Sinclair Journos Slam Company After Anti-Media ‘Propaganda’ Goes Viral: ‘It Sickens Me’
How America’s largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump’s war on the media: https://t.co/iLVtKRQycL pic.twitter.com/dMdSGellH3
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) March 31, 2018
After a clip of Sinclair Broadcast Group employed anchors eerily repeating the exact same anti-media talking points went viral, journalists at the company and at local stations are reportedly outraged over being forced to air the “propaganda.”
The conservative leaning Sinclair, which dominates the local TV news market, has required anchors to feature a segment targeting so-called “fake stories” — echoing President Donald Trump’s anti-mainstream media rhetoric. In response to the initiative, journalists at Sinclair and Sinclair owned stations told CNN’s Brian Stelter — who initially broke the story on the controversy — that they are not pleased with the change.
“It sickens me the way this company is encroaching upon trusted news brands in rural markets,” said one anonymous investigative reporter at Sinclair to Stelter.
Another journalist from a local market argued the right-wing talking points might help Sinclair’s name on a national level, but hurt his work. “I try everyday to do fair, local stories, some Trump-related, but it’s always washed out by this stuff they do at a national level,” said the unnamed reporter.
Another local anchor told CNN that they “feel bad because they’re seeing these people they’ve trusted for decades tell them things they know are essentially propaganda” and added that they pity Sinclair employed reporters as “they have all this experience in news, and now they’re being degraded like this.”
One local news producer even said he will not be airing segments, since they find “it unethical.”
“I will refuse to run it,” they added.
However, Stelter noted, there is no evidence suggesting any station has bucked their corporate employers yet.
Not all employees feel that way, though, as one sent out a memo demanded journalists run the segments, even if they don’t want to: “Let me be absolutely clear here… These MUST Run. If they do not, my job is on the line. I don’t say that to scare you by any means but I do say this so you understand how serious SBG is about this project.”
The CNN report also detailed accounts from “employees in several different markets” who “described tense conversations in their newsrooms and anger directed at the company’s Hunt Valley, Maryland, headquarters.”
Watch a compilation of the anchors above, courtesy of Deadspin.
[image via screengrab]
