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Somehow I seriously doubt Trump’s Nevada“melt-down” this week-end, will get the same national-blast coverage, from the Election-tweaking office, at Sinclair Corporate. Just a wild guess ...
Watch: Local Sinclair Anchors Read Same Shady Script on Biden’s Age
Local television news broadcasters are airing suspiciously similar attacks on Joe Biden’s mental acuity and how it will affect the coming election—and it appears to be part of a coordinated effort.
The Sinclair Broadcast Group owns or operates 185 local television stations across the country, and dozens of their stations aired a segment from national correspondent Matthew Galka citing a Wall Street Journal article that makes dubious attacks on Biden’s age and mental awareness. The stations that aired the segment introduced it using startlingly similar, if not identical language, the Popular Information and Public Notice newsletters reported.
It’s not the first time Sinclair, owned by right-wing businessman David D. Smith, has appeared to be running a conservative propaganda campaign. [...] This time around, the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, as well as Murdoch’s cable news stations Fox News and Fox Business, have gotten in on the act.
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From Sinclair’s prior attempts to force “trusted” Local Anchors to be their Corporate-compliant “sock-puppets” …
(Something they were roundly critiqued for at the time, as deceptive journalism.)
Sinclair requires anchors to read script bashing 'fake' news
— CNN, April 2018
Reading from the Sinclair Script: Why some journalists felt they had no choice
— CBC News, April 2018
Sinclair employees have an unusual employment contract clause: If workers quit before their contract is over, they must pay back 40% of their annual salary. [...]
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Buyers —and viewers — beware!
Check out this list to see which of your local news stations are reading you canned messages, on Corporate Orders:
List of stations owned or operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group
The following is a list of stations owned or operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair owns or operates 294 television stations across the United States in 89 markets ranging in size from as large as Washington, D.C. to as small as Ottumwa, Iowa/Kirksville, Missouri.[1] Several of these stations are owned by affiliate companies with varying ties to Sinclair—including Cunningham Broadcasting, Deerfield Media, and Howard Stirk Holdings—and operated by Sinclair using local marketing agreements.[2]
[… for the Sinclair TV Stations list, click the link in the title above ...]
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PS. Alex Wagner, on her MSNBC show last night, had a stunning mash-up of local Anchors across the country, bashing Joe Biden parroting Trump talking-points— in unison. All without a single word of disclosure concerning whose thoughts and words, they were reading. The effect was like they were “cut out” Sinclair clones, seemingly under duress in some cases.
[The CNN Clip above, and the Tweet in the first article, gives some sense of it.]
If I can locate that Alex Wagner clip, I’ll post it here: Here’s that segment from MSNBC. Also here is Nicole Wallace’s coverage of this story today. And here’s Joy Reid’s take on Sinclair’s script.
In the meantime, beware — and as always, be informed. Tell your friends.
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