presents a fair arguement and this was no exception. He displayed how the right wing media takes overblown talking points and perfectly executes them into national movements and conversations. Conversely, he showed that the admittedly left leaning mainstream news media (and further left CNN and MSNBC) idealize themselves as the "seeking truth to power" alternative, but poorly execute that mission. He used CNN and MSNBC's over coverage of the Mueller Report --- which resulted in nothing --- as evidence. He even took a jab at his own streamer Apple Tv. This was a pretty good analysis, finding that even though Fox News gets most of the heat, MSNBC, CNN (and to a lesser extent the big three) all have their isssues.

It would be quite the calamity if, in the end, Tegna ended up buying the Standard General shops for cheap. Just a fun thought - not trying to dive into Speclatron.

Although I never said that, they need to make sure they have zero ties to Soo Kim.

Sooo Is this over now?? Can Tegna get back to gee I don't know, running TV stations & focus on it's news departments??

Lesson learned: you can't get sneaky around the rules. They made ZERO effort to explain why they can run two companies or mitigate it through divestments to other companies in the markets affected, instead whined about it. I think the Graham Media petition last year was the big killer. (Also, having foreign money involved in the hedge funds is a no-no as well). Soo Kim needs to be banished from the industry completely.

Assuming they wouldn't just get bought out before the deal even went to court, like Tribune did with the Sinclair suit, which quickly died down after Nexstar came in. Then again, it's hard to think of any potential single buyer for the company that isn't already capped or is just unlikely to be interested. But that's a conversation for Speculatron.

That would actually be hilarious.

I don't think it is bad for an anchor , after reading a story to go "just horrible" or show empathy for something (for instance) that we all agree is morally wrong; as long as it doesn't go too far beyond that and step into political bounds. Haven't watched in a while but it seems Bill steps into that political sphere he shouldn't be in. And I think we all too well remember the WPIX era where Lionel and Larry Mentde dominated the news. We all knew Larry's past, and after searching Lionel is now a leading q-anon promoter. Point of the story- if you don't want your news reputation to be hurt, don't delve into commentary.

She presided over the full-on erasure of Young Broadcasting, LIN and MediaGeneral as Soo’s hatchet person. She played a role in the depletion of many independent, unique voices in the “M&A rolling thunder”. They may not go bankrupt but Soo may just have no choice but to unload those four stations and the licenses for WQHT—WBLS to Tegna when they sue his sorry butt for breach of contract. Remember that Sinclair had to cough up several stations to Nexstar (vis-a-vis Tribune) after Tribune sued Sinclair when their merger imploded.

For the record, I have no opinion about her. I was just wondering if GoldenShine9 wanted to see her and the rest of Standard Media's staff banished, too.

Oh she was at Young well before that, when Vincent still ran it.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t understand this elevated perception of Deb McDermott. She runs just four godawful stations, yet I get the impression that people view her as some sort of broadcasting royalty. The only thing she’s known for is turning Young/Media General into a massive behemoth that got sold off to Nexstar; that does not count as a positive contribution to journalism or the industry in my book. I don’t really give a pig’s fart if she’s collateral damage of Soo Kim’s irresponsible greed.

I'm not going to say its officially over. But any chances of Standard General getting the deal done at this point is pretty much moot. We're exactly one month away from the outside date (May 22nd). That day in which [the current owners of] Tegna can walk away from the deal without paying the breakup fee. Also the financial obligations from the banks would run out on that date as well. That's why Soo went on and filed those two suits to the DC court. And let's not forget the FCC Hearing with that ALJ likely won't happen until after that May 22nd date. But given how desperate Soo's been throughout this whole process, why am I'm thinking he could attempt to appeal to highest court of the land?!! There's no way he would win, but could he be that gutsy to go all the way?......

The last thing the industry needs is yet another 'token' company operating a few do-nothing TV stations for another broadcaster which is being operated just to round clear caps and otherwise owns perennial cellar dwellers (somehow they've managed the impossible and made WLNE much worse). More Center Citys fighting against RTC laws for good and positive Black management are needed, and many fewer White Knights, Vaughns and Deerfields should exist, whose minority ownership's biggest role is to sign FCC statements and nothing else, outside having to convince providers that the $4/month for a low-power Baton Rouge indie Nexstar wants is a proper rate. Glad this deal is dying.

