On Friday, FTVLive showed you a confidential memo that was sent to the News Directors at the Sinclair stations from Sinclair’s Director News Content and Operations Mark Ginther.

The memo shows that for the next two months or so, the Sinclair stations are being told that they need to put a heavy emphasis on the opioid crisis that is happening across America.

“Sinclair has taken the national lead reporting on a very important issue-opioid addiction…” Ginther says in his memo.

But, is it really the lead when Hearst has already been doing it for the past two years?

Back in 2017, Hearst announced a year-long multi-platform news and investigative series examining an epidemic ravaging communities across America. Hearst slugged their special coverage "State of Addiction" and provides reports and analysis focusing on origins of the opioid problem across the country.

Here is a press release from Hearst, sent out in 2017.

So, instead of leading the coverage, it seems more like Sinclair is catching up to the coverage.

Just saying…