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From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Last May, we criticized the proposed sale of Tribune Media Co. to Sinclair Broadcasting, a deal that would give Sinclair control of at least 215 local TV stations around the country. We argued that “the marketplace of ideas needs more voices, not fewer.”
The deal still awaits federal approval. Recently, the nation saw why it should be denied. A video produced by Deadspin.com showed 30 sets of TV anchors from Sinclair stations around the country reading the same script purporting to condemn “fake news” and attacking the integrity of others in the news media.
“This is extremely dangerous to our democracy,” the anchors all said, inadvertently showing how dangerous to democracy a media conglomerate that covers 72 percent of American households would be.
If the intent was to curry favor with President Donald Trump and federal regulators by parroting Trump’s “fake news” rants, it worked. On Monday, Trump tweeted, “So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”
In reality, the eerily Orwellian video, which quickly went viral, makes the case against the Sinclair-Tribune deal. A mandate went out from Sinclair VP Scott Livingston. And the anchors, their jobs and their credibility at stake, went along with varying degrees of sincerity.
“The stories we are referencing in this promo are the unsubstantiated ones (i.e. fake/false) like ‘Pope Endorses Trump’ which move quickly across social media and result in an ill-informed public,” Livingston told The Baltimore Sun.
If Sinclair CEO David Smith and his family didn’t have a record of being ardent Trump supporters, you could almost swallow this. But Smith has dined at the White House and asked his news directors to contribute to Sinclair’s conservative political action committee.
Legitimate news outlets make mistakes. When they do, they correct them and people can get fired. Trump told a verified average of 5.6 public lies per day in his first year in office. Yet Sinclair avoids questioning his veracity. Talk about dangerous for democracy. nd then it came … the early ’60s, when the world began to change. Suddenly, everything seemed different. There was restlessness in the air, voiced dissatisfaction, as well as tensions. Coming from unexpected corners of the South, there were the beginnings of a new and different spirit which was gaining momentum, becoming contagious. The Civil Rights Movement had become a force and was gaining strength. This week, as we remember Dr. Martin Luther King’s death, his impact, his memories, let us also remember the movement as well. This movement had begun to grow and attract supporters. Allendale, South Carolina, where I am from, was not exempt from the move of this new spirit. It had slipped into an unsuspecting area … the young and the innocent and the restless, just as the Enough is Enough movement of today is doing.
I had just graduated from college and had decided not to job hunt that summer, but to spend time with the family from whom I had been away from for four years. I had a peaceful, loving mother who was also caught up in this different spirit.
During the Voters Rights movement of the early ’60s, many of the people, who are now silent, were at that time very noisy ... singing “We Shall Overcome,” “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around” and many more freedom march songs.
Ella Kelly Davis and her children were one family who got caught up in the heart of the movement. They were fortunate, however, because the property on which they lived was owned by what their Aunt Tee used to call “De Yankee”... A Northern family who had a different kind of racism … subtle … but yet kind and supporting of a mother with six children and many extended family members who were leaning and depending on her. There were many blacks in the area who descended from those bought and owned by their white plantation owners. The Davises were surrounded by many plantations. The Creek Plantation, George Able Plantation, H.E. Johnson Plantation, George Kirkland Plantation and Belfast Plantation were all within a ten mile radius of where we lived.
Everything got heated all across the South during the ’60s, and in our area the summer of 1965 was most explosive, and that is when the Davis family became deeply involved. Freedom Riders were moving across the deepest South, and thank God, South Carolina was no exception. The Freedom Riders lived with the people of the community in which they operated.
Every weekday during the summer of 1965, Rose who was 16, Geneva who was 18, I who was 22, Mother Pinky Johnson who was in her early
Ihave been a Democrat for many years. Trump says many stupid things, but don’t we all? We do need to stop unlawful immigration, it does drain our taxes and is unfair. Mexico is using us and just laughing at us.
I think history has shown us walls don’t work. The Great Wall of China did not keep out Genghis Khan. The Roman wall in England did not keep out WILLIE MAE SAMUEL the Scots. The Berlin Wall did not keep out freedom. Maybe Trump never heard of those walls? I truly do not know what the answer is.
It’s not the immigrants’ fault. They just want a better life, a chance to advance their family. I think he is on the right track. Stop all trade from Mexico. Don’t let them use our roads for their profits. Let Mexicans apply (for citizenship). The U.S. loses 10,000 citizens per week. Replace them with immigrants. Richard Garrett Rome