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The imminent conservative takeover of local news

V

Vyer

Member
I thought this was very interesting. did a search, saw a thread about the sinclair buy itself, but it doesn't really get into the analysis and potential impact of it.

https://www.vox.com/2017/5/15/15598...servative-takeover-of-local-tv-news-explained

Sinclair Broadcast Group — a conservative, Trump-friendly television empire — is poised to become one of the most powerful players in the mainstream media. The relatively unknown company, whose stations have mixed conservative commentary with local news, is now on the verge of a deal that would allow it to reach nearly three-quarters of American households.

On May 8, Sinclair announced its plan to buy Tribune Media Company and its 42 television stations for $3.9 billion — a merger made possible by the Trump administration relaxing regulations on broadcast ownership. If the acquisition goes through, Sinclair would become the nation’s largest broadcast group “by a country mile,” as Sinclair CEO Christopher Ripley put it to investors Monday morning. An estimated 72 percent of American households would live in a place where Sinclair controls at least one of the broadcast television stations.

This is a big deal — literally — because local news programs are some of the most-watched shows in America. About 23 million Americans tune into the evening local news, and 12 million watch the early morning local news. The three top cable networks — CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC — only get around 3 million primetime viewers daily.

People who tune into Sinclair stations for local news often end up getting some conservative commentary in the mix as well. The broadcaster has a history of airing right-leaning segments critical of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. According to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the Trump campaign struck a deal with Sinclair to air exclusive interviews with Trump during the election.

The company’s vice president for news, Scott Livingston, has accused mainstream news outlets of being too liberal. He claims that Sinclair is more balanced. “I think maybe some other news organizations may be to the left of center, and we work very hard to be in the center,” he told the New York Times recently.

...

Sinclair is a notable company not just for its size, but for its efforts to inject conservative views into the news.

For instance, over 80 Sinclair stations regularly air a 90-second segment called Behind the Headlines, where conservative commentator Mark Hyman gives his opinions on the news. In a recent spot, Hyman defended Trump’s first 100 days, claiming that the media was unfairly harsh on the president. In February, Hyman criticized the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for ruling against Trump’s travel ban on people from seven Muslim countries.

The company also produces national news segments — often with a conservative tinge — that it requires stations to run during their local news broadcasts.

A Washington Post investigation revealed that during 2016 election, Sinclair executives often forced their stations to run pro-Trump or anti-Clinton segments during their evening or morning local news programs. One of the mandatory segments emphasized problems about Clinton’s health and questioned her trustworthiness. Another mandatory segment featured Ivanka Trump talking about her potential role in her father’s White House.
Click to expand...

more at the link.

Here's a New York Times article about the 'must runs':

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/12/business/media/sinclair-broadcast-komo-conservative-media.html

They are called “must-runs,” and they arrive every day at television stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group — short video segments that are centrally produced by the company. Station managers around the country are directed to work them into the broadcast over a period of 24 or 48 hours.

Since November 2015, Sinclair has ordered its stations to run a daily segment from a “Terrorism Alert Desk” with updates on terrorism-related news around the world. During the election campaign last year, it sent out a package that suggested in part that voters should not support Hillary Clinton because the Democratic Party was historically pro-slavery. More recently, Sinclair asked stations to run a short segment in which Scott Livingston, the company’s vice president for news, accused the national news media of publishing “fake news stories.”

As Sinclair prepares to expand its stable of local TV stations with a proposed acquisition of Tribune Media — which would add 42 stations to Sinclair’s 173 — advocacy groups have shown concern about the size and reach the combined company would have. Its stations would reach more than 70 percent of the nation’s households, including many of the largest markets.

Critics of the deal also cite Sinclair’s willingness to use its stations to advance a mostly right-leaning agenda. That practice has stirred wariness among some of its journalists concerned about intrusive direction from headquarters.

