Senator Worried Sinclair will Ruin St. Louis Television

While Sinclair waits on final approval of their deal to take over the Tribune stations, one Missouri Senator thinks that when the deal goes through, St. Louis viewers will be screwed. 

Multichannel News writes that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has asked the FCC not to let a combined Sinclair-Tribune own two of the top four stations in St. Louis.

In a letter to FCC chair Ajit Pai, McCaskill said she had concerns about the impact of the Sinclair-Tribune merger on the market, where Sinclair owns ABC affiliate KDNL and Tribune has the Fox affiliate, KTVI.

Sinclair has said it would add news to KDNL if the deal is approved, but McCaskill said that is too little too late for a company, Sinclair, for which she clearly has no great affection, saying it has shown a "stunning disregard for local news."

She pointed out that it had dropped local news on KDNL back in October 2001, with only a brief return in 2011, until 2013, in partnership with the NBC affiliate there.

"I urge you to strictly enforce the prohibition on a broadcaster owning more than one top four television station in a market if the Sinclair-Tribune merger is approved," she said. Still, strictly enforcing the new rule, which is short of a flat-out prohibition, would still allow dual ownership if the FCC concluded it was in the public interest.

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