California
Federal judge blocks Nexstar-Tegna TV station merger until antitrust lawsuit is settled
A federal judge has blocked a $6.2 billion merger of local television giants Nexstar Media Group and rival Tegna until an antitrust lawsuit is resolved.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley in Sacramento, California, made the ruling late Friday afternoon, finding that eight attorneys general and DirecTV were likely to prevail in their legal bid to stop the merger. The attorneys general, all Democrats, and
DirecTV contend the merger will lead to higher prices for consumers, stifle local journalism and that the deal runs afoul of federal laws designed to protect against monopolies.
The deal, announced last year and approved by the Federal Communications Commission, would create a company that owns 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, most of them local affiliates of one of the “Big Four” national networks: ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.
That would likely give Nexstar the power to raise the retransmission fees it charges to video programming distributors like DirecTV, which means higher bills for consumers, Nunley wrote. The company also has a track record of consolidating local television news stations when it owns more than one station in a market, the judge said, meaning viewers “will lose options for where to get their local news.”
The deal could also force distributors like DirecTV to comply with Nexstar’s demands for higher broadcast fees or risk leaving subscribers potentially unable to watch things like Sunday NFL football games, the judge said.
Stopping the merger for now is in the public interest,” Nunley wrote.
Attorneys representing Nexstar and Tegna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nexstar’s attorneys told the court the deal has already been reviewed and cleared by the FCC and the Department of Justice. They said the FCC order commits the company to expand local journalism and programming, not shrink it.
The merger needed the approval of the Republican Trump administration’s FCC because the government had to waive rules that limit how many local stations one company can own. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in March that the company had agreed to divest itself of six stations.
The judge said the FCC clearance process for the deal was “unusual,” and that the regulatory oversight “did not curb the manifest anticompetitive effects of this acquisition.”
The Department of Justice, which is tasked with conducting antitrust reviews of these types of mergers, announced it was closing its investigation of the deal in March through “early termination,” the judge noted, ending the review process sooner than is normally required by statute.
“In unusual circumstances — with the FCC’s quasi-adjudicatory licensing proceeding still pending — the President himself weighed in publicly in February and urged federal regulators to approve the deal to ‘knock out the Fake News,’” Nunley wrote.
The preliminary injunction is designed to keep things as they are until the lawsuit is fully decided, Nunley said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James called the ruling a “critical victory” in a statement released Friday evening.
“Consolidating hundreds of local TV stations under one corporate owner would mean higher prices and lower quality programming for consumers,” she wrote. She later continued, “We will keep fighting our case to ensure fair competition among local TV stations that serve communities across the country.”
Kansas
Family sues over jail death after deputy allegedly knelt on cuffed inmate’s back
Relatives of a jail inmate whom investigators determined died after a Kansas sheriff’s deputy shoved his knee into the cuffed man’s back for one minute and 26 seconds have filed a federal lawsuit.
Attorneys for the family of Charles Adair renewed their demand Friday that video of what happened be released publicly in announcing the wrongful death lawsuit.
Filed earlier this month, the lawsuit names the Wyandotte County sheriff, the unified government for the county and Kansas City, Kansas, and Richard Fatherley, who was charged last year with second-degree murder in Adair’s death.
“The public has a right to transparency when someone dies in custody in this manner,” Ben Crump, an attorney who is representing the family, said in a news release.
Crump and another civil rights attorney, Harry Daniels, were allowed to view video of what happened. The sheriff’s office has declined a records request from The Associated Press seeking the video.
Adair was arrested last July on misdemeanor warrants for failure to appear on multiple traffic violations. At the time, Adair’s leg needed to be amputated and was so badly infected that he was taken straight to the hospital, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent wrote in the affidavit.
Before Adair was cleared to return to the jail, he was diagnosed with a type of bone infection that sometimes develops in people with diabetes. A medical screening also found he was schizophrenic, the affidavit said.
The lawsuit said he was incoherent and that deputies believed Adair’s medical condition “was affecting his brain.”
After having his leg rewrapped the following evening, he got into an argument with the deputy who was wheeling him back his cell. Adair ultimately threw himself out of the wheelchair, the affidavit said.
Once he was back in his cell, he was placed on his stomach on the bottom bunk, with his legs and knees on the ground. He repeatedly yelled “Help!” the lawsuit and court records said.
The lawsuit noted that Adair was complying with commands but that Fatherley “pressed his body weight onto Mr. Adair’s back.” Other deputies then removed Adair’s handcuffs while Fatherley shifted his weight forward.
The lawsuit said none of the other law enforcement officers who were present intervened and that the deputies failed to modify their tactics to account for Adair’s apparent mental health impairment.
The lawsuit also said that Fatherley, who is on administrative leave and free on bond, wasn’t cut off from his sheriff’s office email after he was charged, allowing him to communicate with other members of the sheriff’s office and employees that he knew were witnesses.
Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Capt. Michael Kroening said Fatherley’s email was deactivated on April 13 after the litigation was filed. He declined to comment further because the litigation is pending. A county spokesperson didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
A status conference in the criminal case against Fatherley is set for next month. His attorney, James Spies, has said that Adair’s death was “a tragic accident” but it was not a result of Fatherley’s actions.
