Rusty Muck

Chris Ruddy should be dismissed as a crank just like the Free Press. And if he is a libertarian, then that says a lot about the movement. None of it good.

It is far more likely that said companies are already drafting out their exit ramps and preparing to sell out to each other. The networks are living on borrowed time and it's inevitable that they abandon OTA TV altogether.

The only real way local news can work in Akron is if they literally go the Patrick Star route of taking the city and push it somewhere else by 50 additional miles. It is just too damn close for Nielsen to carve out a DMA for it. And if they did, Cleveland would plummet from a borderline top 20 market to in the upper 30s or possibly low 40s. Even if S. Bernard Berk had been successful getting WAKR-TV on channel 11, it would have inevitably moved up north.

It's amazing anyone at the station thinks blatantly copying WNT's ridiculously long opening and aesthetics, right down to Louis imitating David Muir's delivery, is a good idea. Someone actually signed off on this.

By "integrated", you mean "dismantled". I fully expect a WAKC-style mass firing of all WKYC staff once Brendan Carr rubber stamps this deal in April and all WJW newscasts are simulcast on WKYC. They might as well call themselves NewsNation Cleveland or some garbage brand like that. Will make it easier once Nexstar buys up everything else.

Of course Nexstar does! Why else would this merger be happening? They get a monopoly on information in those markets and I bet the weasels over at the statehouse in Austin are excited about that.

General inertia in Cleveland has kept WKYC as the runner-up to WJW because it's not like WEWS is any better. Nor has WOIO-WUAB ever had sustained ratings traction. That being said, I can't wait to see Nexstar use data showing WKYC at dead last and justifying the failed station waiver. It doesn't even need to be true!

Nexstar is now blatantly starting to curry favor to Trump, with The Hill unironically reporting on a post in Truth Social, purportedly written by Trump, where he allegedly wants to "revoke the licenses" for NBC News and ABC News after Brendan Carr pantsed David Ellison over CBS News a few weeks ago. Inasmuch as people claim The Hill is "unbiased" there was zero mention about how their parent company owns a massive chunk of NBC and ABC affiliates and seeks even more through their upcoming ramrodded purchase of Tegna. This is absolutely insidious. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5468568-trump-threatens-broadcast-networks-in-late-night-social-media-posts/

Chris Ruddy can be bought for the right price, that's how they all operate. I can see Nexstar striking a content-sharing deal with Newsmax and clears their opinion channel on Nexstar station muxes. Watch as he drops his objections like yesterday's potatoes. With no functioning FTC and DOJ, what difference does it make?

It's a cute pie-in-the-sky pollyanna wishcasting piece. Which is all that can be said.

They could save a lot of money selling off CBS while it and the owned-stations still have a bit of value left in them... just saying...

Meanwhile CBS News is bleeding money. A lot of money. Like, $50 million a year per Puck. (Archived copy here.) Allegedly the new people in charge think right-winger Bari Weiss will magically cure all the network's ills, which only shows how little they actually want to keep the network.

The Banner and Tribune show it is entirely possible for those outlets to be on par with their commercial competition. You just need to invest in them because they are NPOs and can only spend what their finances dictate be spent. I would rather throw money into building those outlets up than by fighting a losing battle against a merger 99% guaranteed to be ramrodded through, opposition be damned.

You've never heard of the Baltimore Banner? Or the Texas Tribune? Both are highly regarded and have avoided the pitfalls Gothamist and LAist have encountered because they have money to operate. The Banner has a successful subscription model and has benefitted from the aftereffects of the Sun being owned by Alden and David Smith. There is a non-zero chance that someone, or a collective, finances a startup online news service that tries to acquire all of the KUSA talent Nexstar will blow out, particularly Kyle Clark and the station's investigative unit. Edit: @channel2 also noted to me that the Colorado Sun exists.

Let. It. Burn. It's going to happen anyway whether we like it or not.

Scott Fybush had this take on RadioDiscussions this morning on the merger and it is worth sharing here:

Yeah that will end well lol. Nexstar will just shutter those facilities, fire everyone and convert the stations into a pure simulcast of their existing properties while also threatening retribution on their own staff if they try similar stunts. You watch as they comply out of sheer fear. Union busting is real. Why else would Nexstar be headquartered in Irving, Texas, a right-to-work state? It might not be a bad idea to read up on XHDE, which was literally killed off by a strike that is still technically ongoing even after the shuttered studios burned to the ground.

This. Brendan Carr would be violating the overturning of Chevron but he's unconcerned about a pesky contempt of court charge when he removes all cap restrictions. Plus SCOTUS can always give him a mulligan.

The only transaction the FCC has ever voided was the 1956 NBC-Westinghouse swap, and that took nearly a decade to resolve. There isn't a snowball's chance in hell that any subsequent administration will wave a magic wand and undo approval of this merger. Nor will it rehire any of the thousands of staff that will be fired by Perry once this is ramrodded. The fix is in.

Who's going to enforce said laws? A decimated, understaffed FTC? A DOJ led by whackjobs Kash Patel and Dan "Toasterhead" Bongino? Those safeguards we once had are gone. We're talking about a lawless regime with zero credible opposition and zero oversight. Brendan Carr will flaunt or flagrantly break the rules to get his way because he's a political hack. He doesn't give a damn about a contempt of court because they can't enforce anything. And no, Nexstar is not selling a single station. This is a dream scenario for a conglomerate whose sole existence has been centered around buying up everything.

CBS is very blatantly Nexstar's next takeover target after this goes through. Not only does it get them a second network and twinsticks in almost all the top 10 markets, but they also get another 12.5% of the CW as an added bonus. WJZY openly told their viewers that they expect to control WCNC when this goes through. Perry is counting on Brendan Carr openly flaunting or ignoring the rules (which is 100% to be expected with this regime) and declare the cap as an outdated rule that no longer applies. Which is absolutely going to happen... what's the supple, pliable speaker Mike Johnson going to do when he's already fully doing the bidding of Carr's boss?

Meanwhile, Newsmax, whose cable opinion channel is a direct competitor with Nexstar's NewsNation, is against the deal. They hilariously claims NewsNation is "left-wing" because for Newsmax, facts always get in the way of the narrative they want to push.

The deal was done after 60 Minutes was killed off in broad daylight. So why was Colbert not taken off the air immediately? Why are they keeping him on the air through May?

CBS was screwed the second Shari bundled it in with Paramount. That David Ellison hung CBS News out to dry while allowing himself to be pantsed by Carr in a Kabuki theatre stunt shows his utter disinterest in the network. It's a burden for him he doesn't want.

The salary levels will only be depressed further after the mass firings take place. Meanwhile Perry will get another bonus as he continues to play pretend media mogul with his castle of sand.