Awesome Rolling Stone Expose' on Sinclair Broadcasting

[G_j]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/6959139?pageid=rs.Home&pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single7&rnd=1108067412151&has-player=true

Beyond 'Fair and Balanced'

Sinclair, the pro-Bush broadcaster, is waging war on the "cheese-eating surrender monkeys"

By ERIC KLINENBERG

To The Right Of Fox

Last year, when conservative commentator Armstrong Williams took $240,000 in payoffs from the Bush administration to promote its education policies in the media, he needed to reach a national television audience to satisfy the terms of his lucrative deal. Fortunately for Williams, he was good friends with David Smith, the CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group, the nation's largest owner of television stations.

Although Smith says he didn't know Williams was on the take, he liked the pundit's pro-Bush views and was eager to hand him plum assignments at Sinclair. While on the Bush payroll, Williams did an interview for Sinclair with then Education Secretary Rod Paige, the man responsible for funneling him taxpayer money to secure such prime-time exposure. He also interviewed Majority Whip Tom DeLay, and even got an hour on camera with Vice President Dick Cheney, who rarely speaks to the media. "Sinclair brought me stuff that I did not have -- real numbers, where you can get the speaker of the house or the VP," Williams tells ROLLING STONE. "On Sinclair, I was talking to millions of viewers a night."

Even before the payoffs became public, the news staff at Sinclair was horrified. The producer who edited the interview Williams did with Paige calls it "the worst piece of TV I've ever been associated with. You've seen softballs from Larry King? Well, this was softer. I told my boss it didn't even deserve to be broadcast, but they kept pushing me to put more of it on tape. In retrospect, it was so clearly propaganda."

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating the cash-for-coverage deal, and other media outlets have severed their ties to Williams. But not Sinclair. Smith leaves open the possibility of putting the commentator back on the air, dismissing the entire controversy as "foolish." Williams, for his part, is confident that Sinclair will have him back. "David Smith has stood beside me as a friend," he says. "I'm not too concerned about my relationship with Sinclair, if you know what I mean."

..more..

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SINCLAIR BROADCAST: THE PUPPETMASTERS
Paul Schmelzer, AlterNet

What's driving the Sinclair news cycle? Some employees say
the company is pulling strings based on its -- and its
executives' -- financial and political interests.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21278/

-->> Timothy Karr reports on a new business deal with Comcast
that could mean a five-fold increase in audience for Sinclair.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21290/

[jdj]

1. If the Stone folds I am going to miss articles like this.

but I won't miss the bimbo of the month covers when they used to have real artists on the cover.

[RPM]

2. old news

the braindead proles will flip past it for the latest in style.

they will get the government they deserve

[linazelle]

3. I feel such comfort knowing the FCC is investigating . . . SO NOT nt

[G_j]

4. the insidious tentacles of Bush propaganda

Sinclair owns more US TV stations than any other co, and they are further right than Fox.

[Roland99]

5. Bump for the Alternet article

Sinclair Broadcast: The Puppetmasters
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21278/

But there was one oddity: The station devoted its resources — use of the corporate helicopter, a news crew and valuable air time — to a story 160 miles from its headquarters. So far away, in fact, that locals can't even tune into the broadcast. So far away that there's another major national market, Washington DC, in between.

So why did this particular station reach beyond its service area to report on an apparent act of philanthropy? Because this Fox affiliate is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., where such efforts are green-lighted when the station's corporate owners are personally, financially, or politically affected by the news, according to current and former staffers who spoke to AlterNet only on condition of anonymity.

<...>

A former producer remembers her first assignment as a Sinclair employee, a three-part series on high-definition television (HDTV). "I was told who I needed to interview, what questions I needed to ask, and then when I wrote my script, I had to take my script up to the vice presidents and get my script approved by them," she says. One of them, Technology Vice President Nat Ostroff, has "no connection to news, no knowledge of news whatsoever," she says.

"I'm doing three-minute packages on a subject that no one but them cares about and I'm interviewing only the people that they want me to interview in order to get the soundbites that they want," says the source." I told them I had a problem with it, and they said, 'Just get it done and you won't have to hear any more about it.'" As with the Nightline and Stolen Honor imperatives, all Sinclair stations were instructed to air the three-part series, whether they carry the network's centralized news program, NewsCentral, or not.

[G_j]

6. "Gannon"/ Williams / Sinclair

all part of the same GOP criminal enterprise IMHO

[Karenina]

7. DING DING DING!!!

:kick:

[G_j]

9. my local station is owned by Sinclair and I got to experience

first hand their propaganda campaign to get Bush elected.
These people are the lowest!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. I do believe you're correct. n/t

[KharmaTrain]

10. Sinclair Also Got Kickbacks

...in helping provide "broadcast equipment & technicians" in setting up the pseudo Iraqi Broadcast system...that is part of the fleecing of billions in war profiteering this regime gave his friends.

A great article...bookmarked here and thank-you for posting it.

Right now we have a media to clean-up, but if this Pundit Payola/Gannongate ball really rolls, Sinclair will wish it was back in the days when it stock was tumbling last fall.

[Digit]

11. Two Sinclair stations in my viewing area.

I have not even tuned in to either site using my remote or otherwise since October. They no longer exist to me.
I am not even curious as to what is on.

[G_j]

12. my dilemma is that there is often local news

I am interested in. We had very serious flooding resulting from two of the hurricanes for example. Then on comes Mark Hyman with his RW spew. We have a local Sinclair watch group and are trying to put pressure on the station.

www.sinclairwatch.net
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