Posted on 11/30/2025 4:08:30 AM PST by RandFan
The nation’s largest TV station owners want Carr’s Federal Communications Commission to loosen the rules that limit how many stations a single company can operate, a goal that many conservatives have been pressing for years.
But they have a formidable opponent in Trump confidant Chris Ruddy, the majority owner of Newsmax Media, who wants to keep the rules in place and now appears to be making headway with the president.
“NO EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS,” Trump wrote Sunday on Truth Social, echoing Ruddy’s argument that removing the ownership cap would hurt conservatives. “If anything, make them SMALLER!”
Since Trump named him to lead the agency in January, Carr has shown a knack for disruptive, MAGA-pleasing culture-war moves, like his public upbraiding of comedian Jimmy Kimmel and accusing ”60 Minutes” of being unfriendly to conservatives.
This time, however, he’s confronted with a conflict within the right that highlights the unpredictability of navigating policy issues in Trump’s Washington — even for committed Republican regulators and GOP-allied business interests.
Carr has signaled he may want to change the 21-year-old limit on TV station ownership, which was intended to prevent any one broadcaster from too much power over what Americans see on television.
Loosening the ownership rule would allow right-leaning companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group to expand.
...
“It’s not going to work,” Ruddy told POLITICO. “The president doesn’t want this, and so I have no doubt that he will not support the FCC going to extraordinary but potentially illegal lengths.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Trump does not want any expansion fearing it will favor 'fake news' lib media but this is rapidly changing and conservative media has been on the rise and doing very well I feel
More and smaller ownership, with fewer top-down edicts and more local control is far preferable to large mega-broadcasters exerting micro-managed statements nationwide.
Even the Sinclair group is a bit too large, and that national statement they made several years ago regarding NOT dictating a single party line was immediately misrepresented in the rest of the media.
JMHO, YMMV
I don’t see a benefit to the ordinary citizen of scale in TV station operation.
I do see risks to the ordinary citizen in conglomeration.
Certainly not more than owning one station in any one market area should be allowed.
As for radio station, small groups can practically produce songs and other content.
To make it easier for good audio content to reach all who crave it, there should be dozens of radio station operators at least. Minneapolis probably should have two Somali origin radio station owners.
Diversity requires diverse radio station ownership.
“A conservative media war erupts...”
WHY so Republicans always have to do this s&#t?
They could screw up a one car funeral...sheeeesh!
“A goal conservatives have been pressing for years” . . . NOT!
Those who have been pressing for consolidated media control are corporatists, not conservatives.
All of our local stations have been taken over by media conglomerates in the last 10 - 20 years, and all have moved leftward. Corporatist republicans need to wake up and stop listening to the lobbyists.
If Ted Cruz and the Democrats are against lifting the cap, then its probably a good idea.
The ABC affiliate is the only one not owned by a mega-chain here. Beverly Poston owns a few stations regionally but that’s it.
Radio we only have one company in New York State that owns most stations in our market. One news/talk based 100 miles northeast of here, the other is a C&W and another is an R&B station. The other is a Sacramento radio station that is auto-programmed 24/7 from California and has nothing local that’s a megachain that poisoned our churches where I travel 50 minutes just to church to avoid these stations.
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