HOST: What are the consequences of having Sinclair owning and such a big chunk of local television?



TYLER CHERRY: Well there's a few considerations. First and foremost it's just anti-trust, and like media consolidation issues, which I certainly am not an expert in, so that's about as much as I'll say about that, but there's a reason why there historically, and again this is -- this gets very complicated, but there's historically been a cap on what any one network provider or broadcaster can -- the amount of households they can reach. The Trump administration's FCC is in the process of, and has pretty much rolled that back. If you recall earlier in the segment, I said that Sinclair was about to own 72 percent of nationwide reach, which far exceeds what that cap should have been, but kind of putting federal regulations, communication regulations aside, it's just terrifying because most people, more Americans trust local news than they do national news, cable news, print news, and precisely because of that, when you're watching local news it's unsuspecting. You're not really on guard the way you are when you're watching a big CNN panel, for example, or a Fox news debate. When I go home and watch local news -- you -- and with Sinclair you are going to see pretty run of the mill local news about crime reports, and about the city counsel, or whatever it might be, but there is going to be these segments in there that include incredibly right-leaning right-wing and often misleading conservative propaganda-like segments. Whether that's what they call their “terrorism alert desk,” which is nothing but just fearmongering and Islamophobia. Whether it's these “must-run” segments that are mandated to run on all local news stations featuring former Trump campaign administration officials. It's really the unsuspecting part of this that's incredibly dangerous because what you're thinking you're getting in local news is really mandated conservative right-leaning almost propaganda that local viewers have not been conditioned to look out for and therefore are not really on guard for.

Previously:

Don’t be fooled: Sinclair is trying to bring the Fox News model to your local news station 

A short history of the right-wing politics of Sinclair Broadcasting

On CNN, David Zurawik explains how local stations owned by Sinclair integrate pro-Trump “propaganda” with local news