Interestingly, the only local news source that seems to be covering the story about Clint Reilly's attempt to stop McClatchy Co. from buying the Mercury News are the McClatchy Co-affiliated papers (which include the Oakland Tribune.). Reilly's filed an antitrust lawsuit to scotch the deal; you may remember he unsuccessfully tried this trick in an attempt to stop Hearst from buying out the Chron.

Federal District Judge Susan Illston (who, when she's not wrangling with this is busy wrangling with the Barry Bonds case) has indicated that while she hasn't definitively made up her mind yet, she's inclined to let the deal go through for now and then, if it turns out there's some kind of antitrust problem, they'll just have to undo the deal.

Reilly, whose wife you may remember was the defendant in the SFist column Ma v. Ja, is claiming that all the papers are working together to make a huge media monopoly, citing the fact that Hearst chipped in some money to help the deal along as well. The other side claims in response that everyone, including the DOJ antitrust division, have looked into the deal and haven't found anything wrong with it.

Meanwhile, McClatchy really wants the deal done by Monday -- their loan papers expire on 7/31 and if the deal's not done, it'll cost them $28 million more to get the paperwork redone.