(VitalNews.org) – One of the largest owners of United States television services, Sinclair, is pushing the conservative movement by using trusted local news channels to spread disinformation. Media analysts have said that the company used their channels to manipulate a video of Joe Biden and spread disinformation.
The company has a national news show that produces stories, which are then distributed to their other stations, but they are often at the expense of local news coverage. Journalism is on a heavy decline and these types of behaviors from media companies can have detrimental effects on the upcoming election.
Journalist Anne Nelson, also the author of Shadow Network: Media, Money, and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right, spoke out about the effects of spreading news in this way. “When you stress a story the way Sinclair does, say on immigration, and you don’t look at the numbers and you don’t reflect on what has been going on, that is different than a news story. That is a political talking point,” Nelson said.
Sinclair owns and operates over one hundred and eighty stations in eighty-six markets. It’s been noticed that when the company buys a station, the coverage of national politics on it increases.
The company has been scrutinized for having news anchors on two hundred stations read a script that would warn people of “fake news.” The company said, “We’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.”
The distribution of stories to TV news stations has occurred in previous election cycles, and it could skew the view of those watching. Older generations are often the ones watching the news on television, which means they are seeing the Sinclair reports.
Josh McCrain, co-author of the report on Sinclair, said, “We have these older Americans who tend to also be the ones most likely to vote, the ones most politically active, and they are now being exposed to this very partisan coverage of political events.”
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