PAGE 12 | August 24, 2018 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
NATIONAL
Sinclair bid to buy Tribune collapses after ‘sham’ filing with the FCC
Sinclair Broadcast Group’s pro-
posed buyout of Tribune Media
is dead. The $3.9 billion deal —
which was strongly opposed by
broadcast unions IATSE and
NABET-CWA — would have
made the nation’s biggest TV sta-
tion owner even bigger by
adding Tribune’s 42 stations to
Sinclair’s 173. The acquisition
plainly violated Federal Commu-
nication Commission (FCC)
rules that bar any company from
owning stations that reach more
than 39 percent of the American
public. [A merged Sinclair-Tri-
bune would reach 72 percent.]
Earlier this year, it seemed like
Trump-appointed FCC chair Ajit
Pai was doing everything possi-
ble to engineer FCC approval of
the acquisition, even changing a
rule to count only half the audi-
ence of some Sinclair stations.
Even after that, the proposed Sin-
clair-Tribune combination would
be 6 percent over the limit. To
squeeze through, Sinclair prom-
ised to sell off some stations.
But when FCC administrators
dug into the details, it turned out
Sinclair was trying to pull a fast
one. WGN in Chicago was to be
sold to a longtime business part-
ner of Sinclair board chair David
Smith. Stations in Dallas and
Houston were to be sold to a
company controlled by Smith’s
mother’s estate. And the sales in-
cluded agreements that Sinclair
would continue to manage the
sold stations, and buy them back
for the same amount if FCC later
changed its ownership limiting
rule. On July 16, FCC adminis-
trators called Sinclair’s sell-off
plans a “sham” and told the com-
pany to prove its claims to a
judge.
That basically killed the
merger. On Aug. 9, Tribune an-
nounced it was pulling out of the
deal and filing a $1 billion law-
suit against Sinclair, saying its
“misconduct” with the FCC
spoiled chances of the deal get-
ting approved.
Unions at Sinclair and Tribune
had opposed the merger because
of the jobs that would be lost in
consolidation and because of
Sinclair’s record of replacing lo-
cal news with national content.
Sinclair has become infamous in
recent years for requiring local
TV news programs to air nation-
ally-produced conservative com-
mentary segments. Many of
these “must-runs” feature com-
ment from Boris Epshteyn, who
was senior adviser to Donald
Trump’s 2016 presidential cam-
paign. They air on all Sinclair
stations, including Portland’s
KATU and Seattle’s KOMO.
IATSE Local 600 tried but
failed in contract bargaining to
get Sinclair to commit to keep lo-
cal TV news operations open.
After going two and a half years
without a union contract or a
raise, IATSE-represented TV
camera operators at KATU voted
14 to 8 this March to accept Sin-
clair’s contract offer. Their agree-
ment runs through March 2021.
Sinclair’s legal problems are
mounting. Sinclair was fined a
record $13.3 million by the FCC
last December for airing over
1,700 paid commercials that
were designed to look like news
broadcasts. And an Aug. 1 law-
suit filed by advertisers accuses
Sinclair, Tribune, Tegna, Hearst,
Nexstar and Media Gray Televi-
sion of colluding to fix the rates
TV stations charge for advertis-
ing airtime.
Members of IATSE Local 600 held a Jan. 27 rally outside KATU in Portland to
warn the public of Sinclair’s plans to reduce the quality of local television news.