There was a time when the only political news that happened on a Sunday was whatever the various partisan talking heads managed to say on the Sunday morning network news shows. Every weekend newscast producer knows the drill: you pull a soundbite or two from each of the party faithful who said the most interesting things on NBC’s "Meet the Press", CBS’s "Face the Nation", ABC’s "This Week", CNN’s "State of the Union" or "Fox News Sunday.”  If one of your state’s members of Congress were on, that might even warrant a mini-package.

That was before the nation started receiving policy positions from social media posts made at any hour of any day.

And because the President of these United States has his own social media platform, in the form of the Trump Media & Technology group-owned “Truth Social,” the reality is that whatever gets posted to the Commander-In-Chief’s “official” account between Friday and Sunday is as likely to be a story in the Sunday night newscasts as anything said on those Sunday morning shows.

This Sunday was no different. While much of the nation was focused on the Dallas Cowboys' improbable comeback to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in the second half of the Sunday afternoon doubleheader, the account of [@realDonaldTrump](https://micro.blog/realDonaldTrump) posted this:

"If this would also allow the Radical Left Networks to ‘enlarge’ - I would not be happy. ABC & NBC, in particular, are a disaster - A VIRTUAL ARM OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY. They should be viewed as an illegal campaign to the Radical Left. NO EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS. If anything, make them SMALLER! President DJT"

The Truth Social post linked to a story on the Newsmax website, in which last week, that network’s CEO, Christopher Ruddy, went on the air to blast the proposed Nexstar-TEGNA merger, claiming it would “give the big TV networks massive reach.” The headline of the web story on his appearance makes the point even sharper: “FCC lifting TV cap a ‘disaster’ for Conservatives."

But he didn’t stop with just his previously expressed distaste for the 6-plus billion dollar deal that would unite Nexstar and TEGNA to create the largest single owner of local television stations. Ruddy went on to chastise Nexstar in particular, citing a statistic that claims that 78% of Nexstar employees donated to Kamala Harris in the last election.

(We find that claim, which wasn’t attributed to any source, a bit incredulous—given that the majority of the company’s 13,000-plus employees probably don’t make ANY political contributions, given their positions, not to mention the size of their paychecks. Well, at least those in non-executive positions.)

Ruddy wasn’t done “dropping bombs” (as the kids used to say) on all things Nexstar.

He labelled the company’s “NewsNation” as a “liberal news network”— headlined by former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. But perhaps his most substantial challenge would come in the form of this quote: "The answer to Big Tech consolidation is not to give left-wing TV broadcasters massive consolidation and power, too...You don't fix Big Tech consolidation by creating another industry with massive left-wing consolidation.” The challenge of “Big Tech” to local broadcasters has been a key argument Perry Sook has used to justify the merger, which would require raising the FCC-mandated cap on the number of local stations any one company can own, so that no one company reaches more than 39% of the nation’s TV viewers.

If the merger between Nexstar and TEGNA were allowed with no restrictions, the company would own stations reaching more than 80% of U.S. Households.

Finally, in a moment that was reminiscent of anchorman Howard Beale’s on-camera meltdown in the 1976 movie “Network.” Ruddy suggested that people who agree with him should "call their Congressman and call their Senators” to let them know that they "oppose lifting the 39% cap and the Nexstar merger."

Apparently, the occupant of the Oval Office seems somewhat swayed by Mr. Ruddy’s opposition.

And that’s despite Nexstar’s Chairman and CEO heaping praise on the President and his FCC Chairman, Brendan Carr, during his appearance with Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo last week. We detailed what he said in our dispatch from last Friday, which you can read here if you missed it.

This would be where we channel our inner Keanu Reeves to quietly exclaim to ourselves: “Whoa."

Of course, the contention that the Nexstar-TEGNA deal would “allow the Radical Left Networks to enlarge” is a bit misguided. In reality, the proposed deal doesn’t change the reach of either ABC or NBC in any meaningful way, because the number of stations each network airs on wouldn’t change—just who owns those stations would. And that isn’t either one of those “VIRTUAL ARMS OF THE DEMOCRAT PARTY” as the President called the two networks in his Sunday afternoon post.

So that runs a bit counter to the massive deregulation push the FCC Chairman has been promising for most of this year.

We would be remiss if we suggested here that this was anything more than a pesky speed bump on the road to getting the Nexstar-TEGNA deal done. But it is notable that within an hour after the initial Truth Social post from [@realDonaldTrump](https://micro.blog/realDonaldTrump), the social media of some conservative influencers picked up the theme. Over on Facebook, the account for “Conservative Twins” headlined a post with “President Trump has ordered the FCC to STOP a massive media merger that would super-charge the left-wing legacy networks."

Come to think about it, maybe this is more of a pothole than just a speed bump. How big a pothole? That remains to be seen.

We can but hope that Perry Sook has a good spare in the trunk of his company car.

He might need it down this road he’s on now.

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