{"id":1330,"date":"2017-10-26T00:06:26","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T04:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/?p=1330"},"modified":"2018-01-22T15:14:09","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T20:14:09","slug":"corporate-consolidation-of-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/2017\/10\/26\/corporate-consolidation-of-local-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Corporate Consolidation of Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The role of the news media is arguably just as important as any of the three branches of our government. Our freedom of press allows for the media to serve as a checks system on our political figures while also informing the general public on candidates they are going to be voting for. However, recently the media has plummeted in polls ranking its trustworthiness, and is seemingly increasingly polarizing. <\/span><\/p>\n

Under the Trump administration, constant echoes of the phrase \u201cfake news\u2019 and the \u201cliberal media\u201d have been heard day after day. However, whether on purpose or not, the constant focus on the generally left leaning media, has allowed Sinclair Broadcasting Group to slip through the cracks of the national news. This conservatively leaning news company, controls 72% of America\u2019s TV news coverage, their news shows airing in approximately 2.2 million households. These numbers are larger than the viewings of any one Fox show, meaning Sinclair could potentially be influencing more Americans than any other news network.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The issue isn\u2019t Sinclair\u2019s conservative bias necessarily, as I mentioned before most media is heavily biased, but Sinclair tends to go slightly beyond having biases. During the coverage of Michael Flynn, Sinclair distributed scripts to all of its news channels, easily seen by the question \u201cDid the FBI have a personal vendetta in pursuing the Russian investigation against President Trump\u2019s former national security adviser Michael Flynn?\u201d being asked by anchors all over the nation in separate local channels. The way the question itself was phrased automatically created shifted the audience\u2019s perception of what happened. As we learned previously when studying polling, if you change the way you ask a question, the answer may shift entirely even if their viewpoint on the issue hasn\u2019t changed. The largest demographic viewing these local news shows is a middle aged, white, non-college attending, male- a segment of the population that is heavily susceptible to coercion and bias in their news.<\/span><\/p>\n

If this deal goes through, Sinclair will own 233 stations, mostly local. Currently Americans favor local news when it comes to trustworthiness, especially since national news is constantly under scrutiny by the president for being “fake”. Many are viewing this deal as any other business merger, however, I pose the question- is allowing our local news stations to be controlled by the mandates of one, bipartisan company, something that should be allowed, or does the government have the responsibility to step in and regulate who owns local news shows? I personally don\u2019t know where I stand on this issue, especially from a legal standpoint, but it\u2019s interesting to note that Sinclair\u2019s bid was placed shortly after Trump\u2019s administration reinstated the UHF discount. The UHF discount basically allows for companies to lower the percentage of the country it says it presents its shows to, as it\u2019s illegal for one company to reach more than 39% of the country. <\/span><\/p>\n

(I\u2019ve added some links below that I used while researching that further explained the Sinclair situation).<\/span><\/p>\n