Sinclair Pushes Back on McCaskill Call for Bar on Owning 2 St. Louis TV Stations Post-Tribune Buy

Sinclair disagrees with Sen. Claire McCaskill's, D-Mo., call for the FCC to bar it from owning two of the top-four TV stations in St. Louis as a condition of its proposed buy of Tribune, said Vice President-News Scott Livingston in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. McCaskill sought the condition amid concerns about Sinclair taking ownership of Tribune's Fox affiliate KTVI while retaining ownership of ABC affiliate KDNL-TV. Sinclair has shown a “stunning disregard for local news” via KDNL, McCaskill said in a letter to Pai. KDNL's lack of local news “is the exception, not the norm,” for Sinclair, Livingston said: “Our inability to broadcast traditional local news in St. Louis is a result of numerous factors,” including the need to cut costs. The station at times “aired newscasts produced by another station in St. Louis” and later “launched a news talk show,” he said. “If we are allowed to purchase Tribune’s television stations in St. Louis, we plan to begin producing and broadcasting traditional local news programming on KDNL,” Livingston said. “This is not something that we believe would take place if KDNL were to remain separately owned, whether by Sinclair or another broadcast company.”