Echoed Washington Post opinion writer Jonathan Capehart on MSNBC yesterday: "More than 70 percent of the country is going to be...watching 'news' from Sinclair Broadcasting."
The 72 percent figure describes the number of households that would have access to Sinclair channels if A) its troubled merger with Tribune Co. is approved by both the Justice Department and the FCC, and B) those approvals come without the government forcing Sinclair to sell off stations, which in turn would only happen if C) the FCC goes through with a proposed UHF/VHF measurement change.
As Atkins writes at the Washington Monthly, "Preserving democracy will require breaking up the monopolistic corporate control of media across all media platforms. Facebook and Google must control far less of our news. Sinclair must be broken up and local news content remanded back to local control. Clear Channel must be broken apart, and a greater variety of voices must be allowed to flourish while AM/FM radio is still a part of people's media diets. The very few corporations that control the vast majority of our news and programming must forced to break apart as well. Only then will a true diversity of voices be born." Don't say you haven't been warned.
If Uncle Grandpa is watching only his Sinclair local, or maybe Sinclair + Fox News, that's his choice in a competitive media market.
S]tation limits do virtually nothing to stop "Media concentration." And, ironically, the very existence of Sinclair as the country's largest TV station group owner is a product, to a very large degree, of just these rules.
Sinclair arises in the niche carved out by the limits imposed by the FCC on broadcast networks.
Little surprise that he tweeted a defense of Sinclair, and an attack on "Fake News Networks," on Monday morning as outrage spread. Already the largest owner of local television stations in the country, Sinclair is proposing a $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media's 42 stations.
http://reason.com/blog/2018/04/03/5-things-everyones-getting-wrong-about-s
The 72 percent figure describes the number of households that would have access to Sinclair channels if A) its troubled merger with Tribune Co. is approved by both the Justice Department and the FCC, and B) those approvals come without the government forcing Sinclair to sell off stations, which in turn would only happen if C) the FCC goes through with a proposed UHF/VHF measurement change.
As Atkins writes at the Washington Monthly, "Preserving democracy will require breaking up the monopolistic corporate control of media across all media platforms. Facebook and Google must control far less of our news. Sinclair must be broken up and local news content remanded back to local control. Clear Channel must be broken apart, and a greater variety of voices must be allowed to flourish while AM/FM radio is still a part of people's media diets. The very few corporations that control the vast majority of our news and programming must forced to break apart as well. Only then will a true diversity of voices be born." Don't say you haven't been warned.
If Uncle Grandpa is watching only his Sinclair local, or maybe Sinclair + Fox News, that's his choice in a competitive media market.
S]tation limits do virtually nothing to stop "Media concentration." And, ironically, the very existence of Sinclair as the country's largest TV station group owner is a product, to a very large degree, of just these rules.
Sinclair arises in the niche carved out by the limits imposed by the FCC on broadcast networks.
Little surprise that he tweeted a defense of Sinclair, and an attack on "Fake News Networks," on Monday morning as outrage spread. Already the largest owner of local television stations in the country, Sinclair is proposing a $3.9 billion purchase of Tribune Media's 42 stations.
http://reason.com/blog/2018/04/03/5-things-everyones-getting-wrong-about-s
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