By Gryphen
Courtesy
of Providence
Journal:
The
company that owns WJAR-TV is mandating the broadcast of multiple programs
favorable to President Donald Trump on the state’s most-watched television
station.
Sinclair
Broadcast Group, a rapidly growing media company that bought Channel 10 in
2014, produces “must-run” segments and distributes them to its local stations
nationwide. They must air during daily news programming, Sinclair executives
said.
Three of
the segments have rattled viewers and WJAR’s own news reporters, according to
Fletcher Fischer, the business manager and financial secretary of the
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1228, the union that
represents broadcast workers there:
‒ The
Terrorism Alert Desk, advertised as a daily news update about terrorist
activity.
‒ News
pieces from Epshteyn, Sinclair’s chief political analyst.
‒ A
clearly labeled opinion show featuring Mark Hyman, a former vice president of
the company.
These
pieces are fed to Sinclair’s 174 stations in the United States every day.
Sinclair’s insertion of the segments into news programming has been harshly
critiqued by Rhode Islanders and national commentators.
One of the main problems is that "Terrorism Alert Desk" which plays daily, along with its ominous theme, even if there is nothing really to report.
The
Terrorism Alert Desk’s updates, even in the absence of any real
terrorism-related events, is scary for some, said Moni Chea, a 32-year-old
Providence woman who works in a nursing clinic. Chea’s 85-year-old grandmother
fled conflict in Cambodia and now lives in Portland, Maine, where Sinclair owns
a local station.
“It’s very
captivating. She hears the music and it sounds very important. I try to tell
her it’s just an update about national security, but she worries,” said Chea.
“She fled a war. For her, terrorism — that’s her biggest fear.”
I am sure
many of you remember the Bush Administration terror alerts, which were
liberally used to keep us on edge and to maintain support for their unnecessary
wars.
The
Bushies also experimented with their own media outlets (Besides the always
reliable Fox News.) and this just feels like another version of the same old
propaganda.
Of course
the conservatives will argue that this is just to offset the mainstream media's
liberal bias, but that is just Right Wing slang for "responsible
journalism."
What is
more insidious, as we have
previously pointed out, is that this is being disguised as local
coverage, and viewers are not made aware of their local station's change in
agenda or that they may in fact be watching "fake news" served with a
healthy side of Right Wing propaganda.
Trump's
America is looking more and more like Hitler's Germany every day.