adminThe Federal Communications Commission is quietly moving to lift the long-standing 39 percent national TV ownership cap, and conservative leaders are rightly sounding the alarm. Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy warned on-air that the plan would be a blatant violation of federal law and a direct threat to independent, conservative outlets that speak for hardworking Americans.
The 39 percent cap was put in place to prevent any single broadcaster from controlling the flow of local news to most American households, a guardrail rooted in concerns about media monopolies going back to the Reagan era. Eliminating or recalculating that cap — including reviving tricks like the UHF discount or approving sidecar deals — would let a company like Nexstar swallow up rivals and extend reach far beyond what Congress intended. The Nexstar-Tegna deal under review would, if allowed, push market reach into the majority of U.S. homes and remake the local news landscape overnight.
Conservative legal minds are already preparing to fight the FCC in court, arguing the Commission has no authority to rewrite statutory ownership limits without Congress. Vanderbilt law professor Brian Fitzpatrick, a respected conservative scholar, filed a blunt legal opinion saying any attempt to bypass the 39 percent rule through regulatory maneuvers would violate federal law and likely be struck down. This is not a partisan temper tantrum — it is a defense of the rule of law and the separation of powers that protects the people from one-party media dominance.
Chris Ruddy’s stance should remind Republicans that deregulation is not an automatic good when it hands consolidated power to corporations that lean left. Some in Washington want to tout competition with Big Tech as a reason to deregulate, but the answer cannot be to replace one monopolistic landscape with another dominated by a small number of broadcast giants. Americans who still rely on local TV for their news deserve a diversity of voices, not a corporate media echo chamber controlled by coast-to-coast conglomerates.
The political stakes are obvious: centralized control of local news would give massive, coordinated influence to a few gatekeepers who already tilt left, and that power would shape elections and public opinion in ways that hurt patriotic conservatives. Ruddy pointed out the uncomfortable reality that many of the staff at potential mega-broadcasters have historically supported Democratic causes, which makes handing them expanded reach a strategic disaster for our side. This is about preserving a competitive information marketplace where small, independent outlets can thrive and where local communities control their own news.
Hardworking Americans who care about free speech and fair media should not sit on the sidelines while the FCC rewrites the rules to favor inside-the-Beltway consolidation. Conservatives must call their representatives, press Republican leaders in Congress to defend the statutory cap, and be ready to challenge any illegal administrative overreach in the courts. If we want to protect local journalism, election integrity, and the voice of everyday patriots, now is the time to act before Washington cedes yet more power to a handful of media giants.
