Weekly Rewind 3/20/26
California Sues to Block Merger of Broadcaster that Cancelled Jimmy Kimmel, and more.
By Kainoa Lowman and Katie Hettinga
Welcome back to the The Economic Populist’s Weekly Rewind. Every Friday, we’ll briefly recap the week’s biggest news, updates, and developments in the fight against corporate power.
Quick note: Economic Liberties is hosting two events next week:
On Wednesday, March 25, we are hosting a free, in-person event in DC on how the legal establishment embraced corruption in the Trump era.
On Thursday, March 26, we are hosting a virtual discussion on how to rein in utility costs in an age of data center expansion, ft. New York State Senator Shelley Mayer.
We’d love you to attend one or both events! Now, here’s what to know this week.
California Sues to Block Merger of Broadcaster that Cancelled Jimmy Kimmel
On Wednesday, eight states led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued to block the proposed $6.2 billion merger of broadcast giants Nexstar and TEGNA, claiming the deal will raise TV prices, eliminate local jobs, and threaten freedom of expression.
You probably haven’t heard of these shadowy companies, but they are among the most powerful media entities — together they own 265 broadcast television stations across 44 states, reaching 80% of TV households. Their power became evident last September when ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel — and his show Jimmy Kimmel Live! — for a week following jokes the popular late night host made about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, only relenting after a fierce public pushback. Nextstar allegedly influenced ABC’s decision to suspend Kimmel, and kept the show off its ABC affiliates for an even longer period of time. By all accounts, Nexstar did this in an attempt to curry favor with Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, who holds approval authority over the TEGNA merger.
This saga underscores how corporate consolidation threatens democracy. It’s far easier for authoritarian governments to effect censorship or achieve other goals through the private sector when they only need leverage over a small number of companies. As writer and comedian Adam Conover put it at Economic Liberties’ Anti-Monopoly Summit last fall, “media consolidation is a perfect example of how economic power becomes political power.”
The Nexstar-TEGNA deal would make this problem considerably worse. The combined companies would not only own hundreds of stations across the country, but own majority shares of the local broadcast market in a host of cities, including St. Louis, Charlotte, Sacramento, and San Diego. As Research Director Matt Stoller wrote yesterday, their market power would also likely make TV more expensive, as the companies have a track record of jacking up retransmission fees that cable and live-TV-inclusive streaming services must pay.
Enter the state attorneys general, who are making an unusual foray into broadcast merger enforcement amid the uselessness and corruption of the Trump-Vance administration. Bonta is joined in the lawsuit by the attorneys general of New York, Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, North Carolina, Connecticut, and Virginia.
This is not the first time state AGs have stepped up where the current administration has pulled back. As we’ve covered here, states are leading the fight against the Trump-aligned Ellison family’s takeover of Warner Bros., another massive media merger that the administration has blessed seemingly in exchange for alarming political favors. (That deal would potentially result in CNN undergoing the same pro-Trump makeover that we have seen at CBS News since the Ellisons acquired it last year.) State AGs have also taken over the landmark antitrust suit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster after the Department of Justice dropped out last week under questionable circumstances.
Beyond the antitrust realm, states have been leading the battle to rein in gambling on sports and ethically fraught geopolitical events under the guise of “prediction markets,” an industry Trump’s financial regulators have embraced. This Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed criminal charges against prediction market operator Kalshi for running an illegal gambling operation; today, Nevada regulators temporarily banned the company in that state.
Certainly, state law enforcers cannot entirely fill the void left by their better-resourced federal counterparts. Nevertheless, it is highly encouraging to see them step up to take on these fights. It shows that rising political leaders see the value in confronting corporate power. And as Stoller noted, “as these enforcers gain the muscle memory to challenge corporate power, they aren’t going to forget it.”
