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Sinclair Broadcasting Group has hit back against CNN, the network that first broke the story of the company’s mandated promos about “fake news,” with a video attacking the network (you can watch below) for its "dishonesty and hypocrisy." All Sinclair is doing, it implies, is exactly what CNN said media should do.
After an on-screen image declaring that it is about to present “evidence of a major media company’s dishonesty and hypocrisy,” the video features clips of CNN reporter Brian Stelter in 2016 and 2017 warning about the spread of “fake news” — which the video asserts is all Sinclair intended to do in its promotional campaign last month.
“So in 2016 and 2017, CNN was worried about ‘fake news’ and was warning people about it,” the Sinclair video says. “That concern about biased and fake news sounds a lot like what Sinclair’s anchors talked about.”
Of course, what Stelter and CNN were talking about was the stuff showing up primarily on social media. What Sinclair is talking about when they call out fake news is ... CNN and actual journalists, echoing Donald Trump’s claims. Sinclair brasss might not acknowledge that difference, but Sinclair's employees get it.
CNN's reporting on Sinclair and its pissed off employees bears that out. They are demoralized, and that includes those who don't have a problem with the mandated content. CNN talked to 15 current and former employees, and "all of the sources interviewed by CNNMoney in the past week agreed that company morale is low. One longtime staffer even used the word 'despair.'"
"This is so much bigger than us," one local anchor remarked. "I don't want people to lose faith in journalists."
That's ultimately what this controversy is about — the credibility of local journalists and the stations where they work.
Anchors and reporters are concerned that their credibility has been dented by Sinclair's "journalistic responsibility campaign."
What Sinclair is all about is definitely not journalism. It's about forwarding a warped, right-wing vision for America. And money. Because when it has to do with Trump, everything comes down to money.