The Coalition to Save Local Media, a group trying to block the Sinclair-Tribune merger, has added six new members, according to organizers, including a big union and leased access advocates.

The new members are the United Church of Christ (UCC), NABET-CWA (representing some 10,000 broadcast employees), the Parents Television Council, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Herndon-Reston Indivisible, and the Leased Access Programmers Association.

"The proposed Sinclair-Tribune merger would result in job cuts at dozens of stations across the country and would harm the ability of local stations to broadcast information vital to their communities in a responsible and unbiased manner," said NABET-CWA president Charlie Braico. "This merger is not in the interest of broadcast industry employees and is not in the interest of the American people."

Related: Tech Companies Ask Feds to Hit 'Delete" on Sinclair-Tribune

"The broad swath of organizations opposing this new proposed Sinclair merger demonstrates that people do not need to agree on policy to agree that a vibrantly competitive local media market place is essential for our society," said Cheryl Leanza, policy advisor to UCC

The Coalition to Save Local Media, whose founding members include the American Cable Association and Dish, has opened various fronts against the deal, including drumming up congressional opponents, calling on state attorneys general to weigh in against the deal, launching a national ad campaign and issuing periodic e-mail updates on the national opinion shows and commentary Sinclair stations are required to air.

Related: Four States' AGs Ask FCC to Deny Sinclair-Tribune Merger

Reps. David Price (D-N.C.) and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) had been scheduled to join other members of the coalition, which includes cable and satellite operators worried about the retrans muscle of a combined Sinclair-Tribune, on Capitol Hill Tuesday (Nov. 7) to criticize the merger, which the coalition maintains jeopardizes localism, competition and viewpoint diversity, but the event was postponed "due to rain," according to the coalition.

Sinclair has said it needs to heavy up to compete with other, larger program distributors -- like cable and satellite and the Internet -- with less, or no, comparable regulatory constraints.

The FCC is on day 108 of its informal 180-day shot clock on merger reviews, having restarted that clock last week after pausing it to collect more comment on Sinclair's defense and explanation of the deal, including from NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, which did not give that defense good reviews.

Attorneys general from four states have teamed up to ask the FCC to block the merger of Sinclair and Tribune.

The states are Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The joint filing comes at the same time the Coalition to Save Local Media was urging all the state AGs to weigh in against the deal.

Related: Sinclair Foes Try to Enlist AGs in Pushback

The AGs' principal beef appears to be the size of the deal, which would create the largest TV station group in the country reaching more than 70% of the national audience.

Saying they are the chief consumer protection officers in their states, the AGs argued that the deal "fails to further the public interest by allowing for increased consolidation that will decrease consumer choices and voices in the marketplace."

Because the deal will reduce consumer choices and threatens the "diversity of voices," they said, the FCC should block it, or at the least postpone a decision until the U.S. Court of Appeals rules on Free Press's legal challenge to the FCC's reinstatement of the UHF discount.

The AGs say they are looking out for consumers and that the deal will exacerbate problems they already see through thousands of complaints about video, internet and telecommunications services, including allegations of high prices and poor service.

Under FCC chair Ajit Pai, the FCC reversed a decision by the previous Democratic majority and reinstated the discount, which allows Sinclair or any other broadcaster to count only half of the audience of its UHF TV stations toward the 39% national audience reach cap.

Pai, who has suggested the discount may indeed by outdated -- it dates from analog days, when UHF signals were weaker than VHF -- has said it needs to be considered in concert with the 39% cap, which is why he says it was restored. Critics say it was to pave the way for the Sinclair deal, but Pai has consistently indicated broadcasters need fewer ownership restrictions in a digital world of rampant video competition from online, cable, satellite and telcos.

The four AGs clearly disagreed.

"To ensure that consumers have access to a variety of content, services and stations, the commission should reject this order or, at a minimum, allow the D.C. Circuit to conclude its review...before considering the proposed application."

Initial briefs in that case were filed in September.

The FCC has actually been considering the application for 104 days now. It stopped its informal 180-day review shot clock two weeks ago to allow for further comment, with the new deadline Nov. 2, the date of the AG's filing.

The Coalition to Save Local Media, which could as easily be called the "Coalition to Block the Sinclair-Tribune Merger," said it will be sending letters to attorneys general in every state that has a Sinclair or Tribune TV station, asking them to probe the deal.

The merger would result in the largest broadcast TV group at over 200 stations reaching over 70% of the country.

In the letter to California AG Xavier Becerra, for example (an example the coalition highlighted), the group said: "If the proposed merger goes through, Sinclair would own 14 stations across nine markets including acquiring new stations in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento. In Reno, Eureka, and Chico, the combined company would own more than one 'Big Four' station."

FCC rules prevent owning two of the Big Four affiliates in any market but FCC chair Ajit Pai has proposed allowing it on a case-by-case basis, and in any event the coalition cites a Sinclair executive saying the company did not expect to have to sell any stations.

Related: FCC Takes Wraps Off Media Ownership Proposal

"There are very serious issues surrounding the competitive effects of the Sinclair-Tribune transaction, and we urge the state of California to join DOJ’s investigation into the merger," the letter said. 

The coalition's members include cable and satellite operators and programmers that don't want Sinclair's retrans muscle to get any stronger or its footprint any larger, plus those who criticize the conservative bent of its national programming offerings and commentary, or oppose more media consolidation in general.

The other states getting their own versions of the letter are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.