Welcome to Buster's Blog

Irregular commentary on whatever's on my mind -- politics, sports, current events, and life in general. After twenty years of writing business and community newsletters, fifteen years of fantasy baseball newsletters, and two years of email "columns", this is, I suppose, the inevitable result: the awful conceit that someone might actually care to read what I have to say. Posts may be added often, rarely, or never again. As always, my mood and motivation are unpredictable.

Buster Gammons















Friday, March 9, 2018

Don't Watch "News" Programming On Sinclair Stations


The Sinclair Broadcast Group is a right-wing propaganda tool.  Avoid it.
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 by Willa Frej, 3/8/18, for the Huffington Post
Sinclair Broadcast Group is reportedly requiring local news anchors at TV stations it owns to recite pre-written promotional spots disavowing the national media’s “fake stories” and “personal bias” ― some of President Donald Trump’s favorite punchlines. 
Sinclair, one of the biggest owners of local TV stations in the U.S., with 193 outlets in 89 markets, sent scripts of the promos to news directors, instructing that they be produced “exactly as they are written,” according to CNN.
“I’m [we are] concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country,” the spot begins. “The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming, national media outlets are publishing these same fake stories without checking facts first. Unfortunately, some members of the national media are using their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think’ ... This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”
It concludes that reporting facts ― which are neither “left nor right” ― is their duty as journalists. All Sinclair stations had to run an almost identical segment last year as well, The New York Times reported.
“I felt like a POW recording a message,” one anchor at a Sinclair-owned station told CNN.
Sinclair has a history of advancing a conservative agenda. Another recent iteration of right-wing bias came in the form of a requirement that its stations air pro-Trump segments featuring Boris Epshteyn (a former Trump White House official) nine times per week. 
The media giant is trying to expand its reach in major cities with a proposed deal to acquire 42 stations currently owned by Tribune Media.
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Sinclair owns and operates the following TV stations across Ohio:
WKRC, CBS, Ch. 12, Cincinnati
WSTR, MY Network, Ch. 64, Cincinnati
WSYX, ABC, Ch. 6, Columbus
WTTE, Fox, Ch. 28, Columbus
WWHO, The CW, Ch. 53, Columbus
WKEF, ABC, Ch. 22, Dayton
WRGT, Fox, Ch. 45, Dayton
WTOV, NBC, Ch. 9, Steubenville
WNWO, NBC, Ch. 24, Toldeo

http://bustergammons.blogspot.com/2017/07/local-news-to-avoid-like-plague.html
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