By Richard Eskow / 03.21.2018
There is increasing public concern about the political manipulation of Facebook and Twitter by private corporations and foreign actors, and itās certainly warranted. Social media, especially Facebook, are increasingly mediating their usersā realities in ways that traditional broadcasters can only dream about. But millions of Americans still rely on television news, and they probably give it more credence than they do to random strangers on the internet.
Thatās bad news, because thereās fake news on your television, too.Ā And thereās about to be more of it, unless something is done to stop an upcoming merger.
Fake News Network
Sinclair Broadcast Group is a hard-right ā perhaps even āalt-rightā ā corporation that imposes its views on the local television stations it owns. It is closely allied with Donald Trump, whose administration has loosened the rules governing media conglomerates like Sinclair.
Sinclair is privately held by the descendants of Julian Sinclair Smith, who started the network of 193 stations at Baltimoreās WBFF in 1971. Smithās son, David, who was the CEO until last year, apparently shares more with Trump than just his politics. Smith was arrested for the solicitation of prostitution in 2004, andĀ reportedlyĀ forced reporters at a Sinclair station to do some of his court-ordered community service work.
(Reasonable people may differ about Smithās morality or hypocrisy. But there can be little disagreement that hisĀ offense, which took place in a Sinclair company car as it proceeded down Baltimoreās Jones Falls Expressway, displayed an indifferent attitude toward both public safety and the proper operation of a motor vehicle.)
The Smith familyās political opinions arenāt a cause for public concern, and neither are its personal peccadilloes. But the consolidation of media into a few private hands poses great risk, and Sinclairās behavior proves it. Sinclair is abusing its power by distorting the facts to impose a predetermined view of reality on reporters at its 173 stations ā and therefore on the public.
And now, thanks to aĀ rulingĀ from Trumpās FCC majority that benefits a Trump ally, Sinclair is poised to impose its distorted worldview on many more markets around the country. Sinclair is proposing to purchase another conglomerate, Tribune Media, in a $3.9 billionĀ deal. It would gain 49 stations, and would sell its stations in New York and Chicago to meet station ownership limits, for a total of 220 television outlets.
If the deal goes through, Sinclairās stations will reachĀ nearly 70 percentĀ of all households in the United States.
TV Trolls
What does that fake news look like? Sinclair has broadcast videos made by hoaxsterĀ James OāKeefe, who has a record of producingĀ misleading, heavily doctoredĀ video āstingsā of progressive individuals and organizations. (OāKeefeās attempt to entrap a Washington Post reporter, whichĀ reads like slapstick comedy, illustrates his methods.)
Sinclairās Circa subsidiary presents itself as an unbiased mobile news site, but reportedlyĀ skewed its reportingĀ to its ownersā political agenda after its acquisition by Sinclair.
In 2004, SinclairĀ refused to broadcastĀ an episode of āNightlineā in which the names of soldiers killed in combat in Iraq were read out loud.Ā Sinclair called the program āpolitically motivatedā and asked why anchor Ted Koppel didnāt read āthe names of the thousands of private citizens killed in terrorist attacks since and including the events of September 11, 2001.ā
As the Washington PostĀ reports, Sinclair planned to air a ādocumentaryā distorting John Kerryās war record just before the 2004 election until public pressure forced it to moderate the broadcast. As the Post also reports:
āOn the eve of the 2012 election between Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, for example, Sinclair stations in several battlegrounds states aired a Ācorporate-produced half-hour news āspecialā that criticized Obamaās handling of the economy, his signature health-care law and the administrationās management of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Romneyās record received less scrutiny.ā
Sinclair is currently forcing its stations to air the right-wing commentary of a former Trump aide namedĀ Boris Epshteyn, who displays no perceptible gifts as a commentator. (Judge forĀ yourself.)
In another āmust-airā segment, a commentator namedĀ Mark HymanĀ declared that āwe have the greatest health care in the worldā ā a statement that can be objectively disproved byĀ comparing the U.S. with other developed nationsĀ ā and that āāgovernment-directed health care can kill.ā
Sinclair is also working to drum up Islamophobic sentiments with a recurring segment called āTerrorism Alert Desk,ā which opens with a blast of ābreaking newsā-style music to present stories (and sometimesĀ non-stories) that share no common theme ā except that they consistently cast Muslims as terrorists.
“Read Exactly as Written”
Now,Ā internal memosĀ obtained by CNN show that Sinclair is requiring all its news anchors to condemn the reporting of mainstream news outlets as āfake news.ā Sinclairās memos direct stations to air its pre-scripted attacks on journalism āusing news time, not commercial time.ā
āPlease produce the attached scripts exactly as they are written,ā stations are told. The scripts include this language:
āIām [we are] extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that [proper news brand name of local station] produces. But Iām [we are] concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country.
āThe sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming, national media outlets are publishing these same fake stories without checking factsā¦ members of the national media are using their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control āexactly what people thinkāā¦
āWe understand Truth is neither politically āleft or right.ā Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever.ā
Fake news outlets on the internet do the same thing: They tell readers that ātheyā are lying, but āweā are telling you the unvarnished truth.
To be sure, mainstream media have often misled readers and viewers. But they have not done so at the direction of a single, central office with a political agenda and transparent ethnic and religious biases.
āI felt like a POW recording a message,ā one news anchor said of the Sinclair scripts.
No More Media Consolidation
If this is how Sinclair Broadcasting Group behaves while its massive merger is awaiting approval, how will it act when it has everything it wants?
Sinclairās proposed merger must still be approved by the FCC and the Justice Department. It is taking place during a time ofĀ mounting public pressureĀ on the government to address media consolidation, asĀ behemothsĀ like Disney, Fox, Time Warner, ATT, and Comcast increasingly control what national audiences see and hear.
In 1983, 90 percent of American media was controlled by 50 companies. Forty years later, 90 percent of the media was controlled byĀ only five companies. The Sinclair/Tribune merger would accelerate that trend.
Sinclair is a case study in the threat that media consolidation poses to democracy. This merger must be stopped.
Originally published by OurFuture.org, reprinted with permission.