So what? What's so special about her? I was just going to post a link. The FCC has long established administrative procedures. Absent proving some kind of wrongdoing on the part of the FCC, the courts aren't going to force it to speed up.

Even if doing so takes out Deb McDermott and Standard Media in the crossfire?

RIP Tegna/Standard General

Standard General's second appeal to force the FCC to vote on the Tegna deal was denied by the DC Circuit today.

NABET-CWA chief Charlie Braico wrote a guest blog for NextTV explaining why Soo Kim is full of it.

Bob Prather has been nominally running the zombified two station remains of Heartland Media while running Allen. I'd have to think that if he comes back or not that Gray would take KQTV and WKTV off his hands as both stations fit Gray like a glove.

Maybe they were just there for the excitement of building a media empire. Working for a company that has a bunch of low end TV stations can't be that exciting compared to building a multi-channel behemoth.

Eh, the tabloids have said that since like 1989 (if the Enquirer didn't have a "REGIS IN DISGUST" story that week, they just plain forgot to write one), but the show's still on, Mark's guested so many times already, and the DM just searches "kelly mark sucks" to write an article summarizing it and calls it a day. If Disney didn't think works any longer it would've been gone years ago. Instead it's evolved, the copycats have all died, and every advertorial going against it just goes in knowing they don't have a chance. It'll be the same when Ali Wentworth (once part of one of those copycats) inevitably takes over for Kelly. The only thing I'd cut is the weird 'home dancer' segment from trivia; sometimes they choose dance videos from people who have no business being filmed, much less on a national morning show (one from some 50-ish woman looked like the most uncomfortable striptease was about to happen).

I am shocked, I tell you, shocked that FF is filling more Sinclair timeslots!

Steve Harvey: Name a show that's replacing NBC 15 News at Noon and Gulf Coast Today. The National Desk! (Nope, another hour of Family Feud on top of the hour at 4: 00pm AND the 6:30 airing on WEAR!)

Looks like Standard General's getting a sped-up appeals court proceeding. Whatever that means. I'm not gonna lie, reading SG's arguments in that article gave me a migraine. The more I hear Soo Kim talk, the more I want to see him lose.

I'd whack his transaction just because he's playing the race card. He's a bankster parasite that was pushing the limits of the law. It has nothing to do with his heritage.

More like Soo Kim trying to perform CPR on a cadaver.

Given all the diginets out there who somehow seemed to make money and stay alive with crappy programming, you would think that somebody could make money with Pac-12 sports. Scripps has TV stations in the home markets of each remaining Pac-12 school, plus LA, San Diego and Las Vegas. That's a pretty good start for some kind of an over-the-air network. Home markets are where you will get the most viewership, and then just stick it on a diginet for the rest of the country. Just like the old days when sports teams had to assemble their own networks. Like I said, it's not crazy. Another thought: They own Bounce, the black oriented channel. Pac-12 programming might fit on there as well.

Honestly, even if Apple or some other streamer gets the rights, I'm not sure that would completely close the door on Scripps or another linear broadcaster getting the rights. After all, Apple's deal with the MLS allowed for a linear window, which Fox was happy to jump onto. Even Thursday Night Football runs on OTA in markets where the featured teams are subject to blackout rules. With people tightening their wallets over fears of a recession, there's certainly room for at least some major sports to air for free, even if it's more of a gateway drug for a subscription service or RSN (which seems to be the case with most sports on OTA in recent years) than anything else. After all, the RSNs are in freefall, and Pac-12 royally screwed up the handling of their own network, so there's likely to be a mix of income sources as the teams and leagues figure out how to navigate the new realities of TV.

I thought that there was going to be a settlement Fox can write off some of the settlement as well, it was really how much Fox was willing to fight they thought better to settle than fight it which was much cheaper to settle than fight it. I still believe that Fox didn't defame Dominion or Smartics either which looks like that doesn't go to the courts until 2025 which Fox settles as well in my opinion.

King Charles with Gayle King and Charles Barkley coming to CNN Wednesday nights this fall.