Sinclair's Suck Up to Donald Trump
FTVLive told you how Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner told people that they had cut a deal with Sinclair to give Trump more and favorable coverage during the campaign.
Sinclair caught with their hand in the Trump cookie jar has tried to downplay the relationship and say that any deal wasn't true.
But, actions speak much louder than words.
The Washington Post looks at how Sinclair covered the Election and it shows how much Sinclair stations bent over backwards for Trump.
The Post writes, a review of Sinclair’s reporting and internal documents shows a strong tilt toward Trump. Sinclair gave a disproportionate amount of neutral or favorable coverage to Trump during the campaign while often casting Clinton in an unfavorable light. For example:
●Sinclair-owned stations and its Washington bureau scored 15 “exclusive” interviews with Trump over the past year, including 11 during the final three months of the campaign in critical states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio. They did 10 more with Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, from August through October, as well as 10 with Trump surrogates, primarily Ben Carson. Sinclair stations aired five such interviews with Clinton running mate Tim Kaine and two with Chelsea Clinton but none with Clinton or another top surrogate.
●During one of the Carson interviews, Sinclair managers provided questions for local- station reporters to ask, such as “Dr. Carson, you toured Detroit, your home town, with Donald Trump Saturday. What will Donald Trump offer the African American community better than Hillary Clinton can?” And: “He has talked a lot about job creation. What will he do specifically to help employment among African Americans?”
Livingston said the company often suggests questions of “national importance” to its local reporters so that the responses can be shared with other Sinclair stations. “Suggesting national angles is not coaching,” he said. “Nothing is off-limits for our reporters.”
●Three of Trump’s 15 interviews over the past year were with a new Sinclair-owned public- affairs program called “Full Measure,” including one on its debut last year. The program, hosted by reporter Sharyl Attkisson, is carried on Sinclair-owned stations across the country.
●Sinclair managers asked Sinclair-affiliated stations in Green Bay and Madison, Wis ., to air extended portions of “Full Measure’s” interview with Trump on their local newscasts on April 3, two days before the Wisconsin Republican primary.
WLUK-TV in Green Bay, for example, aired 18½ minutes of the interview over its two-hour evening newscast, according to the station’s logs. During the same broadcast, it also included segments on Republican rivals Ted Cruz (which ran 5 minutes 45 seconds) and John Kasich (7 minutes 38 seconds), and Democrat Bernie Sanders (4½ minutes). The station, and Sinclair, asked Clinton to appear but were turned down, Livingston said.
Livingston is doing his best to put the toothpaste back in the tube, but it is clear to us that Sinclair was soft on Trump and hard on Clinton.
Just saying you offered equal time is not the end of the story. It is how you coverage was slanted towards Trump and obviously Clinton knew that Sinclair was favoring Trump from the get go.
Sinclair wants the FCC to relax ownership rules so that can buy more stations and merge them with others in the market. That way they can keep down cost and have a monopoly on what advertisers pay. The company obviously believes that trying to get Trump in their pocket, they will get what they want.
They also knew that Hillary Clinton would not sign on top such a deal to get the FCC to relax the rules.
FTVLive also FIRST told you that Sinclair is facing huge FCC fines for airing pay for play stories on their stations. It appears that Sinclair is hoping that their new friend Donald will have the FCC knock those fines down a bit.
The Sinclair/Trump relationship is troubling in the fact that Sinclair is in so many markets and is obviously in the tank for Trump.
Some might even say it's "Rigged".