Hedge fund manager Soo Kim is taking his allegations that the Federal Communications Commission and a cadre of media players were part of a racist conspiracy to kill his $8.6 billion merger with broadcaster Tegna Inc. to the D.C. Circuit after a lower court kiboshed the claims last month.

The notice of appeal was filed Friday, officially signaling that Kim and Standard General don't plan on dropping the issue. The filing comes exactly one month after U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras dismissed the lawsuit, saying, "absent any facts tying the FCC's actions to race, the court finds these arguments similarly unpersuasive as evincing racial animus."

Judge Contreras, unimpressed with the allegations, said "plaintiffs' claims of 'race-based and xenophobic rhetoric in FCC filings' melt away at the slightest of scrutiny."

In the opinion, the court pointed to the allegations that the media players, which included unions and advocacy organizations, "stoked fears about 'shadowy foreign investors,' the 'risks to ... democracy' posed by 'anonymous foreign investment in American newsrooms,' and 'China['s] increased tensions in the Taiwan Strait.'"

"To begin, that use of 'shadowy foreign investors' clearly referred to the 'involvement of large hedge funds headquartered in the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands,' and not Kim, whose identity everyone knew," the court said; the reference to Taiwan pertains to an unrelated political event. "Read in context, no reasonable person would assume this reference to China was actually an attack on Kim's race."

Virginia-based broadcasting behemoth Tegna revealed its plans to go private through a deal with Standard General worth an estimated $8.6 billion in early 2022. The deal immediately generated criticism from unions and lawmakers, who were worried about the takeover's implications for workers and the public.

Unions decried the merger as one that would harm competition and lead to massive job cuts, while telling the FCC that the hedge fund's involvement would represent "anonymous foreign investment in American newsrooms," a characterization that Kim slammed as an "inflammatory and personal attack."

The FCC had the power to essentially approve the deal since it needed to transfer Tegna's licenses to Standard General for it to be completed, and when it stalled in FCC review, the companies backed out, saying the financing agreement had expired.

Kim filed the suit in April 2024, accusing the FCC of favoring Black media company owner, Byron Allen, when deciding who should be allowed to buy Tegna's television stations.

"In this case, 'advancing equity' meant killing the chance for a Korean American, Soo Kim, to buy Tegna's more than 60 television stations because Byron Allen wanted them for his black-owned media company," Kim said in the complaint.

The court pointed to Kim's allegations that the media players, which included unions and advocacy organizations, "stoked fears about 'shadowy foreign investors,' the 'risks to ... democracy' posed by 'anonymous foreign investment in American newsrooms,' and 'China['s] increased tensions in the Taiwan Strait.'"

Kim is represented by Tyler R. Green, Patrick Strawbridge, Jeffrey M. Harris, Taylor A.R. Meehan, Frank H. Chang and Daniel M. Vitagliano of Consovoy McCarthy PLLC.

Byron Allen and Allen Media Group are represented by Louis R. Miller, David W. Schecter and Nadia A. Sarkis of Miller Barondess LLP.

The FCC is represented by Matthew M. Graves of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and Brian P. Hudak and Jeremy S. Simon of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The case is SCGI Holdings III LLC et al. v. Federal Communications Commission et al., case number 1:24-cv-01204, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.