How America's largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump's war on the media: https://t.co/iLVtKRQycL pic.twitter.com/dMdSGellH3
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) March 31, 2018
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns and operates nearly 200 local television stations across the country in over 100 markets, is making headlines again for unsavory practices. Earlier this year, the conglomerate came under fire after it became known that it was forcing anchors to read a canned script warning viewers of “biased and false news,” mimicking President Donald Trump’s gas-lighting tactics. The above video complication of Sinclair anchors reading the script quickly went viral, fueled by being put on blast by last night hosts Jimmy Kimmel and John Oliver.
Now, Sinclair — which covers roughly 40 percent of American households, many in the South and Midwest — is at it again. Sinclair chief political analyst and former Trump aide Boris Epshteyn issued a “must-run” segment to local markets on November 26, which defends the Trump administration’s use of tear gas on families seeking asylum at the United States-Mexico border.
https://twitter.com/pamela_vogel/status/1067474802552840193
Claiming that the crisis on the border has “greatly escalated,” Epshteyn repeated the right-wing talking point that the tear gas was warranted due to some of the migrants throwing “rocks and bottles” at U.S. border enforcement. He then went on to demonize the left for so-called hypocrisy over the issue.
Some on the left, such as Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters, were immediately up in arms about our president and his team standing up for our men and women in uniform and for our national security. The fact of the matter is that this is an attempted invasion of our country. Period. Our border must remain intact and secure. It is not a partisan position to believe that our immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed. However, it unfortunately appears that there are many on the left who believe it is wrong to defend our country and abide by the rule of law. I would bet that many of those same people live behind walls and locked doors but do not want to afford the same benefit to our country as a whole.
Being that the gassing of migrants, many of whom are women and children, has become such a hot button issue on both the left and the right in recent days — not to mention that many in rural areas get their news primarily from Sinclair stations — people are up in arms over this latest attempt at blatant propaganda.
If you are unsure how Trump maintains the support of ~40% of the American people, consider he is supported by two enormous media companies that operate as state propaganda outlets https://t.co/6t4oP0MLaP
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) November 27, 2018
1) This is extraordinary.
Sinclair is now reportedly requiring dozens of local stations to air a segment that defends the tear-gassing of migrants and describes them as an “invasion of our country.”
I’m not sure we’ve figured out how to conceptualize this adequately.
*THREAD*
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) November 28, 2018
Disinformation and propaganda by Sinclair on tear-gas at the border. “Invasion” is a term with legal significance because a #POTUS has the power to call up the military to defend the border under military (and not a Governor’s) direction. #Trump action is unconstitutional. https://t.co/zSGgmQcc2w
— Maya Wiley (@mayawiley) November 28, 2018
Local news watchers, if you see Boris Epshteyn on your TV reading you news you should realize it is a Sinclaire con job. You will get less smoke blown up your ass if you watch the Yule log.
— Mr. Newberger (@jeremynewberger) November 28, 2018
https://twitter.com/MTomseth/status/1067527065665064960
This is a disgrace. https://t.co/yuWlWDTroL
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) November 28, 2018
Sinclair is an indescribably creepy organization. https://t.co/fFLUdn70ho
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 28, 2018
Don’t forget that Trump’s hand FCC chairman had ties to Sinclair to & tried to push through a merger w Tribune and that, in 2016, Politico reported that Kushner claimed to have struck a deal w Sinclair for favorable coverage.https://t.co/dirMboOsaX
— Kelly Jones (@RealKellyJones) November 28, 2018
Sinclair should be shut down.
It is a gross violation of the intent of FCC regulations to have an owner of local news stations dictate their content. https://t.co/EE1hgr0XVQ
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) November 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/webster/status/1067594310131097600
Unfortunately, as outlined previously, it’s not quite so simple for Sinclair anchors to quit their jobs. Due to iron-clad contracts, anchors must pay the station back a certain percentage of their base pay and any bonuses they’ve received, as well as forfeiting unpaid vacation time. It’s a lose-lose situation all around.
(Via Media Matters)