Sinclair to buy Tribune for $3.9 billion

Sinclair Broadcast Group announced a deal to purchase Tribune Media Company for $3.9 billion. The deal comes weeks after the FCC eased media ownership limits. It would bring together two media giants, resulting in fewer viewpoints at a time when the journalism industry is struggling and the Trump administration has been openly hostile toward the press. Consolidation threatens jobs loss as well.

The deal appears to be implicated in a quid pro quo transaction. Late last year, Politico reported that Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, told a group of business leaders that the Trump campaign made a deal to provide Sinclair, a politically conservative broadcasting company, with greater access. In exchange, Sinclair would broadcast Trump interviews without commentary. Sinclair later hired a Trump spokesman. And now the Trump FCC has eased regulations that would otherwise have blocked a Sinclair-Tribune deal.

Links:

Sinclair announces deal to buy Tribune for $3.9B (The Hill, May 8, 2017)

FCC eases restriction on media ownership (The Hill, Apr. 20, 2017)

Kushner: We struck deal with Sinclair for straighter coverage (Politico, Dec. 16, 2016)