Here's all you need to know about the following tweet: Sinclair Broadcast Group, which wants approval from Donald Trump's stooge at the Federal Communications Commission to undergo a vast expansion, is spouting Trump's "fake news" talking points in an apparent effort to get the green light. And Trump is eating it up:
Here’s a bit about Sinclair’s ambitions, from The Nation:
Sinclair wants to dramatically expand its empire by buying major stations owned by Tribune Media. The $3.9 billion Sinclair-Tribune deal is all about the consolidation of ownership—and influence—that federal regulators are supposed to guard against. But Trump’s FCC chair, Ajit Pai, stands accused of warping the approval process in Sinclair’s favor.
Pai’s machinations have been so concerning that the agency’s top internal watchdog launched an investigation into whether the chairman pushed to change media ownership rules to benefit the Sinclair-Tribune merger deal.
Pai is also the mastermind behind ending a rule that recently helped Sinclair force its corporate message down the throats of local anchors across the country so they could spit it back out verbatim as if it were personal commentary. The opinion was ripped straight from Trump’s talking points on media bias and so-called “fake news.”
The Washington Post writes:
It's an example of the type of programming that some policy analysts said would become more common after the FCC eliminated a decades-old rule last year whose purpose was to keep local TV stations under local control. Known as the “main studio rule,” the now-defunct federal requirement required radio and TV stations to operate a physical studio in the areas where they were licensed.
Yeah, who needs a physical presence to do local reporting? As for an outlet that is doing real reporting, Trump just can’t handle the truth.