That is what has happened in Seattle, a progressive city where Sinclair owns the KOMO broadcast station. In interviews over the past several days, eight current and former KOMO employees described a newsroom where some have chafed at Sinclair’s programming directives, especially the must-runs, which they view as too politically tilted and occasionally of poor quality. They also cited features like a daily poll, which they believe sometimes asks leading questions.
”
Click to expand...

the rest at the link



Here's an old article detailing where back in 2004 Sinclair owned stations were going to be required to run an anti John Kerry documentary that pushed the later discredited Swift Boat controversy. The ensuing controversy eventually caused them to back down.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22788-2004Oct10.html
 
I

Imbarkus

As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Huge. We'll be buffered in my market with the Scripps and Gannett strength here. But a lot of smaller markets will be hugely swayed by this.
 
B

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
Boris Epshtyn, who was recently hired as a chief adviser to this nonsense at Sinclair, was on Bill Maher a couple weeks ago peddling the expected spin. He was a vile piece of shit fully engorged in the Trump agenda, and just listening to him speak made me physically ill. You could tell even Maher got pretty pissed with his bullshit when he ended the interview.
 
U

UCBooties

Member
This is why I can't take people seriously when they complain that liberals just need to reach out to conservatives.

We're living in the late stages of a 30 year assault on the very concept of truth which has created an entire conservative media and economy to shelter and radicalize the right in this and other western nations. It is a purposeful propaganda operation and the idea that it could be countered if liberals were less "smug" and "reached out" is nonsense.

These people have essentially figured out how to use money to hack political psychology and turn the country against itself. But, no, John Oliver and Steven Colbert are definitely the reason conservatives are so alienated...

How do you even begin to counter this shit? We're so late to recognizing the reach and efficacy of this campaign that it seems like we've already lost. So now we're just going to have propaganda pumped directly into every media market in the country in the guise of traditionally non-partisan local news.

Fuck.
 
H

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
UCBooties said:
This is why I can't take people seriously when they complain that liberals just need to reach out to conservatives.

We're living in the late stages of a 30 year assault on the very concept of truth which has created an entire conservative media and economy to shelter and radicalize the right in this and other western nations. It is a purposeful propaganda operation and the idea that it could be countered if liberals were less "smug" and "reached out" is nonsense.

These people have essentially figured out how to use money to hack political psychology and turn the country against itself. But, no, John Oliver and Steven Colbert are definitely the reason conservatives are so alienated...

How do you even begin to counter this shit? We're so late to recognizing the reach and efficacy of this campaign that it seems like we've already lost. So now we're just going to have propaganda pumped directly into every media market in the country in the guise of traditionally non-partisan local news.

Fuck.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is real bad.

hard to see how we're not fucked for the forseeable future
 
I

Imbarkus

As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
It's important to keep new internet media high-minded and independent, yet profitable and consolidated enough to have reach and legitimacy. I don't really have the answers on how to do this in a message board post.

We've seen the crazy extremes from Gawker to Breitbart. Much as I felt the former laid the grounds for its own undoing, the latter has done far worse and persists in its disgusting rise to influence in the younger age group.

I think news web outlets are refining, cluing into the detrimental effect clickbait had on their legitimacy, placing them equal to alt-fact conspiracy nonsense in "truthiness" in a lot of uneducated people's eyes. The necessary work is hard, thankless, dangerous, and unprofitable, but I see it being done more and more: https://pando.com/2015/05/28/seymour-hersh-and-the-dangers-of-corporate-muckraking/

Thanks to the persistence of "No Child Left Behind" throughout the last two administrations, there seem to be a lot more uneducated people, too. We need to continue to resist DeVos and fight for the public education system to prevent further mass confusion in the future.

As for the OP, TV is aging out of relevancy, but it is still very strong in the older demographics, who have the highest voter turnout as well. Changing that basic fact, getting young people to vote, is the challenge every time.

