13 J-school deans and chairs issue letter of concern to Sinclair

[LongTomH]

From Poynter.org: 13 J-school deans and chairs issue letter of concern to Sinclair. It seems at least some of these J-schools were happy to feed their grads to Sinclair until now.

Deans and department chairs from 13 universities sent a letter of protest Friday afternoon to the Sinclair Broadcast Group, condemning the company for forcing anchors at its nearly 200 stations to read a statement accusing other news outlets of publishing "fake news."

The letter, addressed to Sinclair Executive Chairman David. D. Smith was signed by the head of journalism schools at the University of Maryland, Syracuse University, Louisiana State University, University of Georgia, University of Mississippi, Temple University, Ohio University, University of Arizona, University of Southern California, University of California-Berkeley, University of Illinois, The George Washington University and Morgan State University.

The letter includes this passage:

While news organizations have historically had and used the prerogative to publish and broadcast editorials clearly identified as opinion, we believe that line was crossed at Sinclair stations when anchors were required to read scripts making claims about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country.”

Certainly, no news organization is beyond critique. And, as the Sinclair stations noted, social media have been used all too often to spread “false news.” But these are two very different things — the work of professional journalists who produce real news and the false accounts on social media. In making the leap to disparage news media generally — without specifics — Sinclair has diminished trust in the news media overall. Ironically, Sinclair’s use of news personnel to deliver commentary — not identified as such — may further erode what has traditionally been one of the strongest allegiances in the news landscape, the trust that viewers put in their local television stations. Indeed, the fears articulated in the Sinclair script regarding an extreme danger posed to democracy by news media telling the public what to think describes our fears about the impact of the Sinclair must-carry script. (see entire letter text and co-signers at the bottom of this post)

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The Philip Merrill School of Journalism at the University of Maryland has a long history of feeding graduates to the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest owner of local TV stations in America. Sinclair headquarters is 49 miles from the school. "The Merrill School has, until now, had a long and productive relationship with Sinclair," Journalism School dean Lucy Dalglish told Poynter. Eight schools endorsed the letter Friday afternoon and, Dalglish says, more may join over the weekend. "Our students have had a very good experience at Sinclair stations; they have moved up and some of our grads are in the hierarchy of Sinclair management."

We can only hope that J-school grads will avoid Sinclair in future; however, the meager job market for journalism students may make young journalist hungry enough to leave their scruples at the door. When you've got college loans to pay, a job where you have to toe the bosses political line probably seems better than wearing a paper hat and asking "Do you want fries with that?"