The Sinclair Spin
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Yesterday, FTVLive posted the loooooong memo that Sinclair's VP of News Scott Livingston sent out to the staff, trying to defend the company from all the stories that have been critical against them.
Livingston try to paint the negative stories as attacks by people that have an agenda against Sinclair.
He tried to stick up for Sinclair's "must run" commentaries from both Mark Hyman and Boris Epshtyen.
He says that the networks force Sinclair stations with "must runs" like George Stephanopoulos (Good Morning America/This Week) , Whoopi Goldberg (The View), Stephen Colbert (The Late Show).
Of course, these are not newscasts, but that seems beside the point.
Any "must run" story from corporate in any newscast is wrong. It's that simple.
FTVLive hears from people working at Sinclair stations across the country that say they are flat out embarrassed to be doing so. Many are looking to find new jobs. Memos like this one from Livingston do nothing to change that.
The Sinclair boss says that, "Our 4,000+ journalists, working in 70 cities across the country are being mischaracterized by agenda-driven opponents."
Not ture.
Most know that the "4,000+ journalists" are being forced to do this crap by an "agenda-driven" company that only cares about the bottom line and getting the conservative message out to the masses.
Sinclair is very good at dishing out criticism and trashing their own networks, but when the criticism comes back at them, we get retorts by Hyman and Epshtyen and a 5 page memo from Livingston.
Sinclair feels that everyone is picking on them, but maybe, they should ask themselves why that is?
But, I have a feeling they would rather just keep their head in the sand.
Here's the memo:
I want to take this opportunity to set the record straight regarding Sinclair’s commitment to newsgathering and to dispel some of the myths being reported about our news organization.
Over the past several months, there have been many misleading stories published about this award-winning news company. Our 4,000+ journalists, working in 70 cities across the country are being mischaracterized by agenda-driven opponents.
Here are the facts:
Local news is at the heart of Sinclair. Our agenda is to serve our communities by sharing relevant information to alert, protect and empower our audiences. That’s our daily commitment. We live it and breathe it --- each and every day. That commitment has been recognized by peers who have awarded Sinclair stations more than 90 Regional Emmy awards, so far, in 2017. Additionally, Sinclair stations have won 2 National Edward R. Murrow awards this year and are the recipients of 36 Regional Murrow awards as well. We are immensely proud of the hard-working journalists in this Company who are committed to their local communities and have garnered these accolades.
As Sinclair has continued to have success and has grown across the country, we have come under fire from a range of competitors and other opponents who seek to damage our reputation for their own purposes.
While we have been subject to some fair critique, much of the reporting about Sinclair in recent months has been irresponsible and much of it is just plain false. We seek to set the record straight here:
1. Regarding Sinclair’s “Must Run” content: Media reports have included misleading statements from unnamed sources saying that that Sinclair “Must Run” content is of “poor quality” and “politically tilted” and a “source of irritation.” (NY Times, May 12, 2017)
FACT: Sinclair stations produce and air an average of 37.5 hours of local news per week—per station. Sinclair “Must Run” national content equals less than 1 hour per week, on average, in Sinclair newscasts. The majority of this “must run” content is non-commentary, straight news, from our Capitol Hill Bureau, or from our D.C. station, which includes interviews with lawmakers and other government officials. At the end of the day, more than 90% of the content and editorial decisions are made at the local station level. KOMO in Seattle for example produces approximately 286 minutes of local news per day and is supplied an average of 6 minutes of “must run” content. We trust the people who spend every day working in our newsrooms to identify the best ways to serve their viewers.
Note: It’s important to point out that all major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.), through their affiliation agreements, require companies, like Sinclair, to carry hours of network programing each day. This “must carry” programming includes analysis and perspectives from people like George Stephanopoulos (Good Morning America/This Week) , Whoopi Goldberg (The View), Stephen Colbert (The Late Show) and a large number of other hosts and contributors with clear political ideologies. All Sinclair stations carry this “must run” content each day, without rebuttal.
FACT: While it is true that Sinclair offers commentary segments from Mark Hyman and Boris Epshtyen, this content is clearly identified as commentary and constitutes a tiny percentage of the station’s weekly broadcast content. Mark and Boris’ commentaries provide a viewpoint that often gets lost in the typical national broadcast media dialogue. Boris Epshtyen worked in the Trump White House, a fact that Sinclair makes no effort to hide, and provides a unique insight that viewers can’t find anywhere else. The presence of former administrative personnel serving as news commentators is a well accepted practice in journalism.