Also, fighting for net neutrality will allow internet news outlets to throw as much media bandwidth as the big guys can if they can afford it. With that, Comcast decides which viewpoints get expressed through powerful, persuasive video media.

Still, it cannot be undone that the free spread of information has been enabled. It remains to be seen if it can survive the resultant flood of disinformation in retaliatory response.

So... yes. Under attack on all fronts. At least I feel like the battle lines are a bit more defined, and we see what's going on.
 
E

Empyrean Heaven

Member
Aren't these the guys that own Ring of Honor?

They own the local CBS station around here, but fortunately they seem to be as critical of Trump as anyone, so I'm fine with that.
 
I

I H8 Memes

Member
UCBooties said:
This is why I can't take people seriously when they complain that liberals just need to reach out to conservatives.

We're living in the late stages of a 30 year assault on the very concept of truth which has created an entire conservative media and economy to shelter and radicalize the right in this and other western nations. It is a purposeful propaganda operation and the idea that it could be countered if liberals were less "smug" and "reached out" is nonsense.

These people have essentially figured out how to use money to hack political psychology and turn the country against itself. But, no, John Oliver and Steven Colbert are definitely the reason conservatives are so alienated...

How do you even begin to counter this shit? We're so late to recognizing the reach and efficacy of this campaign that it seems like we've already lost. So now we're just going to have propaganda pumped directly into every media market in the country in the guise of traditionally non-partisan local news.

Fuck.
Click to expand...

There is no countering it because these news stations arent the problem. The people that watch these news stations are the problem. 100% of the problem. And there is no fixing it.

I dropped out of school in the 9th grade. And the 9 grades I did make it through were all in the famous Louisiana school system. Not a great education. Yet I seem to be able to discern fact from fiction. I'm not a sucker. I dont get lied to or taken advantage of.

It's not a matter of education or propaganda. It's stupid people. People that were apparently born stupid and no amount of education could change that. They are natural born suckers. They are being born right this minute and no amount of education will ever change what they are destined to be. Easily manipulated suckers.
 
G

GoldenEye 007

Member
Empyrean Heaven said:
Aren't these the guys that own Ring of Honor?

They own the local CBS station around here, but fortunately they seem to be as critical of Trump as anyone, so I'm fine with that.
Click to expand...

How can you read what's in the OP given they cited clear examples of peddling heavy bias and their impending reach nationally, but be ok with it because in your local area, you haven't noticed it.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
I'm surprised they can dictate news requirements to networks like CBS. I figure they'd be interested in preserving their national news integrity image locally and would revoke the affiliate status of any local station under the thumb of "fake news" fools.
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
Why can't liberals do the same? It's like conservatives got all the effective ideas. Aren't we supposed to be the smart ones?
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
TV news was a mistake, it's nothing but trash.

Thanks for the link and reading. I knew the differences between stations and affiliates, but I didn't realize that they had as much clout in editorial decisions as this.

Obviously there's not much you can do about this stuff besides FCC rules. So nothing that can be done during this administration.
 
B

bennywhatever

Member
The relatively unknown company,
Click to expand...

Uhhhh, Sinclair is one of the biggest TV owners in the country. Everyone in the business knows Sinclair. I'm not a fan of theirs but just this part alone makes me think there's a lot of hyperbole in this article.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Ahasverus said:
Why can't liberals do the same? It's like conservatives got all the effective ideas. Aren't we supposed to be the smart ones?
Click to expand...

Liberal ideology is usually incompatible with tactics like overt brainwashing and strong arm manipulation.
 
L

Lord Frieza

Member
UCBooties said:
This is why I can't take people seriously when they complain that liberals just need to reach out to conservatives.

We're living in the late stages of a 30 year assault on the very concept of truth which has created an entire conservative media and economy to shelter and radicalize the right in this and other western nations. It is a purposeful propaganda operation and the idea that it could be countered if liberals were less "smug" and "reached out" is nonsense.

