Opinion

STEVE FORBES: Regulators risk destroying local TV by blocking key media merger

Washington should not cling to yesterday’s rulebook while today’s local newsrooms vanish

By Steve Forbes Fox News

Published May 4, 2026 9:00am EDT

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The Nexstar-Tegna transaction is exactly the kind of pro-growth, common-sense deal Washington should applaud, not bury under a mountain of legal briefs, bureaucratic nostrums and political posturing.

These two companies are major owners of local television stations.

For years, America’s local broadcasters have been battered by forces far larger than any single station group: Big Tech, streaming behemoths, social-media platforms, cord-cutting, cable fragmentation and the steady siphoning of advertising dollars away from local outlets. The old world of three networks, a handful of hometown stations and a captive evening-news audience has long gone the way of the dinosaurs.

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Local television today is not operating in a sheltered village. It is competing in a global, fiercely competitive marketplace.

That is why the Nexstar-Tegna deal matters.

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This is not just another media merger. It is a test of whether policymakers understand the real economy — or whether they remain trapped in a regulatory museum, polishing rules written for a media world that no longer exists.

Nexstar has........

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