Sinclair producer Jason Simmons had been concerned about corporate-mandated content for awhile, but the latest script was the final straw. Unlike most local anchors, who are locked into restrictive, financially punitive contracts, Simmons was free to walk away from his Nebraska morning show, and tendered his resignation on March 26—just a few days before the Sinclair script went viral, thanks to an ultra-creepy supercut from Deadspin.
The morning show producer is now using his comparative freedom to speak out against his former employer, since so many of his former colleagues can’t.
Simmons told CNNMoney that he had been concerned about Sinclair's corporate mandates for the past year and a half, and that the promos were just the final straw.
"This is almost forcing local news anchors to lie to their viewers," he said.
He said his feelings are shared by others at his station, but didn't want to say anything that would imperil his colleagues.
In a resignation letter he shared with CNNMoney, Simmons wrote that he has been required to air "several segments that have made me uncomfortable." He cited "the news media bashing promo our local anchors have been required to read" as the most recent example.
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The required segments are known as “must-runs.” These clips are not a new concept, and they don’t always look like propaganda. In fact, sometimes they look like commercials: for years, FOX inserted fluffy American Idol must-run segments into local broadcasts to promote the blockbuster series. Annoying, yes, but not particularly creepy or fascist. Sinclair’s mandatory content, however, is quite a bit darker, pro-Trump, and, as Simmons told CNN, not particularly popular.
One of the "must-runs," the "Terrorism Alert Desk," is a recurring segment about security threats. Critics call the segments alarmist and full of fear-mongering.
Pro-Trump commentaries by former Trump campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn are another "must-run" feature.
Simmons asserted that there isn't a hunger for Epshteyn's boosterish videos.
"On YouTube, he only has a couple hundred views for some of his videos," Simmons said. "On Facebook he's not that popular either. To me that's also a concern because Sinclair is forcing us to air these."
Simmons echoed what staffers at other stations have described: Top-down mandates to take up local news time with national stories that sometimes have a conservative bent.
Local stations inundated with national, biased content is dangerous, especially when that content is being created to further the agenda of the septuagenarian toddler in the White House. As Dan Rather points out:
Let's be clear, news anchors looking into camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord, a script meant to obscure the truth not elucidate it, isn't journalism. It's propaganda. It's Orwellian. And it is on a slippery slope towards some of history's most destructive forces. These are the means by which despots wrest power, silence dissent, and oppress the masses.
As for Simmons, he doesn’t have his next gig lined up, but he seems secure in his choice to leave the station he called home for the last four years.
"Making the local anchors do this was a big concern for me," he said. "I didn't go into news to give people biased information."
"Resigning seemed like the least I could do," he added. "I wish there was more."
Though his last day at work was supposed to be April 20, once Simmons told his employers that he was going to the press, he was immediately put on paid leave.
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