2. Regarding 2016 Presidential Campaign Coverage: Media reports have mischaracterized Sinclair’s coverage of the Clinton and Trump 2016 campaign saying that, “(the) Trump campaign made a deal with Sinclair for favorable coverage.” http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/sinclair-donald-trump-jared-kushner- campaign-coverage-1201945511/
FACT: Two years ago, our national bureau in Washington D.C. began a weekly project called “Connect to Congress”. Each week, when Congress is in session, we set up a camera in the Capitol Rotunda and offer lawmakers a chance to speak directly to constituents in their districts, through our local stations. On many weeks, more than two dozen Democratic and Republican lawmakers participate in these direct interchanges with our stations in their respective districts. Some lawmakers choose not to participate— which is their option—but all lawmakers, regardless of party, are invited.
FACT: In the spirit of this highly successful Sinclair project, we reached out to both the Trump and Clinton campaigns in the summer of 2016, offering both candidates—and their surrogates--- the chance to speak repeatedly, and directly, to local news viewers, in our Sinclair markets.
FACT: The Trump campaign responded favorably to the opportunity and, as such, received more direct interaction with our viewers.
FACT: The Clinton campaign, despite our repeated, documented attempts to arrange such interviews, participated at a much lower level; never once providing the candidate herself for an appearance on a Sinclair station.
FACT: The Chairman of the Ethics Committee for the Society of Professional Journalists reviewed the Sinclair outreach to both campaigns and stated, in part, in December 2016, “After hearing from Sinclair’s representatives and viewing emails between the company and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign, I don’t believe the interview arrangements fell outside what would be considered ethical journalism.”
3. Terrorism Alert Desk: A recent report on HBO called Sinclair’s Terrorism Alert Desk segments, “Nonsense.” The HBO report cherry-picked a single segment dating back to September 2016, to ridicule and undermine the segment’s overall content and objectives.
FACT: Five times per week, Sinclair produces, from its Washington D.C. station, a brief one-minute summary of global and national terrorism updates. This segment launched after the deadly Paris Attack in November 2015 and has continued through the ensuing terror attacks—over the past 20 months--- in San Bernardino, Nice, Brussels, Manchester, Orlando, London, Westminster, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Berlin, New York and a tragically long list of others.
FACT: A U.S. State Department study (see link) states that in 2015 alone there were more than 11,000 terror attacks globally --killing more than 28,000 people. Many of those attacks were in war torn areas, like Iraq. However, hundreds of attacks were reported in places like India, Egypt and the Philippines that year. Most of the victims are civilians, police and government (non-military) personnel. In 2015, 146 journalists were the targets of terror attacks. 23 airports and airlines were targeted that same year. https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2015/257526.htm
FACT: Since 2014, the U.S. Government has charged *more than 100 people* in the United States for purported connections to the Islamic State. This list does not include terrorists who were killed while carrying out attacks, like the Orlando, San Bernardino or Chattanooga killers.
Sinclair is committed to the Terrorism Alert Desk segments, in part, because we believe this content is being under-reported by most media outlets. Further, we believe that media competitors which are ignoring the threats of global terrorism are missing one of the most significant news stories of this decade.
4. Montana Assault Coverage: On May 24, 2017, a Montana Congressman, Greg Gianforte, assaulted a news reporter. The story quickly gained national media attention. One station in Montana apparently chose to not cover the assault story. That station was KECI. Numerous media reports stated that KECI was “Sinclair-owned” and suggested that Sinclair news management had a role in stopping the coverage of the Gianforte assault –which occurred on the eve of a special election.
FACT: On April 21, 2017, Sinclair announced an agreement to purchase Bonten Media stations, which include KECI in Montana. During a sale of broadcast stations, federal regulations prohibit most interactions between buyer and seller – especially regarding the direction of local news coverage. This fact is widely known in the broadcast and media industry.
FACT: Sinclair does not own KECI and had absolutely nothing to do with any decision by KECI not to cover the Gianforte story.
FACT: The Bonten sale received FCC approval on July 3rd, 2017 -- and the deal is expected to close soon. FACT: The *first conversations* between Sinclair Corporate News and Bonten Media General Managers and News Directors occurred on Thursday July 6, 2017 on a 4pm introductory conference call. This was 6 weeks after the Gianforte story broke.
FACT: As of today, July 17, 2017, Sinclair still does not own KECI and does not provide any guidance to any Bonten stations (including KECI) about their news content.
FACT: Had Sinclair owned KECI on May 24, 2017, we would have directed them to cover the story aggressively. This is evidence by the fact that our own company aggressively pursued the Gianforte story across the country. Our Sinclair corporate digital team posted the assault story on our websites on May 24, 2017.http://wjla.com/news/nation-world/reporter-alleges-attack-by-montana-gop-hopeful To suggest that Sinclair would ignore (or worse, intentionally fail to cover) a story of such importance is reckless, defamatory and demonstrates a lack of due diligence by the many media outlets which made this claim.
