What is Sinclair Broadcast Group?
Washington PostCited 3× on HN, 2020-2022
304K views · 8 years ago · news · news
A short Washington Post explainer on Sinclair Broadcast Group, the local TV owner that became widely known after a video showed its anchors reading an identical mandated script.
Cited as an example of corporate-mandated scripts and concentrated media ownership.
19:00Sinclair Broadcast Group: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
13.8M views • 9 years ago
1:39Sinclair's script for stations
Andrew W (AWatts712)
5.2M views • 8 years ago
4:48Viral video raises worry over Sinclair's political messaging inside local news
PBS NewsHour
781K views • 8 years ago
1:39Sinclair's Soldiers in Trump's War on Media
Deadspin
2.1M views • 8 years ago
1:39Multiple local news stations say the same thing verbatim
ShootMeDead
1.8M views • 8 years ago
1:37This is Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy
Blyledge
702K views • 8 years ago
19:23Journalism: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
15.1M views • 10 years ago
26:50Tech Monopolies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
10.9M views • 4 years ago
2:35Newscasters Agree: A Christmas Present Or Two Or Ten Edition | CONAN on TBS
Team Coco
2.4M views • 12 years ago
21:22Sponsored Content: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
7.4M views • 5 years ago
43:43Elon Musk Is Not Your Friend - SOME MORE NEWS
Some More News
1.4M views • 5 years ago
19:08Stadiums: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
16.1M views • 11 years ago
1:05:24Susan Crawford on Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry & Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age
Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
11K views • 13 years ago
13:18Net Neutrality: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
16.6M views • 12 years ago
19:33Net Neutrality II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
8.8M views • 9 years ago
18:15USPS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
8.3M views • 6 years ago
32:59Prediction Markets: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
4.4M views • 6 months ago
16:27Weather: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
8M views • 7 years ago
11:23Native Advertising: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
12.6M views • 12 years ago
21:25Congressional Fundraising: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
LastWeekTonight
11M views • 10 years ago
3 comments from Hacker News
I think putting this policy in place is actually good for Twitter's bottom line. People will be promoting all kinds of competitors and trying to get people on Twitter to retweet those things. A competitor is some site that acts as a third party, not the actual media article or primary thing to link to. So Twitter having this model makes business sense. Does it makes Elon Musk a hypocrite? Of course it does!!! Capitalism restricts free speech, and even compels other speech. Here is an example: ▶ this video Anytime an employee (e.g. a news anchor) has to stay away from topics, repeat talking points, or get fired and replaced by an organization, that is capitalism at work. They are an employee being used as a mouthpiece, not a human being saying what they really think. Capitalism and private ownership of large organizations is not about freedom. The concept of ownership is literally about restricting other people's freedoms to do as they wish with what you own, and compelling employees to do this or that, or get fired. There's this weird assumption that capitalism somehow encourages free speech. And guys like Elon Musk and Donald Trump are therefore associated with it, and allowed to spew garbage about Free Speech, because they're billionaire capitalists. Um, no. To go in depth, watch this interview I did with Noam Chomsky last year: link
So much that they even end up repeating exact phrases in their seemingly independent broadcasts, as seen in ▶ this video
It's easier to believe when from your understanding of the world the other side is blatantly lying and misrepresenting things. It forms a bit of a positive feedback loop where seeing bad intentions leads you to being less likely to give slack so you see more bad intentions. From the left looking rightward at Fox News and many local stations (increasingly owned by and forced to run identical scripts from Sinclair Broadcasting) [0] at the response and the response to the response to coronavirus for example it's hard to ascribe that to just a different interpretation of facts. [0] ▶ this video