Sinclair responds to criticism of media-bashing promos
Source: CNN
Sinclair, America's largest operator of local TV stations, is in the spotlight after a controversial promo video went viral over the weekend.
Some staffers say they're embarrassed by the promos and concerned about their own credibility as journalists. A few local anchors and reporters are even reacting publicly, risking the ire of management.
But Sinclair senior vice president of news Scott Livingston is defending the promos as a "well-researched journalistic initiative focused on fair and objective reporting."
In an internal memo obtained by CNNMoney, Livingston slammed what he called "misleading, often defamatory stories" about the company. (The full memo is below.)
Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/02/media/sinclair-promo-reactions-president-trump/index.html
"I know many of you and your stations are now in the media spotlight after the launch of our corporate news journalistic responsibility promotional campaign. There is a lot of noise out there about our company right now, and what is lacking in that analysis is something we constantly preach; context and perspective.
The critics are now upset about our well-researched journalistic initiative focused on fair and objective reporting. For the record, the stories we are referencing in this campaign are the unsubstantiated ones (i.e. fake/false) like "Pope Endorses Trump" which move quickly across social media and result in an ill-informed public. Some other false stories, like the false "Pizzagate" story, can result in dangerous consequences. We are focused on fact-based reporting. That's our commitment to our communities. That's the goal of these announcements: to reiterate our commitment to reporting facts in a pursuit of truth. A new Monmouth University Poll out today says Americans are concerned, in fact, 77 percent of the respondents believe "fake news" is reported at least occasionally in mainstream media. This is a concern that is shared by Democrats, Republicans and Independents. This poll underscores the importance of our journalistic responsibility effort. We hold ourselves to the highest standards of accuracy and fact checking.
Here's some context that our critics don't mention in their misleading, often defamatory stories about our thriving news operations:
· The critics don't talk about *your* journalism awards. They seem disinterested that in 2017 *YOU won* more than 400 awards, including 8 national awards for journalistic excellence.
· The critics don't talk about *your audience growth*: many of your news operations have gained audience consistently and steadily in recent years. We are very proud of this accomplishment and it's a story our critics ignore. The February 2018 ratings period was a good one for us with more than a third of our stations gaining market share vs. the previous year.
· The critics don't talk about the capital investments and the staffing additions Sinclair has made in its newsrooms: we have expanded news by 92 hours in 16 markets in the last two years and we have added 78 news positions since 2015 date.
· Recent critics never mention our innovations -- like Project Baltimore, Full Measure or Circa or other forward-thinking projects that could help us expand our audiences for decades to come.
· One thing the critics DO seem obsessed with is the roughly 8 minutes a week of clearly labelled commentary that Boris Epshteyn offers in our newscasts each week. The critics continue to say that his former affiliation with Republicans makes him a propagandist. But they never offer any perspective on Boris' appearances. They never mention that ABC News Anchor George Stephanopoulos ran Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign and served as a Senior Advisor to President Clinton for 4 years. Stephanopoulos now hosts an ABC political talk shows and co-anchors 10 hours of news a week for ABC. That is 10 hours of 'must run' content that all ABC affiliates must carry each week hosted by a former advisor to President Clinton. We have no problem with Mr. Stephanopoulos anchoring these newscasts, but think it is odd that Sinclair critics seem to express zero outrage over this. Critics never talk about Chris Matthews, who worked for prominent Washington Democrats, including President Carter, before becoming an NBC show host. Why don't the critics of Boris' at least offer this context? Why are they obsessed with the 8 minutes a week that Boris gets to offer clearly labelled commentary? Remember, no one is trying to hide Boris' past political affiliations. We label him as a former Trump advisor. We are fully transparent about Boris.
· 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."
-- Three 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 Hill Rotundas 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 participatewhich is their optionbut all lawmakers, regardless of party, are invited. 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 candidatesand their surrogates--- the chance to speak repeatedly, and directly, to local news viewers, in our Sinclair markets. The Trump campaign responded favorably to the opportunity and, as such, received more direct interaction with our viewers. 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.
-- 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."
Honestly, most of the Sinclair critics don't seem to do their own original reporting. Do you ever notice that a story written about Sinclair from a west coast publication will include a lot of the same talking pointsoften the same wording--- as a story written a week earlier on the east coast? These reporters aren't producing original journalism; they are aggregating often-flawed-reporting-content published by other media outlets, without fact checking itor calling us to confirm any of it. By contrast, we have hundreds and hundreds of journalists in Sinclair, who go into the field each day, conduct their own original interviews --face-to-face---and create truly original content for our their local audiences. Your original reporting is our core strength. It's why we are growing and our critics are increasingly becoming obsolete. It's why surveys show news consumers trust you more than they trust the bloggers.
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. Thanks for all of the hard work and commitment to our viewers. Our viewers appreciate it---and I do too!
Please make sure to share this message with your staff."
poboy2
(2,078 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,722 posts)OldHippieChick
(2,434 posts)"rectally" - right?
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,722 posts)OldHippieChick
(2,434 posts)realize how they are being prostituted.
aggiesal
(8,943 posts)John Oliver show "Last Week, Tonight", segment on
Sinclair Broadcasting, where corporate had the anchors
of, if not all their stations then a lot of them, just read
verbatim a paragraph about this very subject.
The optics were really bad.
pwb
(11,304 posts)Both mean we usually lie hoping you don't notice.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,064 posts)Unless Sinclair thinks that Alex Jones InfoWars is a competitor.
Anon-C
(3,430 posts)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Epshteyn
Career
Following his graduation from law school, Epshteyn was part of the finance practice of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy New York. He worked on securities transactions, private placements, and bank finance.[5]
In 2008, Epshteyn was a communications aide with the McCain-Palin campaign. While at the campaign, he was part of a rapid response task force which concentrated on issues related to the vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.[6]
Epshteyn was managing director of business and legal affairs at the boutique investment bank West America Securities Corporation. He is managing director of business and legal affairs for investment banking firm TGP Securities.[5] In October 2013, Epshteyn moderated a panel at the investment conference "Invest in Moscow!" The panel was composed mainly of Moscow city government officials, including Sergey Cheremin, a city minister who heads Moscow's foreign economic and international relations department.[7]
Trump campaign
During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Epshteyn acted as a senior advisor to the Donald Trump campaign, making frequent television appearances as a Trump media surrogate on Trump's behalf.[7]
In September 2016, Epshteyn responded to a question from MSNBC's Hallie Jackson by offering a new explanation for why a portrait of Trump paid for by the Donald J. Trump Foundation wound up on display at Trump National Doral Miami, a Trump-owned for-profit golf resort in Florida. Epshteyn said, "There are IRS rules which specifically state that when a foundation has an item, an individual can store those items on behalf of the foundation in order to help it with storage costs... And that's absolutely proper." Epshteyn's explanation was, in effect, that Trump hadn't used his foundation to buy some art for his resort, which would be self-dealing. Instead, Trump's resort was helping the foundation which has no employees or office space of its own to store one of its possessions.[8]
In September 2016, the media watchdog organization Media Matters for America criticized CNN, Fox News, and PBS for failing to disclose Epshteyn's "financial ties to the former Soviet Union, which include consulting through Strategy International LLC for 'entities doing business in Eastern Europe' and moderating a Russian-sponsored conference on 'investment opportunities in Moscow.'"[9]
In an October 2016 New York Times article, three political commentators said in separate interviews that Epshteyn "often acted in a rude, condescending manner toward show staffers, makeup artists and others." Joy Reid, an MSNBC show host, said "Boris is abrasive. That is who he is both on the air and off."[2]
Epshteyn co-hosted the Trump Campaign Facebook Live coverage before and after the final presidential debate. He also anchored "Trump Tower Live", the Trump Campaign Facebook live nightly program.[10]
Trump administration
Epshteyn became a special assistant in the Trump administration as it took office. He wrote Trump's controversial statement for Holocaust Remembrance Day in January 2017, which omitted any mention of the Jewish people.[11] Following criticism of the omission, press secretary Sean Spicer defended the statement as written by "an individual who is both Jewish and the descendent of Holocaust survivors."[11][12] At the end of March 2017, it was reported that unnamed sources had said Epshteyn was resigning.[13]
Sinclair Broadcast Group
In mid-April 2017, Sinclair announced it had hired Epshteyn as its senior political analyst. Regarding the appointment, Scott Livingston at Sinclair said in part, "We understand the frustration with government and traditional institutions." Epshteyn said in part, "I greatly admire Sinclairs mission to provide thoughtful impactful reporting throughout the country." At the time, Variety also noted Jared Kushner's December 2016 revelation of discussions between the Trump campaign and the company and content provided to the company which, the report said, Sinclair had "vehemently denied".[14]
What You Say?
Trade Missions?
There were no trade missions. That claim was baseless and reported so in the media at the time. Unless you accept that Palin is referring to the Russian initiative that is represented by Epshteyn, Torshin with the NRA as Rolling Stone reports today.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sarah-palin-russia-keep-an-eye-on-alaska-donald-trump-hack-a7470566.html
The remarks prompted criticism that Ms Palin did not have the foreign policy background to be the second in line for the presidency. But she later touted a remark she made in that election about Russia invading Ukraine if Barack Obama were elected.
In 2014, after Russian forces did in fact execute the invasion, Ms Palin boasted of her prediction in a Facebook statement.
Yes, I could see this one from Alaska, she said. Im usually not one to Told-Ya-So, but I did, despite my accurate prediction being derided as an extremely far-fetched scenario."
geretogo
(1,281 posts)poboy2
(2,078 posts)geretogo
(1,281 posts)Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,604 posts)explaining. Methinks Sinclair dost protest too much.........
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,722 posts)Retweeted by RogueAltGov: https://twitter.com/RogueAltGov
A Sinclair journalist, who has been trying to resist from inside the newsroom but who doesnt have a union explains why its so hard for TV anchors to refuse the Sinclairs editorial edicts. They have contracts that penalize them if they quit.
Link to tweet
A former Sinclair journalist sent me a screenshot of their contract. I couldn't leave because of this part of my contract.
Link to tweet
A lot of people are curious about this, so a former Sinclair journalist sent me a Sinclair contract. Here are the parts about quitting/getting fired. (See that clause about politics? It forbids employees from expressing their personal political views, but not their employer's.)
Link to tweet
cab67
(3,010 posts)Music sets the mood. Maybe something like this can be played while local reporters read their Sinclair scripts?
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,722 posts)The Amazing Donald Trump is working tirelessly to lower the price of stocks to a point where even the poorest Americans can afford them. Such a wise and thoughtful president. The best president in history! soon you will be able to buy stocks with mere pennies! amazing!
Link to tweet
bucolic_frolic
(43,447 posts)We still have laws against market manipulation. You can't corner a market. You can't post false information that causes securities to gain or lose value. You can't take a thinly traded penny stock and bid the price up so you can dump it. The SEC should investigate here. This is causing market abnormalities that would otherwise not happen.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,722 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,447 posts)This issue is not going away
Resist.
Yavin4
(35,453 posts)That's all they have.
Corgigal
(9,291 posts)Really, you're not even being slick. Should change your name to Joe or something.
progree
(10,930 posts)than news anchors in dozens of Sinclair affiliate stations forced to mouth a script as if it was their own opinion.
Similarly Chris Matthews.
progree
(10,930 posts)Let's be clear, news anchors looking into camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord, a script meant to obscure the truth not elucidate it, isn't journalism. It's propaganda. It's Orwellian. And it is on a slippery slope towards some of history's most destructive forces. These are the means by which despots wrest power, silence dissent, and oppress the masses.
...
The faces of the men and women you see delivering this chilling message are befitting those of a hostage video. Maybe some of these local anchors took to it with gusto, but I believe that number is few. That's not why people are drawn to journalism. ...
That is why it is incumbent for Americans of all political persuasions to say this is intolerable. Congress should hold hearings and call the executives of Sinclair to account, but one suspects that is highly unlikely in the current political environment. Will this spur citizens to elect representatives who recognize that this is a clear and present danger? Will enough people be outraged to bombard stations, and advertisors, with letters, phone calls, and tweets to suggest this is unacceptable?
For now, Sinclair is trying to explain away the controversy, and they have a powerful ally in the President. But as we saw with the advertisers bailing en masse from Laura Ingraham's Fox News show after she attacked a Parkland High School student activist in a Tweet, the voice of the people still matters. If enough people speak, they cannot be ignored.
A free and independent press must be part of #WhatUnitesUs
A thread with the full Dan Rather post is at https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210443179
47of74
(18,470 posts)Fuck Sinclair.