Last night, while most of America slept, the Federal Communications Commission approved the $6.2 billion merger of Nexstar Media Group and Tegna. The deal closed. It is done. A single company now controls 265 television stations across 44 states and the District of Columbia. One company. 80% of American households. ... Gone. Not gone in the sense that the stations disappeared. Gone in the sense that the independence is over.
The free press is not a partisan issue. It is the infrastructure of democracy, and it is being dismantled, right now, in real time and in plain sight.
There is a moment in every authoritarian takeover when people look back and ask: why did no one say anything? Why did no one sound the alarm before it was too late?
