As Nexstar Buys Tegna, Local News Shrinks—and Corruption Grows

Media giant Nexstar Media Group, one of the largest media enterprises in the United States, is purchasing Tegna Media for $6.2 billion as of August 19th. This is just one of many recent mergers and acquisitions in an unprecedented age of media consolidation. Nexstar, which already owns news stations Fox 31 in Denver, CBS affiliate KREX in Grand Junction, and Fox affiliate KXRM in Colorado Springs, has agreed to acquire Tegna who owns NBC affiliate 9News and KTVD in Denver. The deal is set to be finalized by the second half of 2026, pending shareholder and regulatory approval. This merger leaves Nexstar in control of two of Denver’s top three stations—9News, CBS 4, and Fox 31—as well as 3 other stations across Colorado. This violates the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulation that one company can only own one of the top four stations in a local area. Further, according to Nexstar, after the merger, they will have a “combined audience reach of 80% of US TV households” across the US, well above the 39% national viewership cap put in place by the FCC. These violations are only possible due to the current administration's deregulation of broadcast rules in favor of media conglomerates.  

The ramifications for local news coverage in Denver and across the US are yet to be seen; however, when media is consolidated, it is known that local news coverage decreases, diversity of viewpoints shrinks, and the media has weakened accountability. According to the Free Press, “When a handful of corporations own nearly all of our news media, owners of color are crowded out and people of color are either stereotyped or ignored in news coverage.” This leaves minorities with less control over how they’re portrayed, as well as less coverage of events in their communities. 

Additionally, more media stations being owned by fewer corporations means consumers lose access to unbiased reporting, and see fewer perspectives. According to Stanford Business School, between 2010 and 2020, Nexstar Media, Sinclair Media, and Grey Television made more than 215 acquisitions, which put them in charge of 40% of all local news coverage and in over 80% of media markets. Furthermore, Joshua McCrain of the University of Utah and Gregory Martin, an associate professor of political economy at Stanford Graduate School of Business, stated, “...new ownership typically led to a de-emphasis on local news and more coverage of national politics [and] advertising increased during newscasts.” Having multiple sources of information ensures that you see all the important stories, because there are more stories than one outlet can cover. 

Typically, an area will have numerous sources of news, from newspapers to TV stations and radios, to keep each other in check, confirming they report factual, unopinionated information and cover all the essential stories. Additionally, independent media (media not owned by a large corporation) have more freedom in what they report. A news station owned by a larger corporation is not going to be able to write and air a story that the company doesn’t approve of. If a large portion of news stations can’t report something, we are incapacitating the public's access to accurate information. According to the New York Times, in some cases, the owners impose editorial directions, as seen with Sinclair Media—who own 185 television stations—and have created editorials and news stories that they mandate be read on air by all their stations, rather than letting the local newsrooms decide. 

Additionally, without multiple sources of information, it is known that corruption in our government increases. Steve Bass, the former president and CEO of Oregon Public Broadcasting (a PBS affiliate with more than 25 radio and TV stations) stated, “Without journalists to observe and report (and sometimes push for access), governments tend to do things behind closed doors, which can be detrimental to everyday people. In many communities, there is a scarcity of journalists, and there is some evidence that public corruption is higher.” This point was further illustrated when Colombia Journalism Review stated, “All else being equal, the closure of a newspaper yielded a 6.9 percent increase in corruption charges..and a 7.4 percent increase in cases filed.” Factual, unbiased information is essential to keeping our government honest, and with media consolidation, we are further hampering access to factual news.

Finally, there have been drastic changes in the ways that people consume media, shifting from newspapers and news stations to social media. When in the past it was easy to tell what was opinion rather than fact, now it is much harder to tell with sources broadcasting stories with “news” in the title when the majority is panels of pundits offering opinions. Social media has also made it increasingly challenging to distinguish between fact and opinion, because it feeds people content based on what they’ve already consumed and is "susceptible to manipulation by propagandists, malevolent foreign governments, and people profiting off division.” With many social media platforms owned by Google and Meta, which have tremendous market power, and far less regulation than traditional media, it takes a highly media-literate person to distinguish between what is fact, what is opinion, and what is entirely made up.