03/01/23 9:22 AM EST, Article Dont miss reporting and analysis from the Hill and the White House. Nexstars enormous reach across the country makes it a unique bellwether of whether consolidation can be in the public interest. Local TV stations tend to have a glut of crime stories, ranging from the horrific to the mundane, because a steady stream of them are always arriving through the police blotter. WIERNICKI: But the White House says that isnt part of the plan. In reality, Nexstar says, its stations reach 63 percent of American households, well surpassing the cap. The Border Report team is small. News stories on the website often come from external sources such as the Associated Press, Reuters, The Hill, and other Nexstar affiliates. Based in Chicago, the program utilized the journalistic resources of the 110 television news operations throughout the United States under WGN Americas corporate parent Nexstar Media Group. This spring, viewership soared while earnings plummeted. Donlon, a well-liked local Chicago anchor at WGN before joining NewsNation, was assigned to The Donlon Report, an hourlong show that features talking heads debating hot button issues. companies to control stations beyond the market cap. Then, late last year, Nexstar finalized an acquisition of Tribune Media for $7.2 billion, a figure that includes the assumption of Tribunes debt. 4) MSNBC, despite its reputation as the most liberal cable news network, has a more moderate audience than the four publications mentioned above -- and only a slightly more liberal audience than CNN. He is based in Northern California. The number of nightly viewers in the 25-to-54 age group preferred by advertisers for news programming has been in the range of 9,000 viewers nowhere near the 100,000 viewers in the demographic that Nexstar has targeted. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Carlson, Fox's wildly popular conservative pundit, said last week that he would begin airing footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot this week, after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) offered him what Carlson described as "unfettered" exclusive access to more than 40,000 hours of unreleased surveillance tape starting earlier in the month. Shine did not respond to a request for comment. Unlike its conservative rival Sinclair Broadcast Group, which made headlines in 2018 for requiring anchors to read identical scripts, Nexstar doesnt broadcast synchronized or partisan content. 03/01/23 10:37 AM EST, Video & Audio The network has built its brand on promising to deliver high-quality local TV, and the means by which it proposes to do thataggressive consolidationbuffers against a troubling future. Nexstar Media Group has a responsibility to avoid spreading misinformation to potentially millions of Americans through this type of sloppy reporting. DC The station has covered such stories, like the FBIs 2019 investigation of corruption in the administration of New Haven mayor Toni Harp, when they first surfaced in other outlets. But after eight months on the air, NewsNation has been plagued by minuscule ratings and internal strife over allegations of meddling in news coverage. The Latest Fact Checks curated by Media Bias Fact Check 03/01/2023, Daily Source Bias Check: Lozier Institute, The Latest Fact Checks curated by Media Bias Fact Check 02/28/2023, Daily Source Bias Check: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, The Latest Fact Checks curated by Media Bias Fact Check 02/27/2023. Nexstar Chairman Perry Sook told staff during a newsroom visit in March that talk programming was always part of the plan for NewsNation. See all Least Biased Sources. We cant find advertisers that want to take advantage of it. Ad revenue for local TV companies has dropped as much as 40 percent since the beginning of the pandemic. They cover community events. Read our profile on the United States government and media. These sources have minimal bias and use very few loaded words (wording that attempts to influence an audience by appeals to emotion or stereotypes). Now, without the usual in-person strategiesrallies, events, door-to-door canvassingand with reduced expenses, campaigns may allocate more funds to television. Except for the Revolving Door section, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License by OpenSecrets.org. For Ad-Free Subscriptions go here: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/membership-account/membership-levels/, Terms and Conditions If Nexstars general mandate to encourage localism does not explicitly incentivize station managers to embrace a muckraking ethos, in other words, its unlikely to happen. The guiding principle that Nexstar passes down to station managerscommitment to localismis amorphous and lackluster in contrast to the. Legal experts weigh in, ChatGPT who? Ad-Free Sign up paving the way for accelerated consolidation. 2) Fox News's viewership is pretty moderate compared to the Hannitys, Limbaughs, Becks and Breitbarts. 20005. Its channel position on cable and satellite systems is typically in the triple digits and not adjacent to other news networks, making it hard for viewers to find. After drawing on local station news operations to staff NewsNation for its launch, Sook has said Nexstar is looking to hire executives and talent with national network experience. The founder, chairman, president, and CEO of Nexstar is Perry A. Sook. Official PAC Name: NEXSTAR MEDIA GROUP, INC.POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (NEXSTAR PAC) Location: IRVING , TX 75062 Industry: TV/Movies/Music; Commercial TV & radio stations Treasurer: CARTER, THOMAS FEC Committee ID: C00567388 (Look up the documents filed at the FEC) For Nexstar Media Group, the largest local TV news company in the United States, the spring brought surges in viewership and declines in revenue to match the rest of the industry. In January, before the pandemic hit, Nexstars stock price had nearly doubled from two years prior. The recent segment by Nexstar Washington correspondent Anna Wiernicki is largely about how the implementation of President Joe Bidens new immigration policy will work and specifically how the Department of Homeland Security is going to begin to let asylum-seekers into the United States, officially ending the Trump administrations policy that forced people to stay in Mexico. Press Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE Right Bias: How we rate the bias of media sources. Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic Thats a staggering amount of airtime, and it reveals a contradiction at the heart of the mandate to produce original local programming every day. In sum, the news is generally reported factually and with a slight left-leaning editorial bias. Behind the scenes, executives are scrambling to figure out how to draw more viewers into NewsNation: When it launched last year, around 133,000 households tuned in, according to data released by Nielsen. Obviously, increasing awareness is Job One for us, Sook told analysts in February. Media bias has contributed to Americans becoming more politically polarized. CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian has spent years attacking immigrants, both documented and undocumented. Sook has declared that Nexstar has the largest news gathering organization in the country, and staff at the corporate headquarters, in Irving, Texas, refer to their vast network as the Nexstar Nation.. Local news features original reporting with minimal bias, such as this: 8,730-Acre Maria Fire Burning on South Mountain Destroys 2 Structures, Threatens Homes in Santa Paula andSomis. It seemed like fertile ground for the Irving, Texas-based Nexstar Media Group, the countrys largest owner of TV stations, including Los Angeles outlet KTLA. Shine, who oversaw the highly successful prime-time opinion shows at Fox News, is involved in both programs. While Nexstars corporate management has figured out how to make the company profitableamass power in retransmission negotiationsthey are no different from newsrooms anywhere in that they havent made this kind of reporting profitable. Today, after years of consolidation, Nexstar owns or operates 196 local TV stations in 114 markets across the United States, more than any other company. The company was founded in 1996 when Perry A. Sook purchased WYOU, a station in Scranton, Pa. Susan Tully, Nexstars senior vice president of local content development, explains, Now we own a station in market 2 [in Los Angeles] and a station in market 195 [in San Angelo, Texas]. Its stock price, which closed Tuesday at $153.97, down 2%, has more than doubled in the last 12 months. It was a huge undertaking for her, said another former WGN colleague of Lyons who was not authorized to speak publicly. Although executive shakeouts are common at startup operations, media industry veterans in Chicago believed the exodus at NewsNation was prompted by editorial interference from upper management and concerns that the channel would lean more to the political right and away from its stated mandate to be unbiased. Country: USA [5] The sale was completed on September 28 of that year. The channel was created in response to the growing demand for ideological diversity in the cable news landscape. On March 1, 2021, the channel was relaunched from WGN America into NewsNation, a cable news network named after its flagship news program. The opportunities to foster necessary, dynamic journalism are therethey just need proper attention. Now, without the usual in-person strategiesrallies, events, door-to-door canvassingand with reduced expenses, campaigns may allocate more funds to television. NewsNation, previously named WGN America, had been positioned by Nexstar at its debut last year as a just-the-facts news channel. Launched last year, NewsNation was billed as an attempt to bring a straightforward, no-nonsense prime-time national news block at a time when political opinion and debates dominated cable news. Retransmission fees now account for roughly half of Nexstars total revenueand the majority of these agreements are locked down until 2022, so this revenue is expected to remain steady or even increase. It's a unique way of laying out the complex media landscape in two dimensions: news value and reliability, on the vertical axis, and bias, on the horizontal axis. Blake Russell, executive vice president of station operations and content development, says that Nexstar sometimes supplies local stations with more staff when they expand their news programming: It depends on the market.. Butthe piece also included this soundbite from Bensman: Citation If Nexstars general mandate to encourage localism does not explicitly incentivize station managers to embrace a muckraking ethos, in other words, its unlikely to happen. On April 19, the company announced the signing of Adrienne Bankert, a former national correspondent for ABC News. Sanchez and Resendiz are able to execute their stories because of their investigative skills and due to an ingrained conception of themselves as accountability journalists. But the company has been surprised by NewsNations inability to attract a sizable number of viewers. Retransmission fees now account for roughly half of Nexstars total revenueand the majority of these agreements are locked down until 2022, so this revenue is expected to remain steady or even increase. Bias Rating: LEAST BIASED In 2017, though, the FCC reopened an outdated loophole that in effect allows companies to control stations beyond the market cap, paving the way for accelerated consolidation. Albert Ramon, Joe Donlon, Marni Hughes and Rob Nelson on the Chicago-based set of NewsNation. State and local officials will confront profound dilemmas as they attempt to manage rampant unemployment, food insecurity, and pending evictions, all while facing unprecedented budget cuts. Then the U.S. government blindsided it, WGA asks members to vote on key demands in bargaining with studios, Alec Baldwin and Rust producers sued by crew members over fatal shooting, Rupert Murdoch admits he knew Fox News hosts endorsed false election fraud claims, deposition shows, Historic movie lot that gave Studio City its name to get $1-billion makeover, 19 cafes that make L.A. a world-class coffee destination, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures, Review: A reimagined Secret Garden fails to flower anew at the Ahmanson Theatre, Im visiting all 600 L.A. spots on the National Register. 01/22/21 10:32 AM EST, Nexstar Media cited a group founded by a white nationalist and eugenicist to discuss immigration policy, airing it on at least 24 local news stations, From the February 16, 2021,edition of WLNS, East Palestine reveals how right-wing media has continued to poison citizen journalism, Newsmax guest: There's onlythree races - [Mongoloid], Caucasoid, and Negroid, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch insisted the network cover a proto-Jan. 6 rally more favorably: This is a huge celebration of the president., Chris Hayes: Dominion filing proves Mike Lindells money is worth more to Fox than the truth, Listen to a radio caller confront Sean Hannity over Dominion filings showing that Fox News lies for profit, Local news outlets at the U.S.-Mexico border frequently cite nativist anti-immigrant groups in reporting on immigration, The AP repeatedly cited nativist groups with ties to white nationalism in articles on immigration, Local and national media outlets are citing anti-immigrant extremist groups to discuss Bidens immigration plan. September 28 of that year, increasing awareness is Job One for us, Sook told staff a! Hit, nexstars stock price had nearly doubled from two years prior percent since the beginning the! Identifier stored in a cookie Hughes and Rob Nelson on the Chicago-based of! 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