Good grief. You guys are reading some other story. You must be. That's all I can think of to explain the reaction to this.

One of the local stations was owned by Sinclair a few years ago - back then, they had a recorded commentary from Mark Hyman. I could never really understand his opinions - just wrong delivery is my guess.

Sinclair was also known for being really bare-bones in station finances. They cut back on all of the nice stuff. I really noticed the changes to the news set and staffing from when the acquired the station, and when they sold it.

In my opinion, they were no great loss leaving our market. Poorly constructed patterns of reporting. If they had paid attention to the message, they might have been better.

I don’t see them saying anything untrue.

I would expect this type of action from the Left...actually surprised it comes(this time) from a traditionally conservative media source.

My original point it that its wrong to script "news" across multiple outlets to be controlled by one entity - in this case Sinclair. Controlling or manipulating facts to serve an agenda is wrong !

quote:

Originally posted by sgalczyn:
My original point it that its wrong to script "news" across multiple outlets to be controlled by one entity - in this case Sinclair. Controlling or manipulating facts to serve an agenda is wrong !

You do realize this was not a newscast but a promo? What facts were manipulated? They are doing a commercial for their news department, of course they use a script...Am I missing something?

quote:

Originally posted by sgalczyn:
I would expect this type of action from the Left...actually surprised it comes(this time) from a traditionally conservative media source.

My original point it that its wrong to script "news" across multiple outlets to be controlled by one entity - in this case Sinclair. Controlling or manipulating facts to serve an agenda is wrong !

I just don't understand your beef with this. What facts or news was manipulated?

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:

quote:

Originally posted by sgalczyn:
My original point it that its wrong to script "news" across multiple outlets to be controlled by one entity - in this case Sinclair. Controlling or manipulating facts to serve an agenda is wrong !

You do realize this was not a newscast but a promo? What facts were manipulated? They are doing a commercial for their news department, of course they use a script...Am I missing something?

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Am I missing something? It sounds as if Sinclair is trying to make sure that some facts are disseminated from these stations. Why do I see members saying "ho hum" and acting indifferent to this?

Either I have missed the point of this story, or you guys have. Which is it?

About Me: I was in the broadcast industry (hence my forum 'name' here), but got out several years ago.

There are several factors at play here.

TV news ratings are way down . hence my comment about TV news being dead. Out of fairness, it's not quite dead, but the trend is very clear.

Although ratings are down, local TV news still provides much of the revenue for local stations, but they know viewership is decreasing. Ironically, the one bright spot that TV news has is increased revenue from their news department's web page's ad content. So, it's important that their news departments try to come across as reputable and "balanced" to remain profitable.

So Sinclair demanded that each one of their stations broadcast the "Some are doing fake news, but we are not" statement, which I copied below. It seems some are trying to say Sinclair stations are not "balanced" because of these messages. (WTF?)

Some are even trying to argue these are "Pro-Trump messages" and as such, violates the fairness doctrine, which doesn't even exist now!!!!!!

I know, it's a bunch of Bullshit.

but there's more to it...

Since It's more cost effective for one company to own several stations, as opposed to each station being independently owned, there are only a few companies that own much of the TV coverage in the USA. But, Since the "TV airwaves" are a public "resource" there are still limitations on how many TV stations one company can own.

It's a complicated equation to determine how much of the "airwaves" and how many TV stations one company can own. It's based on how much "broadcast coverage" an owning company has in total.

But, There is something called the "UHF discount" from like 50 years ago which allowed a single company to buy more TV stations, if some of their stations are UHF stations. But, The "UHF discount" was eliminated by BHO's FCC, but DJT's FCC put it back in place last year, largely to help over-the-air TV remain viable, as it's got some unfavorable economic trends coming up, as I stated.

There are some who are trying to say (without substance) that Sinclair helped Trump my means of these so-called Trump oriented "messages", so, in turn, Trump rewarded them with the reinstated UHF discount, which allows every company out there (not just Sinclair) to own many more stations since many stations are on UHF these days.

Hey, Sinclair owns the stations, so it should be no surprise that they dictate at least some of the content that is aired on these stations.
Statements like "we don't do fake news" broadcast on all Sinclair stations should not raise any concern. So, Why is anyone concerned?

When the OP stated...

quote:

Left or Right-wing..............it's not right:

Well, again, since Sinclair owns the stations, they are free to do what they want within the limits placed on them by the FCC. I don't see a problem here.

By the way, the only example given as a "Pro-Trump statement is below. how the hell is that Pro-Trump anyway???

And how the hell did Sinclair get labeled as a right-wing company? They are accused of forcing right-wing propaganda to local television broadcasts. But where are the examples of this right-wing content??? Where?

Here's the "Right Wing message" of concern, to which I say *yawn* :

Hi, I’m(A) ____________, and I’m (B) _________________…

(B) Our greatest responsibility is to serve our Northwest communities. We are extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that KOMO News produces.

(A) But we’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.

(B) More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories… stories that just aren’t true, without checking facts first.

(A) Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think’…This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.

(B) At KOMO it’s our responsibility to pursue and report the truth. We understand Truth is neither politically ‘left nor right.’ Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever.

(A) But we are human and sometimes our reporting might fall short. If you believe our coverage is unfair please reach out to us by going to KOMOnews.com and clicking on CONTENT CONCERNS. We value your comments. We will respond back to you.

(B) We work very hard to seek the truth and strive to be fair, balanced and factual… We consider it our honor, our privilege to responsibly deliver the news every day.

(A) Thank you for watching and we appreciate your feedback.