It's the video that has exploded across the internet:
How America's largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump's war on the media: https://t.co/iLVtKRQycL pic.twitter.com/dMdSGellH3 — Deadspin (@Deadspin) March 31, 2018
Deadspin assembled the clips of dozens of local TV news anchors reading an identical script decrying “fake news.” It was a script they were given to read by their stations’ owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Sinclair’s leadership is right-leaning, it’s supported by President Trump, and the company has a pretty steady track record of pushing political content onto its local TV stations.
Amanda Lotz is a professor of media studies at the University of Michigan and a fellow at the Peabody Media Center.
Lotz joined Stateside to explain the outrage over the video, how the FCC has influenced the rise of big station groups, whether corporate owners can legally control the content of local news, and how Americans can be savvy news consumers.
Listen to the interview above, and click here to see if Sinclair owns your local station.
(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or with this RSS link)
