“Creepy, cult-ish, and way too propagandistic for my taste”, the Democrat said in tweet Sunday. Sinclair Broadcast Group’s revenue for the quarter was down 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. equities research analysts anticipate that Sinclair Broadcast Group will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
More recently, the company has mandated that its stations run a segment about the so-called deep state that featured former White House aide Sebastian Gorka, who has pushed a pro-America foreign policy position and claimed shadow government employees are trying to undermine the us government.
The power of Sinclair would be in having local, hometown anchors, who were known and trusted in the communities they served, mouthing the centrally crafted messages in lockstep.
Did news anchor Carol Foyler of the Sinclair station in Akron, Ohio suddenly start to read the news in Russian last monday?
Had Tim Burke of Deadspin not put together that video, we probably wouldn’t be writing about this. It is because it is the exact same fake news rhetoric pushed by President Trump, warning his constituents against trusting popular media outlets like CNN.
Despite Sinclair’s protests that there was no political intent in its promos, Trump fanned the flames by siding vehemently with the company in a tweet Tuesday morning: “The Fake News Networks, those that have a sick and biased AGENDA, are anxious about the competition and quality of Sinclair Broadcast”.
Trone, a wealthy entrepreneur who founded the Total Wine & More retail stores, vowed to bypass Sinclair-owned stations in his bid to win an open seat in Maryland’s 6th congressional district.
Sinclair has been facing backlash over the past several days after a clip of local news anchors reading the same speech about media bias went viral.
“It is ironic that we would be attacked for messages promoting our journalistic initiative for fair and objective reporting, and for specifically asking the public to hold our newsrooms accountable”. “Our local stations keep our audiences’ trust by staying focused on fact-based reporting and clearly identifying commentary”.
Sinclair Broadcasting is not only the biggest owner of local television stations in the country, it is also the fastest growing-most of its stations have been acquired in just the last ten years.
It sounds innocuous enough, but critics suggest Sinclair’s must-run promo is even more unsafe by implying that its stations are an antidote to what they believe is a liberally biased media that peddles false news.
“The journalists who work for Sinclair Broadcast Group are hard-working and dedicated professionals who care deeply about the work that they do”, a spokesperson for the union said. Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what people think. “This is extremely unsafe to our democracy”, the message read. Here is a full list of Sinclair stations.
The announcement has the feel of state-run television, unmistakably echoing President Trump’s harangues against the media. The right-leaning media company is known for broadcasting favorable coverage of the president.
Late in 2017, the FCC inspector general launched an investigation into FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and whether the moves he spearheaded had been meant to aid Sinclair.
Alliance for a Better Utah, a nonprofit watchdog, blasted KUTV for the promos, saying, “it’s extremely concerning that our local news is being co-opted for political purposes”.
Read the entire article by The Insider Car News here.