Sinclair called out

[sinklair]

A bad weekend for Sinclair…

At the White House Correspondents Dinner, the keynote comic took the Corporate Death Star to task for its cuts of local newscasts, layoffs at local newsrooms like 25-66, bad pay and the fact that fat cat owners like David Smith and CEO Chris the Ripper haven’t cut their pay.

Comments are at about 22:00 mark in the following CSPAN video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_contin ... e=emb_logo

[sinklair]

Of course you won’t hear about those criticisms on 25-66’s newscasts — AKA The National Desk.

[sinklair]

And WEYI “owner” Armstrong Williams attended the dinner… silence from him too on layoffs at “his” station.

[SBaxley]

From TV news check
Here are the five Sinclair stations who just found their news departments mothballed

WNWO Toledo, Ohio; KTVL Medford, Ore.;* KPTM Omaha, Neb.; *WGFL Gainesville, Fla.; and KPTH Sioux City, Iowa, I habe a feeling that list will grow

*It should be noted that WGFLs newscasts are produced out of Sinclair's West Palm Beach, Florida sister CBS station WPEC TV, And KPTM TVs newscasts are done by Sinclair's Fresno,California Fox affiliate KMPH TV

[sinklair]

Sinclair’s contention that the National Desk broadcasts are a suitable replacement for local newscasts is flat out lying. If there is a major storm, a local election, a scandal at city hall, another Flint Water Crisis, etc. Sinclair will have no local journalists in these markets. You can’t cover news without journalists on the ground asking questions, shooting video, doing live shots.

[Plate Cap]

As I said on another post in another forum:

The writing is on the wall, and the smart ones are getting out now.

"Kids" (whatever that is....under 35?) just ain't watching local news on local stations. They are barely watching the local stations.

You can't run a news department running Medicare Advantage Plan, step-in-bathtub makeovers, and Consumer Cellular spots, which are relevant to most local news watchers. They will be dead soon.

Our opinions mean nothing; this is a maven group. It's like ham radio operators denying the hobby is in trouble. For the real info, check with your nieces, nephews, and perhaps kids.

[sinklair]

Plate Cap: I disagree with your premise. Name a time when young people were ever significant portion of local news viewers. Hint: they have never been. The fact is young people age into news viewership over time.

The fact also is TV broadcast groups are making significant profit margins, largely (or increasingly) driven by digital platforms… which are used by? You guessed it… young people.

Sinclair shutting down newsrooms isn’t a canary in the coal mine for TV news. It’s just an indication of a poorly run station group that overly invested in regional sports networks right before the pandemic… and instead of pivoting, Sinclair instead put its head in the sand and drove the company into the ground.

[organman95]

Sinclair’s contention that the National Desk broadcasts are a suitable replacement for local newscasts is flat out lying. If there is a major storm, a local election, a scandal at city hall, another Flint Water Crisis, etc. Sinclair will have no local journalists in these markets. You can’t cover news without journalists on the ground asking questions, shooting video, doing live shots.

I wonder what the cost:revenue ratio is with TND as opposed to local newscasts.

[Martin Stett]

https://www.mediamatters.org/sinclair-b ... right-wing

TVSpy also reported in March that “Sinclair’s NBC affiliate WEYI and Fox affiliate WSMH in Flint, Michigan, was told that the local morning and weekend evening newscasts on both stations and the weekday 5 p.m. on WEYI are going away. We hear at least some time slots will be replaced by The National Desk.”

[sinklair]

A great article on how Sinclair is lobbying state and federal lawmakers for more money at a time when it’s laying of local journalists… it’s greed knows no end.

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/la ... local-news

It’s also a good look at the failure of the FCC to reign in bad actors like Sinclair and the hedge funds that have focused more on reducing overhead costs and less on their public mandate.

[sinklair]

An interesting conversation about Sinclair from the former head of Graham’s TV Group:
https://tvnewscheck.com/journalism/arti ... newsrooms/

Emily Barr calls out Sinclair for its big lie. It makes the statement that it needs to buy up all these stations so it can use “economies of scale”/efficiencies from shared services agreements (AKA sidecar agreements with Armstrong Williams’ Howard Stirk Holdings WEYI and Cunningham’s WBSF CW46) to provide services especially to smaller markets that it couldn’t do alone. Sinclair has made the argument without these arrangements (which limit the number of competitors in the market), that there would be less news provided. The FCC signs off, going against its own rules, and then Sinclair does the switch and bait… closing newsrooms… exactly what it said the purchases were meant to avoid.

Her perspective on the ineffectiveness of the FCC was also interesting coming from the former head of a broadcasting company. She points out that it could be Congress that ultimately pushes back. It’s also telling that Sinclair is pulling out of providing news in some medium sized markets that are largely Democratic. Flint, Toledo, etc.

[Martin Stett]

It’s also telling that Sinclair is pulling out of providing news in some medium sized markets that are largely Democratic. Flint, Toledo, etc.

Because their newsprop is so ineffectual that only the convinced will tune in--and the skeptics avoid it.