A story today on the Editor & Publisher site says Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is satisfied that Tribune’s plan to merge the Courant, WTIC-TV and WTXX-TV is in compliance with the FCC’s waiver on cross-ownership restrictions.

But there’s apparently been a misunderstanding.

The attorney general did issue a statement late last month saying he was “encouraged by [Sam] Zell’s pledge that Fox 61 and the Hartford Courant will continue making news decisions — what to cover and how to present it — separately and independently.”

But he also said at the time that his office would continue to review the matter. A spokeswoman for his office told us today that that is still the case and that it is wrong to suggest that Blumenthal has endorsed the merger.

In April, Blumenthal wrote to Tribune Chairman and CEO Sam Zell and said the merger appeared to violate FCC restrictions on a company owning a television station and a newspaper in the same market.

Blumenthal, you might recall, asked Zell a series of questions:

He wanted to know whether job losses would result from the consolidation, whether the merger would maintain two distinct news outlets, and whether the merger would eventually lead to the demise of the printed edition of the Courant.

He also wanted to know whether the Courant and Fox 61 would make their own coverage decisions, whether the organizations would collaborate on all stories, and whether advertising and business operations would be combined.

Zell, in a response that was nearly identical to a statement put out earlier by the company, sidestepped some of Blumenthal’s questions, but did insist the Courant and the stations would continue to make their own news decisions.

Of course, Blumenthal doesn’t have the final say on cross-ownership. That’s up to the federal government. But no one knows how to turn up the heat on an organization like the attorney general.

Honestly, we hope that Blumenthal keeps Tribune in the hot seat. And we hope that Blumenthal pays very close attention not just to what cross-ownership will mean to readers of the Courant and viewers of Fox 61, but also to what this will mean in terms of the ability of other area papers to compete.

It matters.