State Media

Deadspin created this video:

Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns more than 170 U.S. TV stations, has ordered local news anchors across the country to read a script decrying “some media outlets” for “false news” and “fake stories.”

“This is extremely dangerous to a democracy,” the script reads.

The editing is clever. Maybe it's just me, but one women seems to gesture in a way that says, "This right here, what we're doing now, is extremely dangerous to our democracy".

Dear Leader has no problem with it, but Dan Rather differs.

News anchors looking into camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord, words meant to obscure the truth not elucidate it, isn't journalism. It's propaganda. It's Orwellian. A slippery slope to how despots wrest power, silence dissent, and oppress the masses.

A former Sinclair news director says employees signed multi-year contracts and were penalized for leaving their contract early.

Sinclair knows its strongest asset is the credibility of its local anchors. They’re trusted voices in their communities, and they have often been on the air for decades before Sinclair purchased their stations.

Sinclair forces those trusted local journalists to lend their credibility to shoddy reporting and commentary that, if it ran in other countries, we would rightly dismiss as state propaganda.

During my time with Sinclair, while on a conference call with other news directors, someone asked if we could ever run local commentary during newscasts. The answer was a firm “no.” The only opinions Sinclair allows on air are the opinions that come out of headquarters, because the company will not risk giving local audiences a dissenting view.

That “no” was telling. Being afraid of a variety of viewpoints is, in the words of Sinclair’s now-infamous “must-run,” extremely dangerous to a democracy.

Update (April 3):  Bloomberg has documentation on those Sinclair employee contracts.

According to copies of two employment contracts reviewed by Bloomberg, some Sinclair employees were subject to a liquidated damages clause for leaving before the term of their agreement was up: one that requires they pay as much as 40 percent of their annual compensation to the company.

Young Turks claims damages were paid whether an employee quit or was fired.

Update (April 4):  Another Sinclair employee speaks out.

That thing ran twice a day every day last week, and we got not one complaint about it. It wasn’t until Deadspin put this video together that everyone freaked out about it. It’s been brutal. We got about 60 emails ― hateful emails ― yesterday, dozens of phone calls, people yelling profanity at us. I have people yelling at me, saying I’m a zombie, that I’m soulless, that I’ve sold my integrity, which is not nice to hear. So yeah, it sucks.

If you want to make a difference, lobby your lawmakers to have them stop the Tribune deal from going through, because that is what is dangerous about this. It’s dangerous for any company to own as many stations as Sinclair does.

Update (April 14):  Sophia McClennen explains how Sinclair takes advantage of the fact more people trust their local news.

[T]he big story here is the way that Sinclair is setting itself up to control the political narrative in local TV markets.

A new study by Gregory J. Martin and Josh McCrain shows that stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a conservative direction relative to other stations operating in the same market.

Update (June 24):  Pam Vogel quotes Boris Epshteyn in another Sinclair "must run" commentary.

Many members of the media and opponents of the president have seized on [the zero tolerance] issue to make it seem as if those who are tough on immigration are somehow monsters. Let’s be honest: While some of the concern is real, a lot of it is politically driven by the liberals in politics and the media.