Federal judge blocks Nexstar-Tegna TV station merger until antitrust lawsuit is settled
A federal judge has blocked a $6.2 billion merger of local television giants Nexstar Media Group and rival Tegna until an antitrust lawsuit is resolved.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley in Sacramento, California, made the ruling late Friday afternoon, finding that eight attorneys general and DirecTV were likely to prevail in their legal bid to stop the merger. The attorneys general, all Democrats, and
DirecTV contend the merger will lead to higher prices for consumers, stifle local journalism and that the deal runs afoul of federal laws designed to protect against monopolies.
The deal, announced last year and approved by the Federal Communications Commission, would create a company that owns 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, most of them local affiliates of one of the “Big Four” national networks: ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.
That would likely give Nexstar the power to raise the retransmission fees it charges to video programming distributors like DirecTV, which means higher bills for consumers, Nunley wrote. The company also has a track record of consolidating local television news stations when it owns more than one station in a market, the judge said, meaning viewers “will lose options for where to get their local news.”
The deal could also force distributors like DirecTV to comply with Nexstar’s demands for higher broadcast fees or risk leaving subscribers potentially unable to watch things like Sunday NFL football games, the judge said.
Stopping the merger for now is in the public interest,” Nunley wrote.
Attorneys representing Nexstar and Tegna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nexstar’s attorneys told the court the deal has already been reviewed and cleared by the FCC and the Department of Justice. They said the FCC order commits the company to expand local journalism and programming, not shrink it.
The merger needed the approval of the Republican Trump administration’s FCC because the government had to waive rules that limit how many local stations one company can own. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in March that the company had agreed to divest itself of six stations.
The judge said the FCC clearance process for the deal was “unusual,” and that the regulatory oversight “did not curb the manifest anticompetitive effects of this acquisition.”
The Department of Justice, which is tasked with conducting antitrust reviews of these types of mergers, announced it was closing its investigation of the deal in March through “early termination,” the judge noted, ending the review process sooner than is normally required by statute.
“In unusual circumstances — with the FCC’s quasi-adjudicatory licensing proceeding still pending — the President himself weighed in publicly in February and urged federal regulators to approve the deal to ‘knock out the Fake News,’” Nunley wrote.
The preliminary injunction is designed to keep things as they are until the lawsuit is fully decided, Nunley said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James called the ruling a “critical victory” in a statement released Friday evening.
“Consolidating hundreds of local TV stations under one corporate owner would mean higher prices and lower quality programming for consumers,” she wrote. She later continued, “We will keep fighting our case to ensure fair competition among local TV stations that serve communities across the country.”
Kansas
Family sues over jail death after deputy allegedly knelt on cuffed inmate’s back
Relatives of a jail inmate whom investigators determined died after a Kansas sheriff’s deputy shoved his knee into the cuffed man’s back for one minute and 26 seconds have filed a federal lawsuit.
Attorneys for the family of Charles Adair renewed their demand Friday that video of what happened be released publicly in announcing the wrongful death lawsuit.
Filed earlier this month, the lawsuit names the Wyandotte County sheriff, the unified government for the county and Kansas City, Kansas, and Richard Fatherley, who was charged last year with second-degree murder in Adair’s death.
“The public has a right to transparency when someone dies in custody in this manner,” Ben Crump, an attorney who is representing the family, said in a news release.
Crump and another civil rights attorney, Harry Daniels, were allowed to view video of what happened. The sheriff’s office has declined a records request from The Associated Press seeking the video.
Adair was arrested last July on misdemeanor warrants for failure to appear on multiple traffic violations. At the time, Adair’s leg needed to be amputated and was so badly infected that he was taken straight to the hospital, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent wrote in the affidavit.
Before Adair was cleared to return to the jail, he was diagnosed with a type of bone infection that sometimes develops in people with diabetes. A medical screening also found he was schizophrenic, the affidavit said.
The lawsuit said he was incoherent and that deputies believed Adair’s medical condition “was affecting his brain.”
After having his leg rewrapped the following evening, he got into an argument with the deputy who was wheeling him back his cell. Adair ultimately threw himself out of the wheelchair, the affidavit said.
Once he was back in his cell, he was placed on his stomach on the bottom bunk, with his legs and knees on the ground. He repeatedly yelled “Help!” the lawsuit and court records said.
The lawsuit noted that Adair was complying with commands but that Fatherley “pressed his body weight onto Mr. Adair’s back.” Other deputies then removed Adair’s handcuffs while Fatherley shifted his weight forward.
The lawsuit said none of the other law enforcement officers who were present intervened and that the deputies failed to modify their tactics to account for Adair’s apparent mental health impairment.
The lawsuit also said that Fatherley, who is on administrative leave and free on bond, wasn’t cut off from his sheriff’s office email after he was charged, allowing him to communicate with other members of the sheriff’s office and employees that he knew were witnesses.
Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Capt. Michael Kroening said Fatherley’s email was deactivated on April 13 after the litigation was filed. He declined to comment further because the litigation is pending. A county spokesperson didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
A status conference in the criminal case against Fatherley is set for next month. His attorney, James Spies, has said that Adair’s death was “a tragic accident” but it was not a result of Fatherley’s actions.
