“Local news will help shape the votes of those who are on the fence or otherwise would have stayed home.”
No, local news will not shape the votes. Local news is presenting the facts and viewers can interpret it however they want. Local news is basically doing cable news’ jobs for them. Of all the cable news outlets, Fox probably comes closest to reporting news. However they also have opinion and commentary, but at least they admit it.
MSLSD and the Chicken Noodle Network say they are news, but it’s all opinion.
This is how the Democrats also could not spin their way out of the things Obamacare was causing back in 2014 - because local news was covering it, not to mention most people either were affected or personally knew someone who was - so the Dem talking point that it was just GOP propaganda did not gain traction.