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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

#231

Post by creaghpatr »

trose wrote: post #196
creaghpatr wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>or if the merger with Tribune Media goes through? That's the whole reason this is a story. The viral clip was assembled by far-left think tank ThinkProgress to attempt to torpedo the merger by stirring up public outcry. And of course, the mainstream media, who indirectly compete against these local stations, is happy to support these efforts.

are we getting russian trolls in HN as well? I thought we were here to have intelligent discussions. Not political nonsense about "mainstream media"

You are trying to dismiss my point of view by accusing me of being a Russian troll?

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

#232

Post by wanderer2323 »

larkost wrote: post #204
ams6110 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hilarious. Just like Facebook privacy issues only blew up when it might have benefited Trump, but it was fine when Obama used that data (on a much larger scale), it's funny that NYT is suddenly paying attention to this coordinated reporting campaign when they and the national TV media parrot Media Matters all day, every day. It's easy to find a dozen examples of national TV talking heads all using the same phras…

The data that the Obama campaign used, and the one that the Trump campaign may have used (it is clear they had it, unclear that they used it) were very different both in collection and in scope. The Obama campaign asked supporters which of their FaceBook contacts they thought were likely to be receptive to messages from the team, and only collected the FaceBook handles. The information shared with the Trump campaign…

MIT technology review, July 2012 on Obama app implies that it could've collected more than just 'facebook handles', where does that information come from?

" The app’s avowed task is to give people a quick and easy way to access the volunteering and organizing functions that worked so well for Obama in 2008. But the permission screen that comes with the app makes clear that it has another purpose as well. When I installed the app, I noticed that it said it would grab information about my friends: their birthdates, locations, and “likes.” "

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

#233

Post by macintux »

iambateman wrote: post #198
macintux wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Slippery slope is not a compelling argument.

At least ModernMech made an argument, which you have chosen not to do. Dismissiveness is not a compelling argument. Journalists have a social duty to tell the truth, as they understand it. This duty in particular extends to keeping a check on government. Participating in the deployment of propaganda is not a slippery slope, it is a violation of trust. If our journalists are willing to participate, then we have a prob…

> Participating in the deployment of propaganda is not a slippery slope, it is a violation of trust. If our journalists are willing to participate, then we have a problem.

I agree, and my intent originally was not to downplay the core problem, but to point out that dismissing them as "gutless cowards" was not the ideal way to approach it.

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

#234

Post by ModernMech »

state_less wrote: post #184
ModernMech wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still think the truth is objective after a year+ living in this alternative fact world? There is no such thing as a "truth" anymore. Even cold hard figures are negotiable. Remember "The employment rate was fake news before but it's very real now"

Don't let lies get to you. Never give up, never surrender.

It's not that lies are getting to me, it's that I've changed my view about the all-convincing nature of facts. I never before understood how easy it is for people to just pick and choose a set of base facts to support whatever reality they want to live in.

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

#235

Post by anigbrowl »

rglover wrote: post #207

Nothing new. I worked in a newsroom as an intern and most major news stations rely (maybe, relied, it's been a few years) on a tool like ENPS. It's made by the Associated Press and has a "wire" feature where new stories come into. So, e.g., if there was a plane crash, that message would be pushed out to all newsrooms that rely on ENPS. The news producers were lazy, too. They'd literally take the script that ENPS push…

OK but while you're making a cynical critique you're (perhaps inadvertently) creating a false equivalence between reportage (of events like plane crashes, notwithstanding the possibility of editorial selectivity/framing) and straight up opinion/editorial that doesn't inform the viewer of any facts whatsoever. This is not just as bad, but qualitatively worse.

I'm a fan of your Dad by the way, I remember that article when it was originally published.

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

#236

Post by Bud »

wanderer2323 wrote: post #220
Bud wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who thinks that this "rigs" a debate in any meaningful way is watching too much Hannity. Debate questions are not some big secret surprise; the candidates drill for MONTHS on all the likely sorts of questions that could be asked. And there weren't any "gotcha" questions asked in the debate in question; just straight-up stuff that any prepared candidate could answer in his/her sleep.

