A bigger Sinclair is bad for TV and bad for democracy

In May, the Sinclair Broadcast Group—one of the largest owners of TV stations in the country-- announced plans to spend $3.9 billion to acquire Tribune Media, parent company of 42 TV stations located in larger markets like Chicago and Los Angeles. The resulting merger would create a broadcasting behemoth of more that 230 stations reaching some 72 percent of the television viewing audience coast-to-coast. Justice Department are both currently reviewing the deal, as well they should. If the purchase is allowed to move forward, it could have devastating consequences not just for the quality of local television but for democracy itself.

To begin with, Sinclair has a wellearned reputation for putting profits ahead of the public interest. The stations it absorbs as part of the Tribune Media merger will undoubtedly face layoffs and pressure to cut costs. Shortly after the company purchased Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO and Portland station KATU in 2013, it fired several of the stations’ employees. Local news and public affairs programming suffered as a result.

Sinclair’s relentless pursuit of profits has also led it to blur the line between advertising and news. After the company bought Washington DC station WJLA in 2014, WJLA’s morning news program began hyping Myrtle Beach, South Carolina as a tourist destination as part of a company-wide tourist promotion deal. And in 2016 dozens of Sinclair stations repeatedly ran commercials for the Hunstman Cancer Institute during local news without identifying the segments as paid content, a blatant violation of FCC regulations.

More disturbing than Sinclair’s commercialism and penchant for belttightening is the company’s habit of imposing a rightwing political slant on its station’s local