Analysis / Bias Sinclair has been scrutinized by multiple media outlets for consistently favoring conservative politics. [136], On March 3, 2022, Sinclair announced that they would sell the Ring of Honor wrestling promotion to Tony Khan, who is the principal owner of rival All Elite Wrestling. The relatively unknown company, whose stations have mixed conservative commentary with local news, is now on the verge of a deal that would allow it to reach nearly three-quarters of American households. Originally planning to divest four Sinclair-owned stations in three markets with Allbritton stations to Deerfield and Armstrong Williams-controlled Howard Stirk Holdings, and continuing to operate them under JSAs,[63] Sinclair then announced on March 21, 2014, intentions to divest three stations and one existing LMA to independent third parties. Free States mission is to provide the federal government, along with state and local agencies, a full suite of targeted digital marketing and advertising solutions to help government agencies communicate with the American public effectively and efficiently. (A) Thank you for watching and we appreciate your feedback. [66] After nearly a year of delays, the deal was approved by the FCC on July 24, 2014,[67] and completed on August 1. Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. swung to a profit in the fourth quarter as strength in political advertising boosted results. But a vast majority of their money has been funneled to Republican causes, including the Republican National Committee and a Mitt Romney fund-raising committee in 2012, according to Federal Election Commission disclosures. But it has also used its 173 television stations to advance a mostly right-leaning agenda since the presidency of George W. Bush. [27] However, the company seemingly recovered its financial fortunes enough, as it would begin a major string of acquisitions involving television stations and other properties two years later. See all Right Bias sources. Since its founding in 1971, the Sinclair Broadcast Group has come to own or operate nearly 200 television stations in some 100 markets covering more than 40 percent of American households. Even after the initial tweet was taken down, however, users began to come across other unrelated KBOI stories that shared this photo of McKesson at a protest rally. Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic "[153], Sinclair has faced scrutiny from some media critics, as well as some of its station employees, for the conservative slant of their stations' news reporting and other programming decisions, and how the company's rapid growth has aided the airing of content that supports these views. and from PAC, individual and soft money donors to political parties, as reported to the Federal Election Commission. DC For Ad-Free Subscriptions go here: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/membership-account/membership-levels/, Terms and Conditions [118] On February 13, 2019, Sinclair and the Chicago Cubs announced a new regional sports network, Marquee Sports Network, to start in 2020 with exclusive rights to Cubs' games. [162] Following the September 11 attacks, Sinclair ordered its stations to read editorials in support of President George W. Bush's response to the attack. [176] As this controversy made the news, with a number of Sinclair advertisers pulling their ads and Sinclair stock dropping 17% in eleven days,[177] Sinclair announced that it had never intended to air Stolen Honor in an hour slot in the first place, indicating that it might instead show clips of the video in a discussion panel format. These stories have generally been critical of the Obama administration and tend to offer perspectives primarily from conservative think tanks. The coalition argued that Glencairn passed itself off as a minority-owned company (Edwards is African American) which, since the Smith family controlled most of the company's stock, was technically a Sinclair arm that planned to use the LMA with KOKH to gain control of the station and create an illegal duopoly with KOCB. 08/12/22 12:37 PM EDT, A short history of the right-wing politics of Sinclair Broadcasting, Conservative medias wackiest takes on Bidens student debt cancellation policy, After Dominion filing, Mike Lindell thanks Rupert Murdoch for not canceling MyPillow ads over his conspiracy theories, On Hugh Hewitt's show, ABC News contributor Chris Christie says Dominion will have a very good time in proving their case against Fox News, Turning Point USA's Benny Johnson: A mongoloid horde of woke intersectional failures could ruin American cities, Right-wing media helped promote a shady Christian health organization that allegedly scammed thousands of its members, Most Georgia local TV stations have buried Herschel Walker's tax and residency scandal, Sinclair Broadcast Group is justifying Republicans' despicable migrant flights, A Sinclair report ignored a Trump supporters attack on an FBI building, while covering violent threats against the FBI. On June 2, 2021, it was announced that Sinclair is a Fortune 500 company, having annual revenues of $5.9billion in 2020. Citizens United was the worst fucking decision ever made by SCOTUS. Sinclair also owns four digital multicast networks (Comet, Charge!, Stadium, and TBD), sports-oriented cable networks (Tennis Channel and Bally Sports Regional Networks), and a streaming service (Stirr). A representative for Dish Network stated that Sinclair is "seeking a massive price increase that would force Dish to pay more to carry Sinclair's stations than it pays to any other broadcaster." Sinclair, by contrast, in recent years has given 98% to 100% of its contributions to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C., campaign finance watchdog group Among the stations affected were KBTV-TV in Port Arthur, Texas (merged onto KFDM), WRGT-TV in Dayton, Ohio (merged onto WKEF, though WRGT-TV did maintain a primary MyNetworkTV affiliation), WVAH-TV in Charleston, West Virginia (merged onto WCHS-TV), KFXA in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (merged onto KGAN), and original Sinclair signee WTTE in Columbus, Ohio merging onto WSYX. Mr. Epshteyn was a surrogate and Senior Advisor to the Trump Campaign, where he managed messaging. rates, partially offset by a decrease in subscribers. In 1985, the Chesapeake Television Corporation changed its name to the Sinclair Broadcast Group. A reporter from a Sinclair affiliate was one of two people called on by Trump during his February 13 press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Become a part of our family today. [89] Sinclair's news operations had launched six drone teams in September 2016. We also believe people can achieve their full potential when they enjoy their work, so it is our priority to provide a workplace where professional growth, success and advancement go hand-in-hand. NY Times: Sinclair Has Advanced A Mostly Right-Leaning Agenda Since George W. Bushs Presidency. [183][184][185][186][104], In March 2018, CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter obtained an internal memorandum sent by Sinclair, which dictated that its stations must produce and broadcast an "anchor-delivered journalistic responsibility message" using a mandated script. News stories and features favorable to Trump or that challenged Clinton were distributed to Sinclair stations on a must-run basis that is, the stations were required by managers in Washington to make room in their evening newscasts or morning programs for them. [231], Sinclair and Comcast came to a new agreement for continued carriage on March 3, 2011; this agreement was negotiated without any public statements or announcements. [64][65] One other Allbritton station, WHTM-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was sold to Media General for $83.4million (equivalent to $95.5million in 2021). In 2020, Sinclair delayed an interview with conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccination activist Dr. Judy Mikovits who promotes misinformation and false information regarding Covid-19. [133][134][135] Ransomware experts later indicated that the attack was likely linked to Evil Corp., a Russia-based cybergang that was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2019 and had been accused prior to the attack of attempting to rebrand itself to evade the sanctions; the hackers are believed to have disseminated the Macaw ransomware strain (which was also linked to a similar cyberattack that hit Olympus Corporation's corporate server network on October 10) within Sinclair's servers. [191][192] Sinclair maintains that its "must-runs" are standard procedure often covering a wide variety of issues such as news updates regarding terrorism and other public matters the company has an opinion on while remaining "committed to reporting the facts". [180][181], On November 5, 2012, six Sinclair stations in swing states aired a special focusing on issues surrounding the presidential election occurring the next day, such as the Libyan civil war and health care reform; the special consisted of a series of segments which were presented by the local anchors at each station. [212], Despite a plea from Iowa's Congressional delegation urging the two sides to submit to binding arbitration, Sinclair rejected the plea on January 11. "[195] The statement cited a Monmouth University poll that found large majorities of Americans believe that traditional news media outlets report fake news. SINCLAIR BROADCAST GROUP INC MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL Open Secrets following the money in politics, OpenSecrets Following the money in politics. The station, however, complied with the mandate. Chesapeake's first foray into local news came in the early 1980s when it launched a newscast on WPTT, a rarity at this time for stations not affiliated with the then-major networks (ABC, CBS and NBC). [79], On September 3, 2014, Sinclair announced the purchase of Las Vegas NBC affiliate KSNV-DT from Intermountain West Communications Company for $120 million. Wash. Post: Sinclairs Reporting And Internal Documents During The Campaign Showed A Strong Tilt Toward Trump. The Washington Posts review of Sinclairs reporting and internal documents showed a strong tilt toward then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. digital FAST channels. Comet is the ONLY broadcast network for sci-fi fans. spectrum for a wide variety of services including multi-channel broadcasts. Sinclair said it had no knowledge of the arrangement, but the FCC said the programs violated rules against payola punditry. [The Washington Post, 9/16/14]. (d)Marquee was launched in late February 2020, therefore is a driver of the [93] At the NATPE conference on January 17, 2017, SBG and MGM announced a second TV network, Charge!, a