Sinclair Broadcast Group forces its anchors to recite propaganda, drawing cheers from Donald Trump. It fired a local reporter after she told the truth about climate change. And in some places, it’s the only local news game in town. In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the Washington Post reports, the NBC, ABC, and Fox affiliates are all owned or managed by Sinclair and share a single newsroom. The exact same story might air on the different channels, and:
A story about construction issues at a local Veterans Affairs hospital, for instance, aired on WATM (which calls itself ABC 23) on the same night it aired on WJAC (also known as News 6).
Viewers watching the story on ABC 23 saw a union official being interviewed by a reporter holding a microphone with the News 6 logo on it. In a recent segment about wildfires, the Twitter handle that flashed on screen under one reporter’s name identified her as part of WJAC, even when she appeared on another station.
When Sinclair takes over a local station, its local reporting gets cut in favor of national politics, and its reporting on national politics skews right, according to an Emory University study. Sinclair is trying to bring that style of news to many more stations by buying Tribune Media, if the federal government will approve the deal. (And yes, that’s the Trump administration deciding whether a company that supports Trump will get to grow.)
This is dangerous. It means less information and less transparency, with everything coming through Sinclair’s extremist filter. It’s also exactly the news environment Donald Trump is cheering for.