Sinclair defends ‘false news’ script
Dozens of stations read message sent by corporate headquarters
Sinclair Broadcast Group is defending itself against criticism for a recent on-air promotional message many of its local news anchors were asked to read that warned viewers about “false news” on competing media outlets.
Dozens of stations belonging to the nation’s largest broadcaster have aired video promotions in the past few weeks in which their local on-air news hosts voice concerns about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country.” The anchors then go on to say that many media outlets are publishing “fake stories” and pushing agendas.
The promotion looks unique in each market, but Sinclair’s corporate Hunt Valley, Md.-headquarters scripted and distributed it to its stations. After a video showing overlapping clips of anchors reciting the same script went viral, Democratic lawmakers and media critics condemned the company for thinly veiled editorializing that, they said, promoted President Trump’s attacks on the news media.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, tweeted Monday: “Local news stations now required by Sinclair Broadcasting to parrot the talking points of the President, moving America one step closer to its own version of state run media. And another freedom is assailed under this Administration.”
In Kentucky, Amy McGrath, a Democratic candidate for the state’s sixth congressional district, tweeted she was pulling campaign ads from the Lexington, Ky., Sinclair-owned station and would ask other Democratic congressional candidates to refuse to buy campaign advertising from Sinclair stations. The “right-wing script,” she said on Twitter, “eerily mimics the propaganda efforts that authoritarian
regimes often use to control the media in their own country.”
And in Cincinnati, City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld tweeted that he no longer will watch local Channel 12 after seeing the local anchors — and others across the country — reading the same script. “Creepy, cult-ish, and way too propagandistic for my taste,” the Democrat said in a tweet Sunday.
Nick Clooney, a former anchor on that channel, said if he still worked there, he would not have joined the anchors across the country in reading an identical script attacking other outlets for producing “biased and false news.” Clooney, who is father of actor George Clooney, added: “I have no idea what these folks are doing for a living, but it isn’t news.”
This national message from Sinclair comes as regulators are considering whether to approve its nearly $4 billion deal to acquire Tribune Media Co. The acquisition, announced in May
2017, would increase Sinclair’s number of TV stations from 193 to 220 or more — and its reach of U.S. homes to
72%.
Critics of the merger say this national scripted promotion offers a hint at how an even-larger Sinclair could spread conservative-leaning messages across the largest-ever collection of local media outlets.
Awareness about the promotions has grown in the past few days after sports news site Deadspin edited together a video of dozens of local Sinclair station broadcasts echoing one another. The site posted it on Twitter — it had more than 7 million views midday Monday — and its other social media pages Saturday and saw it replayed on HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Sunday.
Non-profit progressive news group ThinkProgress also put together its own video and posted it on its YouTube page.
Sinclair says it produced the spots to express concern about the spread of false media reports such as the “Pope Endorses Trump” fake news story and the “Pizzagate” conspiracy story, both of which emerged just before the 2016 presidential election and can have “potentially dangerous consequences, Scott Livingston, Sinclair’s senior vice president of news, said in a statement sent to USA TODAY.
“It is ironic that we would be attacked for messages promoting our journalistic initiative for fair and objective reporting, and for specifically asking the public to hold our newsrooms accountable,” he said. “Our local stations keep our audiences’ trust by staying focused on fact-based reporting and clearly identifying commentary.”
Trump defended Sinclair on Twitter on Monday, adding to critics’ complaints that the TV company was acting as his proxy. “So funny to watch Fake News Networks ... criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased,” he tweeted. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”
Last month, anchors told CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter, who broke the story about the planned Sinclair promotion, their concerns in recording the promos. “I felt like a POW recording a message,” one of the anchors told the Reliable Sources host.
In a follow-up story Monday on CNN.com, Stelter noted how the viral video ignited the issue and quoted another Sinclair journalist, an investigative reporter, who said, “It sickens me the way this company is encroaching upon trusted news brands in rural markets.”