These people have essentially figured out how to use money to hack political psychology and turn the country against itself. But, no, John Oliver and Steven Colbert are definitely the reason conservatives are so alienated...

How do you even begin to counter this shit? We're so late to recognizing the reach and efficacy of this campaign that it seems like we've already lost. So now we're just going to have propaganda pumped directly into every media market in the country in the guise of traditionally non-partisan local news.

Fuck.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it feels that way really. It feels more and more hopeless by the day it seems. My country is being taken over, and it feels like there's just nothing that can be done. All I can really do is vote and donate to causes to help fight this stuff, but the speed and gravity in which all this is happening seems unstoppable in the end.
 
V

VariantX

Member
Ahasverus said:
Why can't liberals do the same? It's like conservatives got all the effective ideas. Aren't we supposed to be the smart ones?
Click to expand...

Because liberals tend to not want to be assholes about these type of things and tend to think institutions are supposed to behave as they were intended to from their conception. They don't do it because they believe it to be wrong to do so in the first place. You're not supposed to put news through any sort of lens or provide a liberal/conservative slant to things in the first place. those "effective ideas" are shitty for everyone in the first place.
 
L

Lord Frieza

Member
Ahasverus said:
Why can't liberals do the same? It's like conservatives got all the effective ideas. Aren't we supposed to be the smart ones?
Click to expand...

Liberals don't need to do this, and that's the real difference. "Reality has a liberal bias," is actually true, most of the time. Allowing the news to come out relatively unfiltered will ultimately benefit the left outside certain exceptional times. There's a reason this is a 'takeover.'
 
O

Occam

Member
Oh, look, the Republicans achieved a dominant position by 30 years of brainwashing people into voting against their own interests by using propaganda, and now they are using their power to perpetuate the current state of affairs? I am shocked. Shocked! Well, not that shocked.
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
VariantX said:
Because liberals tend to not want to be assholes about these type of things and tend to think institutions are supposed to behave as they were intended to from their conception. They don't do it because they believe it to be wrong to do so in the first place. You're not supposed to put news through any sort of lens or provide a liberal/conservative slant to things in the first place. those "effective ideas" are shitty for everyone in the first place.
Click to expand...

Lord Frieza said:
Liberals don't need to do this, and that's the real difference. "Reality has a liberal bias," is actually true, most of the time. Allowing the news to come out relatively unfiltered will ultimately benefit the left outside certain exceptional times. There's a reason this is a 'takeover.'
Click to expand...

ahoyhoy said:
Liberal ideology is usually incompatible with tactics like overt brainwashing and strong arm manipulation.
Click to expand...
A war is a war. Honestly, we should start acting bullish. It's either that or death.
 
N

nintendoman58

Member
Lord Frieza said:
Yeah, it feels that way really. It feels more and more hopeless by the day it seems. My country is being taken over, and it feels like there's just nothing that can be done. All I can really do is vote and donate to causes to help fight this stuff, but the speed and gravity in which all this is happening seems unstoppable in the end.
Click to expand...

As harrowing as this all feels, we can't let this attitude consume us. Yes, the reality of how far their access is reaching is troubling and the facts are disturbing.

But the moment we, the ones who fight for truth submit to this ideology out of hopelessness, is when we truly lose.

We need to focus on what we DO have in order to truly fight against this. We'll never find a solution if we only think about the problem.
 
L

Lord Frieza

Member
Ahasverus said:
A war is a war. Honestly, we should start acting bullish. It's either that or death.
Click to expand...

You misread what I said, I think. I was saying it is in the best interest for them not to have the news filtered with a slant. I wasn't saying that a left-leaning group shouldn't buy stations in this manner. They should, by all means, but I don't know where these groups are.
 
L

Lord Frieza

Member
nintendoman58 said:
As harrowing as this all feels, we can't let this attitude consume us. Yes, the reality of how far their access is reaching is troubling and the facts are disturbing.

