NYTimes.com "Pick" Comment

The Sinclair Sneak Attack

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How a Conservative TV Giant Is Ridding Itself of Regulation

By CECILIA KANG, ERIC LIPTON and SYDNEY EMBER 


... Thence a story on how the Sinclair Media giant is becoming gianter. (More giantly?) It's the right-wing local TV version of Fox News. It is growing into a monster, due of course to Trumpian deregulation which allows greater and greater media consolidation, something I fear and loathe for the reasons below.



This "comment" was the "most liked" and a "Pick" by the comment moderator. 




                                                                                    Number 1 and a Pick**

will duff

 Tijeras, NM 5 hours ago

Once, local TV news operations were profoundly important players in their cities. The regulatory environment encouraged them to be independent journalists who kept the local governments' feet to the fire with in-depth investigations. Stations proudly supported their local news and strived mightily to outdo their competitors. Opinion and partisanship were tightly coralled into editorials and labeled commentary segments. Slanting a news story ideologically was a firing offense.
Now cities are "markets," and news departments are "profit centers" with far fewer journalists and a greatly reduced watchdog ethos. The idea that the airwaves belong to the public has faded dramatically and service to communities is only valuable if it is also service to the bottom line. Certainly there are fine local news operations still, but this trend of deregulation on all fronts will continue to deprive us - the public - of a unique democratic channel of truth and accountability about local and state governments and businesses we once had.

     

TV news is a biz I once consulted, so I'm just bubbling with opinions on
the subject.




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