Can you skip the ad hominem attacks, please? There is an obvious difference between knowing the range of questions vs knowing the exact questions on, eg, a qualification exam. The full list of questions is usually public beforehand, the exact questions you get is not. The same logic applies to the debate. Knowing the exact questions gives an advantage, allowing one side to tailor and concentrate their message. Once y…

You're right. I have edited my comment. I apologize.

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

#237

Post by soundwave106 »

creaghpatr wrote: post #160
philipodonnell wrote: post #108

It seems like the issue is a lack of competition, if I don't like what Sinclair is saying I can not watch it, but if they own all the stations then I don't have that choice. The FCC did all this while everyone was distracted with net neutrality, so even if it came up again there the FCC knows how to distract people already. I'm just not sure what I as a viewer/voter can do about except wait for the next election, and…

>or if the merger with Tribune Media goes through? That's the whole reason this is a story. The viral clip was assembled by far-left think tank ThinkProgress to attempt to torpedo the merger by stirring up public outcry. And of course, the mainstream media, who indirectly compete against these local stations, is happy to support these efforts.

Er, "mainstream media" includes local news organizations...

When I grew up, local news was (surprise!) somewhat independent. Each television show had their own particular style of reporting or emphasis on what they tended to cover. I never considered local TV news to be terribly great in quality compared to the newspapers, but at least it wasn't monotone in nature.

So, there's nothing really wrong with the spiel per se (everyone has bias and opinions). Except that it was pushed to 100s of television stations via local news channel, to be read exactly out loud as written.

That's a pretty strong argument to torpedo the merger. Forget the political angle... apparently on Sinclair stations, there's a push to make local news and national news no different. This is what really is terrible. Approve the merger and you probably will get the same effect of the massive consolidation of US radio in the 1990s after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the mergers pretty much killed off programming that focused on local and regional tastes or music, killed off the already dying freeform DJ outside of community radio, which stagnated music variety considerably (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/perfect...)...)

In the end, what Sinclair is doing is probably going to is not good for their long term business anyways. This mass-scripted thing has drawn quite a bit of negative publicity, for a start. And using the 1990s radio example, well, terrestrial radio is quickly dying due to irrelevance. The "800 lb gorilla" winner of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, Clear Channel (iHeartMedia), recently went bankrupt after all.

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

#238

Post by maxerickson »

wu-ikkyu wrote: post #67
maxerickson wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>they also pretty clearly have a pretty large amount of editorial control over their shows. The case of Phil Donahue indicates otherwise.

I think the Phil Donahue case fits just fine with what I said. They didn't have any way to control what he was gonna say other than canceling his show.

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

#239

Post by stronglikedan »

ptr_void wrote: post #217
rglover wrote: post #207

Nothing new. I worked in a newsroom as an intern and most major news stations rely (maybe, relied, it's been a few years) on a tool like ENPS. It's made by the Associated Press and has a "wire" feature where new stories come into. So, e.g., if there was a plane crash, that message would be pushed out to all newsrooms that rely on ENPS. The news producers were lazy, too. They'd literally take the script that ENPS push…

Where do you suggest people go to get their news instead ?

One must try to find points of view from all "sides", and then apply critical thinking to everything that one reads/hears. Every source is very biased and full of a lot of (mostly, really) shit, but the facts can be discerned if personal biases give way to objective analysis.

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

#240

Post by marnett »

state_less wrote: post #155
ModernMech wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All news is based. Anyone telling you otherwise (that they are fair and balanced and unbiased) is lying to you. I don't need CNN to explicitly tell me their biases, because they are not my only source of news. It's not CNN's job to make sure i get unbiased news. It my job to make sense of biased news and weave it into a consistent mental model of the world. This let's me do things like watch CNN and Fox News and reco…

> All news is based. The truth isn't biased, so if the news reports the truth, "x said y" and we have evidence that x said y, then it is not biased and therefore all new is NOT biased.

The choice of what facts to include and which to omit can result in bias.

This simple ad by The Guardian on perspective shows how news can easily show biases [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3h-T3KQNxU&list=LL8yCOjMrFJ...

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