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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

#71

Post by irrational »

rambojazz wrote: post #14
Overtonwindow wrote: post #3

I'm not clear why this is a problem. A corporation asked its broadcasters to make a statement on fake news. This statement sounds similar to others made by other corporate owned networks. Viewers are invited to comment on the website.

- people trust local media - a single corporation owns a fuckton of those local stations - the same corporation writes a script to broadcast on every station - media hosts or journalists can't say "no". Do the job or lose your job. They're not free to report news without bias - you don't know everything about everything, so you're inclined to trust the news because they're supposed to be neutral and report facts - ul…

"They're not free to report news without bias... they're supposed to be neutral and report facts"

I know I sound cynical, but does any thinking person actually believe that? That strikes me as incredibly naive.

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

#72

Post by SauciestGNU »

jandrese wrote: post #55
Someone1234 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not sure it's a failure so much as the desired outcome for the right. Controlling the information people have access to allows them to fight against those pesky "facts" and "science".

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

#73

Post by WhompingWindows »

In my eyes, this is a clear set/spike play. A huge corporation, enabled by their corrupt allies in the FCC, buy up hundreds of "local" stations. They then use the local cred/reputation of these stations to suggest that fake news is rampant on other sources (not controlled by Sinclair). They then tilt the dialogue nation-wide. Meanwhile, the average citizen is unaware that their trusted local anchor is bought/sold, they lack education and resources to educate themselves, and they are pushed further towards whatever dialogue the Sinclair executives are paid to push them towards.

Does anyone from either side of the aisle consider a national corporation owning local stations and forcing scripts down their throat a good thing for the marketplace of ideas?

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

#74

Post by ilamont »

ahoy wrote: post #63
ilamont wrote: post #56

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...

Old people watch more local news and vote at higher rates than any other demographic group.

Yet the Pew data shows sharp drops in those demographics getting news from TV, too ... from 72%-64% in just one year for adults aged 50-64.

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

#75

Post by wwweston »

ilamont wrote: post #56

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...

Voting audience at the right margins across the right states might be just as important or more important than general audience numbers.

Young people famously just don't consistently get out to the polls in the way that much older people do. There might be a day when TV news just doesn't matter (it's certainly mattered little to me since sometime in the 90s), but it might take until the generation that grew up with the rise of the internet is approaching retirement.

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

#76

Post by vinhboy »

nimbius wrote: post #7

It is important to reinforce the wholesomeness, and trustworthiness, of your brand or product when that product faces the significant risk of potential legislative regulation in light of growing aversion to its decades-long embrace of lies, manipulation, and 'fake news' in the pursuit of ratings and shareholder value. Sinclair has taken up the mantle of PR Firm to engage in some preemptive damage control. 15 years ag…

You are way way way way too optimistic... It is clear by the current state of our politics that there is no repercussion for lying.

The fact that Sinclair has been growing is evidence of that.

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

#77

Post by maxerickson »

mschuster91 wrote: post #70
ahoy wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old people watch more local news and vote at higher rates than any other demographic group.

> Old people [...] vote at higher rates than any other demographic group. Now that one is bound to change. Young people, both in the US and abroad, are discovering the powers of social media and organize to advance their causes. Trump with his backwards, racist and misogynistic rhetoric and his politics mostly serving the old, white, male population provides a perfect enemy figure to rally against. Somewhere on Reddi…

It's pretty likely that most of them won't vote at all.

The ones that vote will probably tend to vote as you indicate.

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

#78

Post by wu-ikkyu »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #25
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

A lot of people believe that, but it's far from proven in the general case. There are some proven examples of the US government influencing news (at home and abroad), there are clearly advertiser influences, there are political influencers (e.g. Fox News) on partisan channels. But I haven't seen evidence for it as the norm. Obviously this piece was published by the New York Times, for example.

>I haven't seen evidence for it as the norm.

You might like Spin, a 1995 documentary composed of unauthorized behind the scenes footage of the political maneuverings of newscasters and politicians.

https://youtu.be/PlJkgQZb0VU

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

#79

Post by robotrout »

mschuster91 wrote: post #70
ahoy wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Old people watch more local news and vote at higher rates than any other demographic group.

> Old people [...] vote at higher rates than any other demographic group. Now that one is bound to change. Young people, both in the US and abroad, are discovering the powers of social media and organize to advance their causes. Trump with his backwards, racist and misogynistic rhetoric and his politics mostly serving the old, white, male population provides a perfect enemy figure to rally against. Somewhere on Reddi…

I would flag your post if I could. Your provocative statements are not productive and are off-topic. You are obviously some sort of activist. This is not the place for it.

From your bio: " You call it "alt-left", I proudly call it "Antifa".

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

#80

Post by thaumaturgy »

Trump recently took DACA off the negotiating table, announcing it in a tweet, citing a Fox News & Friends segment on 'caravans' of inbound immigrants: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration/trump-say...

The President is watching this same garbage and making policy decisions based on it. Let that sink in for a moment.

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