Tag Archives: Consolidated Media

In ‘Tremendous Victory for the Public,’ Federal Appeals Court Quashes FCC Attempt to Weaken Media Ownership Rules

“The FCC must now do the job it’s long refused to do: properly weigh all of the evidence showing the impact of media consolidation on local communities.”

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 9-23-2019

FCC chairman Ajit Pai, seen here at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/flickr/cc)

Public interest groups celebrated Monday after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit quashed an effort by the Republican-led Federal Communications Commission to relax local media ownership rules.

“Today’s ruling is a tremendous victory for the public,” Free Press vice president of strategy and senior counsel Jessica J. González said in a statement. “It admonishes the Trump FCC for its complete failure to consider the impact of its ownership policies on women and people of color.” Continue reading

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‘The Pressure Is Working’: Watchdogs Welcome FCC’s ‘Serious Concerns’ With Sinclair-Tribune Merger

Chairman Ajit Pai introduced an order that would require the merger applicants to participate in an administrative review process often seen as a “deal-killer”

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-16-2018

“The pressure is working!” declared the advocacy group Free Press, a critic of media consolidation, in response to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai’s remarks on Monday that he has “serious concerns” about right-wing Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed $3.9 billion merger with Tribune Media.


Continue reading

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Sinclair Broadcasting Airs Allied Progress Ad – Between Attacks on the Group

Sinclair: “We hope you won’t buy into the hysteria and hype.”

By CommonDreams. Published 4-8-2018

Sinclair Broadcast Group has agreed to air a commercial from a progressive watchdog that’s critical of the broadcaster’s actions.

But Allied Progress called foul Sunday.

Sinclair began running the 30-second spot with a 15-second defense of Sinclair, followed by the Allied Progress 30-second ad, and then another 15-second of Sinclair’s voiceover: “The misleading ad you just saw focused on a brief promotional message that simply said we’re a source for truthful news. It ignored thousands of hours of local news we produce each year to keep you informed. The ad was purchased by a group known for its liberal bias, and we hope you won’t buy into the hysteria and hype.” Continue reading

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‘Classic Propaganda’: Sinclair Broadcasting Pushes Aside Fox News to Become ‘Trump TV’

“It’s unheard of to have one company pushing one specific agenda reaching so many people and doing it in a way designed to evade local input”

By Common Dreams. Published 7-30-2017

The Sinclair Broadcasting cut a biased deal with Jared Kushner and the Trump campaign. Now the Trump FCC is paying back the favor. (screenshot)

During the 2016 Presidential campaign, the Sinclair Broadcasting group cut a deal with Jared Kushner for “good” coverage of the Trump Administration, which seems to have paid off.

Politico reported last December:

  Sinclair would broadcast their Trump interviews across the country without    commentary,  Kushner said. Kushner highlighted that Sinclair, in states like Ohio,  reaches a much wider audience — around 250,000 viewers[sic]— than networks like  CNN, which reach somewhere around 30,000. Continue reading

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Massive Corporate Consolidation of Local News Underway

By Anti-Media Staff. Published 5-12-2017 by The Anti-Media

Image: LittleRoughRhinestone [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In a deal that will allow one broadcasting company to reach 72 percent of U.S. households through ownership of local news stations, it was reported this week that Sinclair Broadcast Group is buying Tribune Media for nearly $4 billion.

Such a move wouldn’t have been possible a few weeks back, but Donald Trump’s new Federal Trade Commission (FCC) chairman, Ajit Pai, just began implementing sweeping changes to previously established media ownership rules. Bloomberg explains: Continue reading

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Is the news black and white or yellow and read?

On Monday evening, the New York Times ran a story claiming that Hillary Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record..

Brian Williams. Photo by David Shankbone (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Brian Williams. Photo by David Shankbone (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The story was treated as breaking news on the cable news networks, with the pundits wringing their hands and talking in whispered tones about the possible violation of federal law by the person commonly seen as the Democratic front runner for the 2016 presidential nomination. The story went viral on social media as well, with all the misinformed commentary you would expect.

Something didn’t seem right to us about the story, though. Due to the hyper-polarization of US politics these days, we’ve seen the House of Representatives conduct numerous investigations of the Obama administration and their actions on September 11, 2012 and the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. We would think that this fact would have logically come up during the investigations, and, if there was anything illegal about it, that it would have been splashed all over the papers before now. So, what’s the real story? Continue reading

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If they wanted our opinion, they’d give it to us!

Image by Charles Atkeison (Flickr: CNN Atlanta Newsroom) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Image by Charles Atkeison (Flickr: CNN Atlanta Newsroom) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Did you know…

…Congress recently passed financial reform regulations written by CitiGroup?

…That one of America’s current ongoing oil spills has leaked thousands of barrels into an Arkansas community and there is no end in sight?

…Is a game-changing birth control injection and HIV inhibitor being blocked for testing in the US, perhaps by the very pharmaceutical companies who would lose profits from current medications if it were approved?

There’s a lot more our media has not covered, or covered up – for very good reason.

In 1983, over 50 companies owned 90% of news outlets in the United States. The populace had choices and enjoyed being well informed, if they chose to, about issues that would affect their lives. In 2014, the media in our country is controlled by only six corporations, all of which have a vested interest to serve their largest source of revenue, their advertisers.

As a population, we barely read newspapers any more. We get our news from the same place we get our sports and entertainment; the television. Since these media sources are all conglomerated, we no longer receive unbiased, balanced and relevant news. Our agenda is decided, the stories are hand-picked and the journalists who attempt to disrupt this arrangement quickly join the unemployed ranks they just reported on last week.

Current trends in getting real, uncensored news is through internet research from credible sources. Claiming copyright and intellectual property protection, international agreements such as TPP and TTIP devote entire chapters to how this freedom of information needs to be limited to corporate control. Is it any wonder these stories are not covered in your evening news?

Get informed. Stay informed. Help others become informed!

For a list of the top 25 US headlines most people didn’t hear about in 2012/1013, click here!

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