FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr likes to talk a big game about “localism.” He frequently argues that American communities need more locally relevant news, local stories, and programming that reflects the people and places a station is licensed to serve. On this point, he’s absolutely right: authentic local content is vital to a functioning democracy and healthy civic life. But Carr’s preferred method to get there — loosening the FCC’s rules on media ownership — doesn’t just miss the mark. It actively undermines the very goal he claims to champion. Deregulation Isn’t The Path To Better Local TV By pushing for deregulation that would allow more concentrated ownership of local broadcast stations, Carr is accelerating a trend that has already weakened local programming for decades. This isn’t a theoretical outcome — it’s an observable one. Big broadcast groups are not purchasing stations because they believe in the mission of local journalism or civic storytelling. They are doing it for the efficiencies that come with consolidation: operational scale, streamlined staffing, reduced overhead. The consequences are clear. Fewer reporters are assigned to local beats. Newsrooms are merged or shuttered. Weather, traffic, and sports — once the pillars of local coverage — are increasingly automated or outsourced. The business rationale is simple: it’s far cheaper to centralize production and syndicate content across dozens or even hundreds of stations than to invest in unique, local programming in each market. The result is a broadcast landscape that looks local on the surface, but increasingly lacks meaningful connection to the communities being served. A Broken Promise Since 1996 This erosion of localism didn’t begin yesterday. The 1996 Telecommunications Act was the inflection point that allowed station groups to expand aggressively, ushering in an era of mega-broadcasters - like Sinclair, Nexstar, and Gray - and a steady erosion of truly local programming. News segments beamed in from centralized hubs. Anchors appearing in multiple cities without ever setting foot in the markets they cover. Community voices pushed out by templated content stamped across dozens of stations at once. This is the blueprint Carr wants to double down on — despite the overwhelming evidence that it fails the test of actual localism. Community-specific journalism doesn’t scale well. It requires dedicated local teams who understand their neighborhoods, attend town halls, report from the ground, and build relationships with local leaders. And that kind of granular reporting — the kind that helps communities hold power to account — is precisely what gets lost when stations become mere endpoints of a national portfolio. |