USMCA Review Talks Now Under Way
U.S. officials met with their Mexican counterparts this week, formally kicking off U.S.-Mexico talks for the mandatory six-year review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Trump’s first-term NAFTA replacement. U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer issued a statement describing the talks as including “economic security, rules of origin, and complementary trade actions.” The USTR has described bilateral U.S. processes with Mexico and Canada as a first step toward trilateral talks, and Greer said Canada is “behind” on bilateral talks compared with Mexico.
The current round of bilateral talks seem focused on what business interests describe as “trade irritants,” but many Democrats — not to mention most of us — view as legitimate environmental, anti-monopoly, and other public interest policies. For instance, Big Tech wants to use the review process to weaken Canada’s Online Streaming Act, an action that disingenuously conflates Canada’s domestic goals with discrimination against U.S. corporations. An Alabama company, Vulcan, wants to use the process to undo Mexican environmental enforcement actions against its mine in Mexico, which was built far beyond its permitted size and has caused severe water contamination. You get the idea.
When — or even whether — more fundamental fixes to USMCA will be discussed remains unclear. In the background of the negotiations are six years of disappointing agreement outcomes, something revisited in a comprehensive study by Rethink Trade released last week.
Despite Trump’s promises to the contrary, the U.S. trade deficit with its neighbors is up 36% comparing 2019 to 2025. Manufacturing employment is down 170,000 jobs from 2020 to preliminary February 2026 numbers, with auto manufacturing down 37,600 jobs. Mexican manufacturing wages remain 40% lower than comparable Chinese wages and 88% lower than those in the United States. Trump’s NAFTA rebrand has failed to undo the decades of damage done to Americans by the free trade regime.
Hopefully, the six-year review will be utilized as a chance to deliver necessary fixes to the USMCA and U.S. trade policy more broadly. Meetings will continue leading up to the July 1, 2026, mandatory review deadline, when Greer and his counterparts are bound to decide whether to extend the deal for 16 more years as-is, extend an updated text, or continue meeting annually until the countries agree on an extension or the pact sunsets in 2036.
Quick Hits
On Tuesday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar introduced a bill to strengthen judicial oversight of antitrust settlements, following allegations of political backroom dealings that led to the Trump Department of Justice’s settlements in its HPE-Juniper merger challenge and Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopolization suit.
Bloomberg published a story on the shocking financial cost of the Iran war, estimating the government spent $11 billion in its first six days alone.
The Trump administration and the Fed are proposing to loosen bank capital requirements, handing Wall Street a big win while potentially reducing the financial system’s resilience.
Economic Liberties Senior Fellow Marissa Gillett spoke with WHYY about how excessive utility profits are raising Americans’ electric bills by up to 20% in the Philadelphia region.
Economic Liberties endorsed a new California state bill to ban Big Tech firms from privileging their own products over those of competitors on their platforms.
Economic Liberties also endorsed Sen. Chris Murphy’s bill to reinvigorate, modernize, and strengthen the Robinson-Patman Act for the 21st century, offering beefed up protection to small businesses and consumers from wholesale price discrimination.
IVC Evidensia, a private equity-sponsored roll-up of European veterinary practices, is eyeing an IPO amid a liquidity drought in the private equity industry.
The biggest meatpacking plant strike in decades is underway in Colorado, underscoring how extreme consolidation in the industry harms workers and consumers alike. Earlier this month, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer unveiled a new bill to break up the “Big Four” meatpackers at a news conference hosted by Economic Liberties.
Hollywood news outlet The Ankler speculates that the Ellison family’s takeover of Warner Bros. could be in jeopardy as Gulf state investors may have to pull financing due to Trump’s war in Iran.
Rethink Trade filed a public comment with USTR this week on an agreement on trade in critical minerals. Recommendations included greater freedom for countries to regulate critical minerals investment and strong enforcement mechanisms for labor and environmental standards.
Catch Rethink Trade Research Director Daniel Rangel’s write-up on labor enforcement in the USMCA to see how trade agreement terms can deliver concrete wins.
ICYMI: a breakthrough organizing win from Rethink Trade points to a better way to enforce trade rules across borders.