Posted on 08/02/2017 7:43:54 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
Sinclair’s two stations in Portland, Maine are making headlines for their ‘must run’ segments.
The Press Herald posted a story over the weekend that described the stations as ‘being under fire for pro-Trump’ political segments that run on WGME and WPFO.
A politically independent viewer, Marc McCutcheon, described the experience of watching the must-runs as “surreal,” “extremely jarring” and “so out of place with the friendly, local broadcast from news people I’ve come to trust over the years.” There was no rebuttal, no context, no alternate point of view – a situation he found concerning.”
According to the Herald:
WGME-TV (Channel 13) and WPFO-TV (Channel 23) each carry the segments nine times a week on orders from their owner, the Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the nation’s largest owner of local television stations and an aggressive, unabashed disseminator of conservative commentary supporting the Trump wing of the Republican Party.
The company has been in the national news regularly this year because the pro-Trump segments are appearing at the same time the company is awaiting approval from the Trump administration for it to purchase the 42 stations of the Tribune Media company, which will extend its reach to 72 percent of American households.
Epshteyn has been a Sinclair employee since April. His pieces are produced at Sinclair’s headquarters outside Baltimore and distributed to the company’s 173 local stations on a “must run” basis, along with conservative commentary from a former company executive, Mark Hyman, and nightly updates from their Terrorism Alert Desk, regardless of whether there was any terrorism that day to be alerted about. No segments present countervailing points of view.
These segments have come under national scrutiny. When the paper reached out to WGME’s general manager, Tom Humpage did not respond to numerous interview requests.
Sinclair Broadcasting’s vice president, Scott Livingston, said this to the Maine Sunday Telegram, “we believe our commentaries contribute to the diversity of views in the marketplace,” he wrote, but would not say why the company does not provide a variety of perspectives to its affiliates.
I hope that gas station received “historic preservation” status.
Sinclair Broadcasting was founded by members of the Smith family from Baltimore. Julian Smith’s sons run it now and they are good patriotic conservatives. I watch their first station, the UHF WBFF (now “FOX 45”) for the morning news, weather, and traffic to the exclusion of the other MSN network affiliates. These guys could build a cable channel to kill (or at least severely wound) FOX.
Are their still any Sinclair stations?
There haven’t been any around here in The South since I was a kid........................
Marc McCutcheon
He is a leftist activist and writer in Maine. Big deal on the Notey Fox
http://www.notey.com/blogs/fox
where leftists go to get their marching orders on how to attack Fox news and Trump.
There is nothing independent about this man, and the broadcasts are a breath of fresh air in Maine’s leftist news and broadcast swamp.
Before this new gig, Epshteyn appeared on PBS as an occasional guest analyst. He caught my attention as a breath of fresh air. Sinclair ran the Swift Boat documentary shortly before the 2004 non-election of John Kerry.
Lots to like here!
Are they going to go after OANN next? OANN runs regular, patriotic, pro-American segments, in between their shows.
Can we go after/scrutinize Fake News Media (CNN, et al) for their 24/7 anti-Trump segments?
Spot on.
No wonder.
I haven’t been out west since 1974..........................
Oh,STFU hypocrite! That's priceless! In the perfect liberal/"progressive" world America would resemble the Soviet Union and I have a guess who would end up in Siberia for violations of speech.
Poor Snowflakes; so beautiful, all unique, so fragile-their existence so brief before they meltdown.
I loved that show!
I don’t know why it was cancelled..............
"Yes, my Captain!"
So here’s an idea. Make $50,000,000 and but a TV station. Run it successfully and if you choose, film some Must run segments of your own giving your opinion.
What? Don’t have $50,000,000 to buy a TV station?
Bummer. Shut up then
And by the way, I happen to really like the Sinclair Broadcasting affiliate in Baltimore. They are more even handed and professional than the others.
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