But the moment we, the ones who fight for truth submit to this ideology out of hopelessness, is when we truly lose.

We need to focus on what we DO have in order to truly fight against this. We'll never find a solution if we only think about the problem.
Click to expand...

Well, then, what do we do? Blind optimism is nothing if there is no solutions with it.
 
B

BruceCLea

Banned
I was fired by them a few months ago. First job out of grad school. They have "must runs" for daily broadcasts. It's insane. Terrible company.
 
E

Earthbound64

Banned
bennywhatever said:
Uhhhh, Sinclair is one of the biggest TV owners in the country. Everyone in the business knows Sinclair. I'm not a fan of theirs but just this part alone makes me think there's a lot of hyperbole in this article.
Click to expand...

Seriously.
Next they're going to say that Clear Channel Communications "came out of nowhere."

The fact that so many people are just blissfully unaware of stuff like this until someone makes a news story out of it, and then people give absurd reactions to it like it just happened last week or something, is bizarre.

If people were actually paying attention, this stuff has been known decades ahead of this.
 
S

Skellig Gra

Member
nintendoman58 said:
We keep looking for solutions.

Just don't submit.

If Obama got elected with Fox News running around, a liberal can get elected again.
Click to expand...

Obama was a once in a generation politician. Just oozes charisma and likability on top of being squeaky clean. The fact the democrats put forth a 70 year old as their best hope should be very telling about future prospects.
 
T

theWB27

Member
Hollywood Duo said:
Obama was a once in a generation politician. Just oozes charisma and likability on top of being squeaky clean. The fact the democrats put forth a 70 year old as their best hope should be very telling about future prospects.
Click to expand...

The fact that the left only deems an Obama as fitting is the real problem.
 
F

Fox318

Member
If Obama ran in 2016 all the Haillary people and supporters would have told him to step aside just like in 2008.
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
Ahasverus said:
A war is a war. Honestly, we should start acting bullish. It's either that or death.
Click to expand...

I actually fully agree. If we need to push reality like frightening unrelenting propaganda to reach people, then we should. The alternative is literally happening right now with science being denied, violent racists and bigots taking lives, health as a human right being destroyed and education being a priority for only the rich and well off. This exact shit is destroying people and this country and relying on principle alone to justify keeping on the kid gloves is accomplishing very little in terms of steering us away from a cliff.
 
Z

zethren

Banned
The war on intellectualism is a tragedy. To become demonized to appear intelligent, to appear as a freely-thinking individual, is what will destroy this country. When we start valuing "plain speak" and strongman attitudes over everything else, we've lost. The fact that "progressive" is demonized in the media is beyond confusing to me, it's absurd. So you WANT to be regressive? You WANT to stay the same, and not see any progress for humankind or your children? Fuck off, idiots.

This is why I always laugh when you hear the moronic conservative media hosts blabber on and on about the liberal "thought police". Like...dude...you don't even realize what's happening to you, and if you do then you're an even bigger part of the problem than you already are.
 
S

Saint Gregory

Member
This issue may be spreading but it really isn't new. I noticed back in the early 2000s that when I traveled to red states a lot of the local morning news was indistinguishable from cable Fox News. It made me understand how the Republicans were maintaining such a stranglehold of those areas.
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
ssolitare said:
The left needs to be concerned about voting, not propaganda.
Click to expand...

The Left needs to be concerned about both. In red areas of the country that has a majority of the voting pop consuming this shit and continuing to vote for monsters, we need to consider how to stifle the spread of that shit to clear people's minds of ever even considering voting for a destructive party like the GOP and supporting dangerous legislation because of Fox & Friends spin and puff pieces that straight up lie about critical issues.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Ahasverus said:
A war is a war. Honestly, we should start acting bullish. It's either that or death.
Click to expand...

Be careful when fighting monsters etc.

I won't have any of your hostile propaganda thank you very much, no matter how high minded your ideals are.
 
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