RICHARD J. DURBIN COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS 
ILLINOIS 
DEMOCRATIC WHIP tinitrd ~mtrs ~rnatr 
t1Doshingron, B~ 20510-1 ;ot 
October 30, 2017 
The Honorable Aji Pai 
Chairman, Federal Communications Commission 
445 l 21h Street SW 
Washington, DC 20554 
Dear Chairman Pai : 
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY 
COMMITTEE ON RULES 
AND ADMINISTRATION 
The proposed acquisition of the Tribune Media Company by the Sinclair Broadcast Group is not in 
the interest of the American people-it would threaten diversity and localism in broadcasting, 
ignore the unique concerns and interests of local audiences, and harm competition. 
If approved, the merged Sinclair-Tribune company would own or operate 233 stations nationwide 
and reach 72% of U.S. TV households- making it the nation's largest television broadcast 
company. Additionally, the new company would violate many long-standing Federal 
Communications Commission (FCC) rules. Unfortunately, it seems that Commission is now going 
out of it is way to clear batTiers to the deal by rolling back any rule that may pose a problem to it, 
including unnecessarily reinstating the outdated Ultra High Frequency discount, eliminating the 
Main Studio Rule, and ' relaxing' local media ownership limits. 
This is on top of Sinclair's history of exploiting loopholes to skirt existing ownership caps by 
remotely operating stations while still dictating the content, including mandating Sinclair-produced 
segments such as the Terrorism Alert Desk, which regularly conflates Islam and terrorism, and 
firing many of the local reporters at the stations. With the Commission's recent actions, Sinclair no 
longer will even need to go through the formality of pretending to divest from local stations. 
Congress explicitly directed the FCC to establish limits to how many households a single 
broadcasting company could reach because it recognized the public benefit gained from televising a 
diverse range of opinions and maintaining robust competition in broadcasting. Approving the 
proposed merger would go directly against this intent. Therefore, I urge you to give it careful 
consideration. 
Sincerely, 
B~U:~ 
Richard J. Durbin 
United States Senator 
CC: Mignon Clyburn, Federal Communications Commissioner 
Jessica Rosenworcel, Federal Communications Commissioner 
Michael O'Rielly, Federal Communications Commissioner 
Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commissioner 
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