# WTF? Sinclair Group! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 2, 2018, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655 "2018-04-02T18:32:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/41 "2018-04-03T12:49:31Z")
The counterpoint could be that news outlets should investigate whether news outlets investigate stories before publishing them before publishing stories claiming that news outlets don’t investigate stories before publishing them. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/42 "2018-04-03T12:50:26Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > What’s odd about the Sinclair statement is that it is just vague enough that it could actually be criticizing _actual_ fake news, as opposed to what Trump labels as fake news. > > An employee of a private company does not have a First Amendment right against his or her employer. In fact, the employer has a First Amendment right to make its employees make political statements of the employer’s choice. > > An FCC license holder has a First Amendment right to do this. The equal time rule was abolished in the 1980s, but even if it could be revived (it’s arguably a violation of the First Amendment itself), it would not protect Sinclair’s employees. The Sinclair stations were criticizing fake news. The Washington Post just did an analysis and how much it effected the election. [https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/03/when-does-russian-propaganda-work-and-when-does-it-backfire-heres-what-we-found/](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/04/03/when-does-russian-propaganda-work-and-when-does-it-backfire-heres-what-we-found/) Home grown fake news. Another report by the Washington Post. > **[Analysis | Homegrown ‘fake news’ is a bigger problem than Russian propaganda....](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/10/23/homegrown-fake-news-is-a-bigger-problem-than-russian-propaganda-heres-a-way-to-make-falsehoods-more-costly-for-politicians/?utm_term=.54a9a0b22604)** > > We're more easily misled than we know. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/43 "2018-04-03T13:01:14Z")
The Sinclair stations were forced to read a script condemning the same “fake news” that Trump condemns-any news critical of the Prez and his administration. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/44 "2018-04-03T13:05:58Z")
That’s not how I understood it. I saw the statement as a need to return back to professional journalism. Fact check the news before reporting. Research the facts. Do your fucking job. The Washington Post article on home grown fake news is very interesting. There’s too much of that out there. It gets read and reposted repeatedly. It’s gotten so bad that there are very few sources I trust. Washington Post is still the best. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/45 "2018-04-03T13:09:06Z")
Mileage? We’re not even on the same road, man. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/46 "2018-04-03T13:19:44Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The Sinclair stations were forced to read a script condemning the same “fake news” that Trump condemns-any news critical of the Prez and his administration. They don’t appear to have been forced since at least one of them didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/47 "2018-04-03T13:21:01Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > The Sinclair stations were forced to read a script condemning the same “fake news” that Trump condemns-any news critical of the Prez and his administration. MSNBC did a little montage showing the companies talking head droids reciting the _Sinclair Pledge of Allegiance_. It was priceless. All 20 of them in step as they recited the pledge like youth at a Hitler Youth meeting. It was really eye-opening. But then, with the internet, who needs local TV news? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/48 "2018-04-03T14:06:03Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > That’s not how I understood it. > > I saw the statement as a need to return back to professional journalism. Fact check the news before reporting. Research the facts. Do your fucking job. > > The Washington Post article on home grown fake news is very interesting. There’s too much of that out there. It gets read and reposted repeatedly. > > It’s gotten so bad that there are very few sources I trust. Washington Post is still the best. > > YMMV Have you done _any_ research on The Sinclair Group? Getting the story straight is not on their agenda, but sucking up to Trump _is_. Check out the “Bottom Line With Boris” reports the Sinclair stations are forced to air during their news segments-pure Trumpian propaganda. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/49 "2018-04-03T14:07:36Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > They don’t appear to have been forced since at least one of them didn’t. That’s one so far, and we haven’t seen Sinclair’s reaction yet. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/50 "2018-04-03T14:18:31Z")
This sits really well beside that other thing happening in the US atm, net neutrality? ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/51 "2018-04-03T15:30:42Z")
