what did the sinclair broadcast group anchord have to say

Sinclair Broadcast Group is defending itself against criticism for a recent on-air promotional message many of its local news anchors were asked to read that warned viewers about "false news" on competing media outlets.

Dozens of stations belonging to the nation's largest broadcaster have aired video promotions in the past few weeks in which their local on-air news hosts voice concerns about "the troubling trend of irresponsible, ane-sided news stories plaguing our country." The anchors and so proceed to say that many media outlets are publishing "faux stories" and pushing agendas.

The promotion looks unique in each market, but Sinclair'due south corporate Hunt Valley, Md.-headquarters scripted and distributed it to its stations. After a video showing overlapping clips of anchors reciting the same script went viral, Democratic lawmakers and media critics condemned the company for thinly veiled editorializing that, they said, promoted President Trump's attacks on the news media.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, tweeted Mon: "Local news stations now required by Sinclair Broadcasting to parrot the talking points of the President, moving America one footstep closer to its ain version of state run media. And another freedom is assailed nether this Administration."

In Kentucky, Amy McGrath, a Autonomous candidate for the state'south sixth congressional district, tweeted she was pulling campaign ads from the Lexington, Ky., Sinclair-owned station and would inquire other Democratic congressional candidates to refuse to purchase campaign advertizing from Sinclair stations. The "right-wing script," she said on Twitter, "eerily mimics the propaganda efforts that authoritarian regimes oft utilise to control the media in their own state."

And in Cincinnati, City Councilman P.Grand. Sittenfeld tweeted that he will no longer watch local Aqueduct 12 afterward seeing the local anchors — and others beyond the land — reading the same script. "Creepy, cult-ish, and manner as well propagandistic for my taste," the Democrat said in a tweet Sunday.

Nick Clooney, a one-time ballast on that channel, said if he still worked in that location, he would not have joined the anchors beyond the country in reading an identical script attacking other outlets for producing "biased and false news." Clooney, who is father of actor George Clooney, added: "I take no thought what these folks are doing for a living, but it isn't news."

This national bulletin from Sinclair comes as regulators are considering whether to corroborate its nearly $4 billion deal to acquire Tribune Media Co. The acquisition, announced in May 2017, would increase Sinclair's number of TV stations from 193 to 220 or more — and its attain of U.S. homes to 72%.

Critics of the merger say this national scripted promotion offers a hint at how an even-larger Sinclair could spread conservative-leaning messages across the largest-ever drove of local media outlets.

Awareness almost the promotions has grown in the past few days later sports news site Deadspin edited together a video of dozens of local Sinclair station broadcasts echoing one another. The site posted information technology on Twitter — it had more than 7 one thousand thousand views midday Monday — and its other social media pages Saturday and saw information technology replayed on HBO's Last Calendar week Tonight with John Oliver on Sunday. Not-profit progressive news group ThinkProgress also put together its own video and posted it on its YouTube folio.

Sinclair says it produced the spots to express business concern well-nigh the spread of such false media reports such equally the "Pope Endorses Trump" false news story and the "Pizzagate" conspiracy story, both of which emerged only before the 2016 presidential election and can have "potentially unsafe consequences, said Scott Livingston, Sinclair'due south senior vice president of news, in a statement sent to USA TODAY.

 "It is ironic that nosotros would exist attacked for messages promoting our journalistic initiative for off-white and objective reporting, and for specifically request the public to concur our newsrooms accountable," he said. "Our local stations keep our audiences' trust by staying focused on fact-based reporting and clearly identifying commentary."

Trump defended Sinclair on Twitter on Monday, calculation to critics' complaints that the TV company was acting as his proxy. "And so funny to watch Fake News Networks ... criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased," he tweeted. "Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more than Fake NBC, which is a total joke."

Last month, anchors told CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter, who broke the story about the planned Sinclair promotion, their concerns in recording the promos. "I felt similar a Prisoner of war recording a message," one of the anchors told the Reliable Sources host.

In a follow-up story Monday on CNN.com, Stelter noted how the viral video ignited the issue and quoted some other Sinclair journalist, an investigative reporter, who said, "It sickens me the style this visitor is encroaching upon trusted news brands in rural markets."

In the Sinclair script, which Stelter obtained and The Seattle Mail service-Intelligencer posted Fri, local anchors begin the video segment stating their pride in "the quality, balanced journalism that (their station) produces."

And then, the anchor or anchors expound on how "the sharing of biased and false news has get all as well common on social media," and that many media outlets are "publishing these same faux stories without checking facts get-go," the script says. Information technology goes on to warn that some media are pushing "their own personal bias and agenda to control 'exactly what people call back' ... This is extremely dangerous to our democracy."

Many liberals accept called out Sinclair for the aforementioned behavior that these promotions decry. The company got some attention in April for hiring Boris Epshteyn, a special assistant to President Trump, every bit a master political analyst. His "Bottom Line with Boris" commentary segments, which appear beyond Sinclair's network of stations, are frequently attacked as misinformation that touts a pro-Trump agenda.

Sinclair has been criticized in the past for giving favorable coverage to and so-Republican presidential candidate Trump. The broadcaster has said in the past that it offered like coverage opportunities to Autonomous presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Democrats have as well chided FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Trump-appointed Republican, for supporting Television receiver ownership rule changes that would make information technology easier for the merger to pass regulatory scrutiny. Later their requests, the FCC inspector general began an investigation into whether Pai has acted inappropriately in assisting Sinclair.

"Sinclair is now well-known for its history of abusing public trust to air right-wing spin and promote xenophobia on local news shows," says a statement from liberal media activist group Media Matters for America. The grouping says it found at least 66 Sinclair stations reaching 29 states and the District of Columbia that accept broadcast their ain versions of the scripted segment.

The merger, the group says, "will help information technology spread its conservative propaganda further across the country."

In July 2017, Oliver blasted the broadcaster'south bourgeois-leaning practices and its "must-run" video segments fabricated for local stations. After running the Deadspin video on Sunday's show — yous can watch it on YouTube — the host commented: "Yeah. Zero says 'We value independent media' like dozens of reporters forced to repeat the same message over and once again like members of a brainwashed cult."

Ex-CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather offered a similar observation on Twitter, too. "News anchors looking into photographic camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord, words meant to obscure the truth not elucidate it, isn't journalism. It's propaganda. It's Orwellian," he tweeted. "A slippery slope to how despots wrest power, silence dissent, and oppress the masses."

Contributing: Scott Wartman at The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Follow U.s. TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.

gourleynaticepled.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/media/2018/04/02/sinclair-defends-itself-over-uproar-after-local-news-anchors-read-anti-false-news-screed/477531002/

Share this post