On local broadcasting, Trump Federal Communications Commission “can’t be serious!”

[Commentary] Network news is nationally scripted for a national audience. The New York-based networks such as ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC feed common fare to all their affiliates. That is precisely why broadcasting policy – until the Trump Federal Communications Commission – has expected those local affiliates to use the medium for local news and information. Sinclair’s broadcast licenses mandate the provision of local services, not a de facto new national network with pre-scripted national messages. By original design and follow-on intent, local broadcast stations are not supposed to be the same as television networks. Over the last year-and-a-half, the Trump FCC has serially removed the policies that protected localism. 

One last chance remains for the Trump FCC to stand up for localism. The agency (along with the Department of Justice) must approve the Sinclair-Tribune transaction. At the Justice Department, such a decision hinges on the strict requirements of the antitrust statutes. The FCC the test is much broader: whether the transaction is in the “public interest.” It is hard to imagine that the consolidation of communications power to destroy the underlying localism of broadcasting is somehow in the public interest.

[Tom Wheeler is the former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission]