Anti-SinclairMedia campaign targets Cardi’s for advertising on WJAR/10
By Steve Ahlquist
in UpriseRI
 |
| There are lots more photos in Steve's original article. |
Turn
Off 10, a campaign coordinated
by the Rhode Island Kent County ReSisters and Indivisible Rhode Island protested
outside Cardi’s Furniture & Mattresses at
1681 Quaker Lane in West Warwick because
of the company’s continued advertising on the Sinclair
Broadcast Group‘s television station. About 30 people attended the
protest.
Sinclair Broadcast Group
is an American telecommunications company. The company is the largest
television station operator in the United States by number of stations and
total coverage.
Since taking ownership of WJAR, Sinclair Media Group has
mandated that WJAR include two minutes of right-wing or pro-Trump
propaganda in local news broadcasts nine times a week.
In March a new mandate
was announced according to internal Sinclair memos leaked to CNN. It is called an “anchor delivered journalistic
responsibility message.”
Since complaints sent to
WJAR/10 and Sinclair Broadcast Group have been ignored, Turn Off 10 has begun
to target station advertisers. Cardi’s Furniture, whose owners, the Cardi
Brothers, are local celebrities, is one of the station’s largest advertisers.
Earlier this month Peter Cardi spoke
with Bob Plain at RI Future:
“We looked at the whole station and said if we pull them, then we are liable,” Peter Cardi said in an interview with RI Future. “Those guys are sue crazy – not the local guys, the national guys.”“We gave them our opinion as bluntly as we could,” he said. “We don’t like it. Our opinion is news is news. We don’t want it slanted one way or another.”
This isn’t enough for
Turn Off 10. Their Facebook event
stated, “We believe in the integrity of the free press and stand ADAMANTLY
against forced propaganda which imminently threatens OUR VERY DEMOCRACY!”
Cardi’s replied with a
“no comment” when I went inside.
During the protest, a
smaller group broke off and protested WJAR/10 advertiser Speedcraft Auto Group a
short distance away at 883 Quaker Lane in West Warwick.
Turn Off 10 have twice
targeted WJAR offices on 23 Kenney Drive in Cranston: