FCC Won't Let Sinclair Off the Hook

I would love to know what is going on here. The Justice Department was ready to rubber stamp this merger, and it appeared the skids had been greased with the FCC. How did Sinclair screw this up? (Don't get me wrong, I glad they did). From today's Tom Taylor column...

Sinclair tries to save its deal for Tribune. But late yesterday afternoon the FCC revealed it had “unanimously voted to adopt a Hearing Designation Order regarding the Sinclair-Tribune transaction.” That’s lousy news for Sinclair. The text should be released today, but it’s notable that FCC Chair Ajit Pai thought the 4-0 vote was important enough to release just the headline news. That came just hours after Sinclair went public with yet another revision to its deal, proposing to directly acquire Chicago’s WGN-TV, instead of having it assigned to a Baltimore car dealer with close financial ties to Sinclair’s David Smith (but with zero broadcasting experience). Sinclair would also re-set the spins of KDAF-TV Dallas and KIAH-TV Houston, so they’d sit in a trust instead of a company with close connections to Sinclair. The FCC (said Reuters) had questions about potential misrepresentation and lack of candor – and if that’s the case, no wonder the Commission’s not willing to back off referring the applications to an in-house Administrative Law Judge.