Local News Is Turning Into Trump TV, Even Though Viewers Don’t Want It

Sinclair Broadcast Group — a media company run by a family of multi-millionaire Republican donors — is on the cusp of owning enough local television stations to reach 70 percent of American households. On the day that Donald Trump was elected, it would have been all but impossible for any single broadcaster to claim that large a share of the local TV news market. But Trump’s handpicked Federal Communications Commission chair, Ajit Pai, spent much of 2017 dismantling regulatory obstacles to media ownership consolidation — including two rules that stood in the way of Sinclair’s desired merger with Tribune Media. Sinclair has repaid this favor with interest.