Democratic Reps Seek Own Sinclair Data Dump

Over four dozen Democratic House members have written Sinclair President Chris Ripley asking for answers to over a dozen questions related to the proposed Tribune merger and its impact on the public interest, as well as suggesting the company commit to not raising retransmission fees for its newly acquired stations. The letter comes as the Federal Communications Commission is about to start its informal 180-day shot clock on the merger after pausing it to give the public more time to comment on Sinclair's response to the FCC's second request for info on the deal. Citing Ripley's confidence the deal would be approved by the FCC by the end of 2017, the legislators suggested that timetable would be troubling given the deal's complexity, its "historic reach," and its "failure to comply with the FCC's media ownership rules." Sinclair has said it would comply with all relevant FCC rules, though if FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's broadcast deregulation proposal is approved at the Nov. 16 meeting, as expected, those rules could change in Sinclair's favor. They also suggest Sinclair commit to not increasing the percentage of "must-run" national programming, to not charging more in retransmission fees, and ask whether it has corresponded with FCC officials using non-government e-mail addresses of social media. They asked or answers from the broadcaster by Nov 10.