5. Regarding WJLA, our ABC affiliate in Washington D.C., --media reports have been critical of Sinclair since it purchased WJLA in 2014. The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi has painted a dark picture of life under Sinclair ownership claiming that employee “morale” had “fallen” (Jan 9, 2017) and that Sinclair’s purchase had left some “bitter aftertones” (May 8, 2017). Farhi also called Sinclair’s news coverage “partisan” and “conservative leaning.” The Post wrote in January 2017 that one departing anchor was the “latest casualty of Sinclair’s cuts.”
FACT: WJLA is the most journalistically-honored television station in the Washington D.C. region. In June 2017, under Sinclair ownership, WJLA won 20 Emmy Awards, more than any other station in the region, including the coveted “Overall Excellence” award.
FACT: Under Sinclair, WJLA has moved into the #1 spot at 6pm (A25-54 ratings May 2017, Nielsen) besting NBC-owned and FOX-owned competitors and Tegna’s CBS affiliate in this key time period.
FACT: Under Sinclair, WJLA has grown morning ratings from 4th place to 2nd place in the highly- important 6am time period (A25-54 May 2017 Nielsen ratings)
FACT: Under Sinclair, investment in WJLA’s facility will top $10 million dollars in capital improvements and facility expansions by the end of 2018.
FACT: The Washington Post has been provided with information about our investment, our awards and our ratings growth at WJLA and have chosen to largely ignore these details when assembling their fear- mongering reports about daily life in a Sinclair newsroom. It’s important to remember that the Post is a Sinclair media competitor. As such, any discerning reader of their newspaper should view the Post’s reports about our company with a healthy sense of skepticism.
6. Circa: There were misleading reports emerging during the week of July 12 which state that Circa reporters are “commentators” and are “Trump friendly” because a national correspondent for Circa has discussed some of her reports on Sean Hannity’s program on FOX News.
Background: Circa is a millennial-focused website launched by Sinclair in July of 2017. More than 80 journalists work for Circa in three U.S. cities. Much of their daily product focuses on topics ranging from the struggles of immigrants to the legalization of marijuana to cool new technologies. While the majority of Circa stories focus on non-political content, some of the national reporting by lead Circa investigative reporters does cover politics and national security items. Some Circa reporting has gone against the grain from the mainstream narratives on Trump/Russia investigations. To that end, Circa Reporter Sara Carter has appeared on FOX NEWS’ Sean Hannity’s program from time to time to discuss her investigative reports. Those appearances have garnered Sara Carter the label as a “commentator” and a “conservative pundit” by Snopes.com. This description is outrageous—especially coming from a self- described “fact checking” website.
FACT: The report that Snopes cited as “biased” and “commentary” was actually a fact-based news story, which aired in late June. It was not a commentary. It was never delivered nor labelled as a commentary. https://www.circa.com/story/2017/06/27/nation/did-the-fbi-retaliate-against-michael- flynn-by-launching-russia-probe
FACT: It is a routine practice for national online and print reporters to appear on cable news programs and conduct debriefs with cable hosts. Linked below are three such examples by Washington Post and NY Times journalists, appearing on MSNBC programs to debrief their reports on the Trump administration with hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews.
QUESTION: Why are these reporters not labeled as “liberal pundits” and “commentators” by Snopes? http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/wapo-trump-shares-highly-classified-info-with-russian- officials-944662083572 http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/nytimes-trump-jr-reporting-not-closed-by-any-measure- 993299011517 http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/trump-takes-on-the-new-york-times-871370307666
7. Summary: What we find most troubling in the reporting about our company, by major media outlets (like the New York Times and Washington Post), is the omission of key facts in their stories. Such omissions suggest the existence of either journalistic incompetency or editorial bias. We do not believe these journalists are incompetent, so we are left to conclude that they are biased. We call on these media competitors to openly disclose their political tendencies and ideological biases. Doing so would allow for readers of their content to more clearly understand the agenda of the reporters and editors providing the content. We are proud to offer a range of perspectives, both conservative and liberal --- to our consumers---on our Sinclair broadcast stations each day. It is unfortunate that so many of our competitors do not provide the same marketplace of ideas.
Our commitment is to tracking the truth, providing context and perspective in our reporting and serving our communities with valuable and, at times, life-saving information. We value our viewers and our journalists who work hard each day to serve the communities in which they live---all across this great country. It’s concerning and troubling that so many once trusted news organizations continue to push false narratives with an agenda to destroy our reputation and discredit the great journalism across our company.
Thank you,
Scott
