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HOW SINCLAIR SNEAKS RIGHT-WING SPIN INTO MILLIONS OF HOUSEHOLDS  
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Pete Tucker
August 1, 2024
FAIR
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_ Sinclair is able to sneak its propaganda into millions of American
homes, including in presidential swing states
where Sinclair owns more stations than any other network by
requiring its affiliates to air the right-wing stories it sends them.
_

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With the presidential contest in full swing, the SINCLAIR BROADCAST
GROUP appears to be ramping up its right-wing propaganda again.

While millions of Americans are subjected to the TV network’s
electioneering, few know it. That’s because, like a
chameleon, SINCLAIR blends into the woodwork.

Turn on your local news and you may well be watching
a SINCLAIR station, even though it appears on your screen under the
imprimatur of a major network like CBS, NBC or FOX
[[link removed]].

Here in the DC area, I occasionally tune into the
local ABC affiliate, WJLA. Its newscasters are personable, and I
like the weather forecasts. But then I remember that WJLA is owned
by SINCLAIR.

I know this only because I’m a weirdo who follows SINCLAIR, not
because there’s any obvious on-air sign the network
owns WJLA—there isn’t. That’s why SINCLAIR’s propaganda is
so hard to detect.

HIJACKING TRUST

[Video collage of Sinclair anchors reading a warning about media bias]

_A video collage
[[link removed]?] of dozens
of SINCLAIR anchors reading a script warning that “some members of
the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and
agenda.”_

While trust in the media has cratered in recent years, there’s a
notable exception. “Seventy-six percent of Americans say that they
still trust their local news stations—more than the percentage
professing to trust their family or friends,” the NEW
YORKER (10/15/18
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reported.

Smartly, SINCLAIR leaves its affiliates alone long enough for them
to develop a rapport with their audience. “In a way, the fact that
it looks normal most of the time is part of the problem,” said
Margaret Sullivan (CJR, 4/11/18
[[link removed]]),
former public editor of the NEW YORK TIMES. “What SINCLAIR is
cynically doing is trading on the trust that develops among local news
people and their local audience.”

By hijacking this trusting relationship, SINCLAIR is able to sneak
its propaganda into millions of American homes, including in
presidential swing states where SINCLAIR owns more stations
[[link removed]] than
any other network.

SINCLAIR does this by requiring its affiliates to air the right-wing
stories it sends them. Because these segments are introduced or
delivered by trusted local hosts, they gain credibility.

Mostly SINCLAIR’s sleight of hand goes undetected. But in 2018, the
network pushed its luck by requiring anchors at stations across the
country to read from the same Trump-like anti-media script. A video
compilation [[link removed]?] of
dozens if not hundreds of SINCLAIR anchors voicing the same
“Orwellian
[[link removed]]” commentary
went viral.

Despite the occasional brush up, SINCLAIR carries on largely
under-the-radar, quietly gobbling up stations, mainly in cheaper
markets. “We’re forever expanding—like the universe,” said
[[link removed]] longtime
leader David Smith, who’s turned SINCLAIR into the country’s
second-largest TV network. (See FAIR.ORG, 5/13/24
[[link removed]].)

AN ANCHOR JUMPS SHIP

[Popular Info: Top Sinclair anchor resigned over concerns about biased
and inaccurate content ]

_POPULAR INFORMATION (7/23/24
[[link removed]]) reported
that SINCLAIR anchor Eugene Ramirez quit in part over a requirement
that he air at least three stories from the network’s “Rapid
Response Team” nightly. “The RRT has produced 147 stories this
year that portray Democrats in a negative light,” POPULAR
INFORMATION found, “and just seven stories that portray Democrats
positively.”_

Of the 294 TV stations
[[link removed]] that SINCLAIR owns
or operates, at least 70 of them air SINCLAIR’s in-house national
evening news broadcast. For a year and a half
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this broadcast was anchored by Eugene Ramirez, but he resigned in
January, and it’s not hard to see why.

Each night Ramirez was given a list of four stories produced out
of SINCLAIR’s Maryland’s headquarters. From these, Ramirez had to
select at least three to air. Often these stories were little more
than writeups of press releases from right-wing politicians and
groups, as Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby report at POPULAR
INFORMATION (7/23/24
[[link removed]]). One
recent headline read, “Trump PAC Launches New Ad Hitting Democrats
on Border: ‘Joe Biden Does Nothing.’”

SINCLAIR frequently booked far-right guests to appear on Ramirez’s
broadcast, and he was “instructed not to interrupt them,”
according to POPULAR INFORMATION. “Many of SINCLAIR‘s affiliates
were not in big cities,” Ramirez was told, “and the content of the
broadcast had to reflect the sensitivities of those viewers.”
Progressive guests rarely if ever appeared.

Legum and Crosby also found that SINCLAIR requires around 200 of its
affiliates to air its “Question of the Day,” which has included
gems like, “Do you think former House Speaker Pelosi deserves some
of the blame for January 6 riot?” But other questions are less
obviously biased.

It’s one thing when a blowhard on FOX NEWS asks, “Are you
concerned violent criminals are crossing the border?” But it’s
quite another when the same question is asked by a familiar and
trusted local anchor.

The power of SINCLAIR is that questions like these are being posed
not just by one trusted anchor, but by a small army of them in
communities across the country every day. Elections are won and lost
on less.

_Pete Tucker is a journalist based in DC. He writes
at petetucker.substack.com [[link removed]]._

_FAIR, the national media watch group, has been offering
well-documented criticism of media bias and censorship since 1986. We
work to invigorate the First Amendment by advocating for greater
diversity in the press and by scrutinizing media practices that
marginalize public interest, minority and dissenting viewpoints. As an
anti-censorship organization, we expose neglected news stories and
defend working journalists when they are muzzled. As a progressive
group, FAIR believes that structural reform is ultimately needed to
break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent
public broadcasting and promote strong non-profit sources of
information._

* media
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* Television news
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* Sinclair Broadcast Group
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* right-wing tactics
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