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Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

nytimes.com

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Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#51

Post by WhompingWindows »

0x445442 wrote: post #20
alistairSH wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the corporation. Sinclair has it's own political agenda. Forcing anchors across the US to recite something is bad enough, but when that something is of questionable truth, and orchestrated to minimuze Sinclair's own propensity to push its right-ist agenda, it's downright scary.

Yeah, just about as scary as GE, Disney, Time Warner et al. pushing their left wing agendas via CNN, MSNBC/NBC and ABC. See, everyone can play this game in the Postmodernist world.

Ignoring the fact that there are far more than left/right in the real world, I take issue with the equivalency you're making between Right and Left in the USA. While both sides have many pet issues and wedge issues that are divisive and bad for democracy, the right is denying scientific truth and actively contradicting its extreme budget-hawkishness under the previous president. While the left is bought quite a bit, the right is even more bought by the Kochs, big business, and wealthy donors. Look at the only accomplishment of the right coalition: a major tax cut that expires quickly for everyone except the rich, who receive a massive win in perpetuity.

If you look globally, we don't have a Right/Left in the USA, we have an EXTREME right in power and a moderate left in minority. The GOP is the only party in the world whose stance is that climate change is a hoax. We withdrew from the Paris accord while Syria and North Korea have joined it. That is despicably anti-scientific. If you compare Obama's middle of the road left-ism to Trump's extreme right stances, its quite shocking. There can be no false equivalence between the R and L in this country, one is evidently far more extreme.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#52

Post by wyldfire »

ThbTs4wbXC9Qjv wrote: post #18
alistairSH wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the corporation. Sinclair has it's own political agenda. Forcing anchors across the US to recite something is bad enough, but when that something is of questionable truth, and orchestrated to minimuze Sinclair's own propensity to push its right-ist agenda, it's downright scary.

I'm FAR more concerned about national stations like CNN than local Sinclair stations. Just anti-american agenda based news non-stop. Some of us happen to like the country we live in.

Can you clarify what you mean by "anti-american agenda"?

Questioning authority is absolutely the most appropriate task for the free press. IMO at least this part is not "anti-american".

Let's further the discussion -- take a look at http://lite.cnn.io/en -- there's about 40-50 stories there. Please pick the top five or ten and help illustrate which among those demonstrate the bias you refer to. Or if the problem is less widespread, please indicate which among the 40-50 there illustrate the bias.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#53

Post by portofcall »

yborg wrote: post #48
portofcall wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that they’re the single largest television broadcaster. Headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland, the company is the largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations, and largest by total coverage; owning or operating a total of 193 stations across the country (233 after all currently proposed sales are approved) in over 100 markets (covering 40% of American households), man…

With the shift to the various 21st century streaming platforms, broadcast TV in its traditional form is rapidly becoming the bastion of the elderly. The average traditional broadcast news viewer is 50+[1] so very soon Sinclair will be dominating retirement homes everywhere in America. It's a demographic that will literally die out from under them, and seems like a poor long-term investment. [1] http://www.journalism.…

You may not be aware of this, but typically you don’t enter a nursing home at 50. Either way, Sinclair is also well into streaming services, which you could have discovered with even a cursory glance at their Wikipedia page. Of course, a huge number of people, especially people who vote, are in that same age bracket.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#54

Post by wu-ikkyu »

SonicSoul wrote: post #15
wu-ikkyu wrote: post #5

Isn't this pretty much the case for all corporate media? The narrative is set from the top down, and if anyone strays too far outside the Overton Window, they're punished. Example: Phil Donahue getting fired from MSNBC for speaking against the war in Iraq. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Donahue#MSNBC_program

Phil Donahue was not a news anchor. What makes this case different is that this is scripted material posing as real local news as part of basic cable package. Most people will not treat this as crafted message from a corporation, but actual news.

Isn't most corporate cable news a scripted message read from a teleprompter?

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#55

Post by jandrese »

Someone1234 wrote: post #39
MrPresident wrote: post #33

Why is this news? Conan covered this years ago. https://mic.com/articles/77721/watch-conan-o-brien-bust-loca...

Because Sinclair just purchased more TV stations, so many in fact that it was banned under previous administrations at the FCC. At the start of 2017, the FCC just rewrote the rules allowing Sinclair to own a large swath of the US's local news capacity. In many markets they're the sole source of local news. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-07/sinclair-...

They're also the most likely candidate to pick up the pieces when iHeartRadio goes bankrupt. They're going to have the strongest propaganda outlet since the times of Hearst newspapers. This is an abject failure of the FCC.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#56

Post by ilamont »

There are many threats to democracy, but this is not one of them.

Audience numbers for local TV news (not to mention national TV news) is shrinking across the U.S. Younger people in particular will not sit down to watch a 30 minute talking-heads newscast stuffed to the gills with car, telecom, and insurance ads.

See: https://www.poynter.org/news/new-pew-study-says-local-tv-new...

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#57

Post by electricEmu »

robotrout wrote: post #13
alistairSH wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the corporation. Sinclair has it's own political agenda. Forcing anchors across the US to recite something is bad enough, but when that something is of questionable truth, and orchestrated to minimuze Sinclair's own propensity to push its right-ist agenda, it's downright scary.

Local stations are the least of our problems. 232 executives control news to 277 million Americans (from 2012). This was what I hoped the article was about. http://www.businessinsider.com/these-6-corporations-control-...

Ignoring local stations makes the situation worse.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#59

Post by 0x445442 »

jandrese wrote: post #43
0x445442 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, just about as scary as GE, Disney, Time Warner et al. pushing their left wing agendas via CNN, MSNBC/NBC and ABC. See, everyone can play this game in the Postmodernist world.

GE, Disney, and Time Warner are left wing now? Did they radically change over the weekend and I didn't notice?

So you honestly don't think MSNBC/NBC, ABC and CNN are left-wing?

As for the corporations which own them... Globalism vs. Nationalism, it's really what 2016 was about.

Re: Sinclair Made Dozens of Local News Anchors Recite the Same Script

#60

Post by maxerickson »

wu-ikkyu wrote: post #54
SonicSoul wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phil Donahue was not a news anchor. What makes this case different is that this is scripted material posing as real local news as part of basic cable package. Most people will not treat this as crafted message from a corporation, but actual news.

Isn't most corporate cable news a scripted message read from a teleprompter?

National anchors clearly have a boss that they listen to, but they also pretty clearly have a pretty large amount of editorial control over their shows.
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