Media companies turn to recriminations after deal fails

NEW YORK — The $3.9 billion buyout of Tribune Media by Sinclair collapsed Thursday, ending a bid to create a media juggernaut that could have rivaled the reach of Fox News.

Tribune Media Co. said Thursday that it is suing Sinclair for breach of contract and at least $1 billion in damages, according to its complaint.

Sinclair used “unnecessarily aggressive and protracted negotiations” with the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission over regulatory requirements, the Chicago company said, and it refused to sell the stations it needed to to gain regulatory approval.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns KSNV-TV, Channel 3, in Las Vegas, wanted the Chicago company’s 42 TV stations and had agreed to dump almost two dozen of its own to score approval by the FCC.

Last month, however, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said that he had “serious concerns” about the deal, saying that Sinclair might still be able to operate the stations “in practice, even if not in name.”

Sinclair operates 192 stations, runs 611 channels and operates in 89 U.S. markets. It would have been able to expand rapidly into several new markets with the Tribune acquisition.

It was admonished by media watchdogs in April after Deadspin, a sports news site, pieced together clips of dozens of TV anchors for Sinclair reading from the same script, which warned viewers about “biased and false news” from other media outlets.

Sinclair has defended the decision to have its anchors read from the same script across the country as a way to distinguish its news shows from unreliable stories on social media.

The Maryland company said Thursday in a statement that the Tribune lawsuit is “entirely without merit.”

“We unequivocally stand by our position that we did not mislead the FCC with respect to the transaction or act in any way other than with complete candor and transparency,” CEO Chris Ripley said.

Public Knowledge, an advocacy group that has been critical of the FCC under Pai, cheered the demise of the deal.

“Broadcasters are supposed to serve their local communities. This deal would have contributed to the trend where ‘local’ news and ‘local’ programming is created or scripted out of town,” said Phillip Berenbroick, senior policy counsel at the organization.