I am shocked and dismayed by this. I’m certainly old enough to remember the consummate journalist Walter Cronkite anchoring the CBS news in the 60’s and it is my recollection that he ad libbed his news stories, never working from a prepared script. “Just go out there and wing it.” they’d tell him. Of course, it was the 60’s, and some things I remember are more accurate than others. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/52 "2018-04-03T16:49:46Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > I am shocked and dismayed by this. I’m certainly old enough to remember the consummate journalist Walter Cronkite anchoring the CBS news in the 60’s and it is my recollection that he ad libbed his news stories, never working from a prepared script. “Just go out there and wing it.” they’d tell him. > > Of course, it was the 60’s, and some things I remember are more accurate than others. Are you under the impression that Cronkite was ordered to read scripts written by the owners of his company, owners who were supporters of the sitting president? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/53 "2018-04-03T17:44:18Z")
The power flow was in the opposite direction, if anything. Cronkite commented on the Tet Offensive in Vietnam: > [@](#): > > _To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy’s intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could._ > > President Lyndon Johnson, watching live in the White House, reportedly then turned to aides and said, **“If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”** He would soon explain to the nation–accurately–that the Tet Offensive had been successfully repelled and was in fact a huge military failure for the Vietnamese communists. But it was too late. As Cronkite noted in his editorial, the public optimism of U.S. government and military officials about the progress of the Vietnam War was not in concert with the nagging realities of a quagmire. It was largely this credibility gap that destroyed Johnson’s presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/54 "2018-04-03T18:11:45Z")
Yes, to be clear, Cronkite and his staff wrote their own scripts and they took pride in answering only to CBS News without interference from their parent entity. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/55 "2018-04-03T18:19:28Z")
The talking heads on the televised news read the words in front of them. That’s what they’re paid for. That’s why reading a lot of whinging about how unfair it is that they’re given scripts to read gives me agita. Just a tip; those people in the commercials enjoying those products are really just actors paid to sell things. Being upset because the news guy said something to annoy you is like blaming Ronald McDonald for your bad hamburger. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/56 "2018-04-03T18:23:38Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > The talking heads on the televised news read the words in front of them. That’s what they’re paid for. That’s why reading a lot of whinging about how unfair it is that they’re given scripts to read gives me agita. Just a tip; those people in the commercials enjoying those products are really just actors paid to sell things. Being upset because the news guy said something to annoy you is like blaming Ronald McDonald for your bad hamburger. The news is not supposed to be an advertisement for the selling of the President. If you have no problem with what is going on, you have either given up, or you support what is going on. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/57 "2018-04-03T19:45:51Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > The talking heads on the televised news read the words in front of them. That’s what they’re paid for. . Maybe it’s different in the US but in the UK the people reading the news wrote it - they’re experienced journalists. Are you sure they don’t write their pieces? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/58 "2018-04-03T20:08:40Z")
The relative roles in a TV newsroom can be complicated but it’s rarely the case that on-camera personnel are nothing but talking heads who have no say in what they read. At smaller local stations, on-camera personnel might research stories and write at least some of their own copy and edit other people’s copy. At larger stations, anchors might also be producers, with the ultimate authority over what goes in a broadcast. Traditionally, the news department at a station operates independently of the business and entertainment departments. And traditionally a station’s news department, while it might cooperate with other stations in the chain and take joint news feeds, doesn’t take orders from corporate management about what specifically goes in the air. TV journalists aren’t my favorite kind of journalist and much of what they do is fluff or sensationalistic, but it’s quite unfair to say that they are just talking heads who read what they’re told to read. Any reasonable news operation understands that the person who appears on camera has his or her reputation in the eyes of the public most directly at stake so his or her conscience as a journalist must be respected. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/59 "2018-04-03T21:57:48Z")
Dan Rather weighs in > [@](#): > > News anchors looking into camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord, words meant to obscure the truth not elucidate it, isn’t journalism. It’s propaganda. It’s Orwellian. A slippery slope to how despots wrest power, silence dissent, and oppress the masses. > > — Dan Rather (@DanRather) April 2, 2018 ---
**Author:** ![dogecoindaryl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@dogecoindaryl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dogecoindaryl)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655/60 "2018-04-03T22:14:13Z")
This really was freaking me out, but they’re not in a TON of markets. it’s more spread out then I thought, but still they have presence in important swing states. CHeck out the map here to see if you’re affected by any of this strategic propoganda: [http://sbgi.net/tv-stations/](http://sbgi.net/tv-stations/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wtf-sinclair-group/811655.md?page=4)