Trump Defends Sinclair Broadcast Group Over 'Fake News' Anchor Script
- by Jerome Frank
- in World News
- — Apr 6, 2018
Sinclair is in the process of purchasing Tribune Media for $3.9 billion.
Some people even called for a boycott of Sinclair stations over concerns about the company's ability to spread corporate messaging via its news anchors so far and wide.
It also describes Sinclair stations as an apolitical source of credible, factual reporting. Trump's Federal Communications Commission is simultaneously facing an investigation into whether it has improperly favored Sinclair in the merger review.
It can be hard for a lot of people to really care about what's happening at Sinclair. The Company focuses on providing content on its local television stations and digital platforms. An example of the must-runs includes the "Terrorism Alert Desk" segment, warning of potential threats to national security. "It's been a very pro-Trump line".
Sinclair defended the "false news" promo.
By now you've probably seen the Deadspin video montage of television anchors from around the country reading from a script decrying "biased and false" reports, in a message with striking parallels to President Trump's "fake news" mantra. Sinclair-owned stations around the USA have been repeating it on air while Sinclair seeks the Trump administration's approval of a proposed merger with Tribune Media Company.
But instructing local TV anchors to read a script like this in their own voices is a new development.
"They're certainly not happy about it", an unnamed employee at Sinclair-owned KOMO in Seattle told The Seattle Post-Intelligencer last week.
The employees said they felt they needed to speak anonymously because they were anxious they could lose their jobs if identified.
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Journalists have a responsibility to serve as a bulwark against threats to a free press. "The "Fakers" at CNN, NBC, ABC & CBS have done so much dishonest reporting that they should only be allowed to get awards for fiction!" The Broadcast segment consists of its broadcast television stations. "I don't say that to scare you by any means but I do say this so you understand how serious (Sinclair) is about this project".
In exchange, Sinclair would broadcast their Trump interviews across the country without commentary, Kushner said.
In his memo to stations, Livingston described a "Trust and Truth research" project the company did involving a well-known consulting firm called Magid.
Most media consumers lack a fundamental understanding of how news is made.
It was a fairly typical Trump tweet - and exactly the kind of message that critics hear echoed in Sinclair's mandatory anchor scripts.
But some outsiders see it as irresponsible.
The scripted promos started running last week, and they went viral over the weekend after Deadspin edited them together to show how similar the scripts are. "That would be all their news programming and other shows such as late-night talk, which is just late-night political so-called comedy". "This is extremely risky to democracy".
Media investor Peter Chernin, who held high-ranking positions at Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for two decades, tweeted, "This is insidious". "At my station, everyone was uncomfortable doing it", one anchor told CNN. Tribune says it owns or operates 42 local TV stations, including stations "in each of the nation's top three markets and seven of the top 10".
