This week Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy took to the air to warn hardworking Americans that the Federal Communications Commission is quietly moving to tear down the 39 percent TV-ownership cap that protects local news from national left-wing control. Ruddy called the possible change a direct threat to conservatives and localism, arguing the move would let a handful of big networks dictate the news agendas for whole regions of the country.
That 39 percent ceiling is not some arbitrary guideline — Congress explicitly wrote it into law in the aftermath of the 2003 FCC rule fight, rolling the national cap back to 39 percent in appropriations in 2004 to preserve local voices and prevent national monopolies over the airwaves. Americans who believe in checks and balances should remember this is a statutory limit enacted by lawmakers, not a preference of regulators to be casually ignored.
The urgency is real because Nexstar’s blockbuster bid for Tegna would, by the companies’ own estimates, give the combined group reach into roughly eighty percent of American TV homes — a scale that would obliterate the intent of the statutory cap and concentrate information power in a few corporate hands. This isn’t abstract theory; the deal has been filed and could be the vehicle to ram through the kind of consolidation Ruddy warns about.
Conservative legal scholars have already sounded the alarm that the FCC lacks authority to rewrite that clear congressional command by sleight-of-hand maneuvers like reviving the UHF discount or greenlighting sidecar arrangements. Vanderbilt’s Brian Fitzpatrick and others argue the Commission would be violating federal law if it tries to rewrite the cap without Congress, and the post-Chevron legal landscape gives courts more latitude to reject agency lawmaking that stretches statutory text.
This is not a technocratic debate for lawyers alone — it’s about power. Ruddy and other conservatives rightly point out that empowering national networks and giant station groups will erode the little independence local anchors still have, and it will hand the narrative to companies that, by public reports, tilt left in their political donations and editorial choices. If you value fair competition for ideas and local accountability, you should be alarmed that the FCC seems ready to help consolidate a left-leaning media empire.
There is still time to stop this administrative overreach, but it won’t happen without pressure. Ruddy urged viewers to call their representatives and demand Congress defend the law it passed in 2004 instead of letting an agency unwind it for the convenience of media conglomerates, and citizens of principle should make those calls now.
Conservatives who care about free speech, local control, and honest journalism should stand with those unions, local outlets, and legal scholars who recognize the danger of concentrated media power — this is the kind of fight where grassroots activism can still make a difference. If we let regulators and big companies rewrite the rules in back rooms, we will wake up to a country where a handful of headquarters decide what millions of Americans are allowed to see and hear in their own hometowns.
