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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsReady for Trump TV? Inside Sinclair Broadcastings Plot to Take Over Your Local News
One evening in July, David Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, strolled into the newsroom at WJLA, the ABC affiliate for Washington, DC, and the crown jewel of his companys 193-station empire. Smith lacks the name recognition of Rupert Murdoch or the late Roger Ailes. But his companywith holdings concentrated in midsize markets like Tulsa, Flint, and Boiseowns more television stations than any other broadcaster in the country, reaching 2 out of every 5 American homes.
Station staffers thought it odd to see Smith, one of four brothers who control Sinclair, aimlessly show up at this evening hour. According to a source familiar with the newsroom, he assured them that he wouldnt be staying long; he was just killing time until a dinner appointment. Before he left, he confided that he was headed to the White House, to dine with President Donald Trump himself.
At 67, Smith has thick jowls and a head full of silver hair with wide-set eyes shaped like crescents. A longtime Republican donor who travels in rarefied circles (he once hosted a party for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas), Smith lives outside Baltimore in Marylands horse country, where his company is headquartered. Over the past 30 years, Smith and his brothers have transformed a small family company with three TV stations into a media goliath with entrée to the Oval Office. Along the way he has shown no qualms about using his stations for political purposes and has salivated at the prospect of acquiring more under Trumps friendly regulatory regime. In April, Sinclair hired Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump White House staffer and frequent television surrogate, as its chief political analyst. Epshteyns softball interviews with administration officials and brusque commentaries are slavishly pro-Trump; a Baltimore Sun columnist wrote that the segments are as close to classic propaganda as anything I have seen in broadcast television in the last 30 years.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/10/ready-for-trump-tv-inside-sinclair-broadcastings-plot-to-take-over-your-local-news-1/#
BigmanPigman
(51,611 posts)I feel like I am falling down a rabbit hole.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)Kirk Lover
(3,608 posts)Egnever
(21,506 posts)they are late to the game. TV is dying being replaced by things like netflix and you tube. They are dumping a ton of cash into a dying industry.
hunter
(38,318 posts)No cable, no satellite, no broadcast.
DVDs I find in the thrift stores, and Netflix.
Initech
(100,081 posts)I refuse to bow to State Run Television.
Egnever
(21,506 posts)old media is dying and cable companies are pricing themselves out of peoples houses at an ever increasing rate.