A shameless effort to consolidate control of local broadcasters

The Trump Federal Communications Commission has been working diligently since its first moments in office to help Sinclair expand its political messaging. By rewriting the rules governing local broadcasting, the Trump FCC is allowing Sinclair to turn supposedly “local” television operations into a coordinated national platform for the delivery of messages. Local television stations were licensed to multiple firms to promote a diversity of viewpoints. Using the public airwaves was supposed to deliver diverse editorial content and news coverage. When Sinclair “sidecar” stations, however, force their anchors to read from the same scripts as others in the market, even the pretense of independence and a diversity of voices disappears. The Trump FCC’s decision to eliminate the requirement that a local broadcaster have a local studio ultimately showed the strategy that was afoot. You can’t have local programming if you don’t have a local studio! What you get is centrally-produced, non-local content. 

The efforts of the Trump FCC to help Sinclair expand its national political propaganda machine have not even been subtle – nor have the actions of Sinclair Broadcast Group. Immediately after the election of President Trump, Sinclair announced the acquisition of Tribune Broadcasting even though the combinations would put them substantially over the ownership limits with reach into over 70 percent of American homes. Announcing a $3.9 billion transaction that was in violation of federal law per se was a strong indicator that Sinclair believed the Trump FCC would conveniently change the law to help them. There is an arrogance in engineering federal regulation to benefit a specific company – especially when the chairman of the Trump FCC has preached “regulatory humility.”