new digital subchannel network focusing on action-adventure based programming. Sure is great we don't have a fairness doctrine or anything and right wing media can pump an unlimited stream of propaganda to local market consumers! It shouldn't be, but it's not enforced enough. Sinclair Broadcast Group is asking top executives, including news directors, to make donations to its political action committee, an unusual move that is raising concerns among media. [204][205][206][207][208][209], In the summer of 2006, Charter Communications streamlined its operations, which included selling off portions of the cable system's service franchises that it considered to be "geographically non-strategic". For the year ended December 31, 2022, we repurchased approximately 4.9 million [210] This led to a protracted media battle and smear campaign between the two companies, and Sinclair pulled the two stations off of Charter's systems in the neighboring Beckley, West Virginia market. The Times noted that Fox News Channel and CNN declined to run the spot amid legal questions. From the August 27, 2008, article: As Senator Obamas campaign makes its argument for his candidacy before a national audience here this week, it is waging a separate, forceful campaign against a new conservative group running millions of dollars of ads linking him to the 1960s radical William Ayers Jr. Lawyers for the campaign have asked the Justice Department to investigate the group which is operating under rules governing non-profit corporations calling on television stations to cease airing the spot, and, campaign officials said, planning to pressure advertisers on stations that refuse to do so. While Sinclairs solicitation might raise the eyebrows of journalism purists, Ryan said there appears to be nothing legally noncompliant about the email. Sinclair Broadcast Groups Long Form Sales Division is designed to provide a one-stop solution to paid programming across all Sinclair television stations. [55] Prior to the deal, a seventh station, KDBC-TV in El Paso, Texas, to Cunningham,[56] fueling speculation KDBC-TV would be consolidated with Sinclair-owned KFOX-TV. Our promise was to give all candidates an opportunity to voice their position share their position with our viewers. Unable to find a buyer, Sinclair proposed on May 29, 2014, to return to the FCC the licenses for WCFT-TV in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, WJSU-TV in Anniston, Alabama, and WCIV in Charleston, South Carolina, transferring the intellectual properties of those three stations to existing Sinclair-owned stations. [88], On January 27, 2016, Sinclair Broadcast Group announced that it would acquire Tennis Channel for $350 million. (A) But we are human and sometimes our reporting might fall short. Smith's son David D. Smith began taking a more active role in the company in the 1980s. Chesapeake Television is a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group that owns television stations in smaller markets. (B) Our greatest responsibility is to serve our Northwest communities. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter. In June, subsidiary Sinclair TV Group, Inc. formed Tornante-Sinclair LLC, a TV production company, with Michael Eisner's Tornante Co. With MGM on October 31, 2015, Comet was launched as a sci-fi broadcast subchannel network. [245][246][247], Cunningham Broadcasting (formerly known as Glencairn Ltd.) is a station holding company affiliated with Sinclair Broadcast Group via a relationship with the company's owners. [182], A December 22, 2016 Washington Post review of Sinclair's internal documents, as well as reviews of the newscasts and public affairs programming on the company's stations, revealed that more broadcast time was given to favorable or neutral coverage of Trump's campaign than to other candidates in the primary and general election campaigns of 2016. The Post noted that Sinclair-owned stations and its Washington bureau scored 15 exclusive interviews with Trump in a one year period, that they would positively frame questions for Trump surrogates, that a Sinclair executive and conservative commentator who appears on Sinclair stations regularly criticized Clinton or highlighted positions favorable to Trump in his on-air commentaries, and that news stories and features favorable to Trump or that challenged Clinton were distributed to Sinclair stations on a must-run basis. From the December 22 article: A review of Sinclairs reporting and internal documents shows a strong tilt toward Trump. Media Bias Fact Check offers a number of sustaining Ad-Free membership plans to fit your budget! 03/01/23 2:02 PM EST, Article We understand Truth is neither politically left nor right. Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever. A spokeswoman for Sinclair declined comment on the memo, which was firstreported by FTVLive. the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020 (in millions). [142] The show, titled The National Desk, launched on January 18, 2021, and airs on Sinclair's CW and MyNetworkTV-affiliated stations along with its Fox-affiliated stations that do not have their own local morning news shows. According to Politico, while Attkisson was at CBS, network executives saw her wading dangerously close to advocacy against the Obama administration regarding the 2012 Benghazi attacks. 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