CLEVELAND, Ohio - No television station in the Cleveland market has been bought and sold more than WJW Channel 8. There have been eight different owners since 1985.

Despite that volatility at the ownership level, the station's executives always have enjoyed a great degree of autonomy and ratings success when it comes to local news content. The daunting question hanging over Cleveland's Fox affiliate is whether all that will change when WJW gets yet another new owner, the Sinclair Broadcast Group.

WJW is one of 43 Tribune Broadcasting stations being sold to Sinclair, a Baltimore-based media giant that already owns 173 stations. FCC approval is not expected to be an issue, and the sale should be finalized at the end of the year or in early 2018.

The purchase of the Tribune stations has put Sinclair's practices and perceived political slant in the glare of a national spotlight, touching off a debate that is echoing in the hallways of Channel 8. This debate spans everything from corporate control of local news content to the dangers of massive media consolidation.

Comedian and political commentator John Oliver used the July 2 edition of his HBO show, "Last Week Tonight," to go after Sinclair, accusing the company of an extreme conservative bias. His 18-minute segment included several examples of what he believed was proof that Sinclair injects hard-right views into local news broadcasts.

Among the practices Oliver found most troubling were the must-run editorials that Sinclair mandates its stations air during local newscasts. Some of these are delivered by conservative commentator Mark Hyman. Others, the "Bottom Line With Boris" segments, are by former Donald Trump campaign and White House official Boris Epshteyn.

Although under increased scrutiny because of these so-called must-runs, Sinclair recently announced it was tripling the number of these editorials being sent to stations each week, from three to nine.

Is this cause for concern at Channel 8, which holds ratings leads in most time periods where it schedules local news? Station executives declined to comment, as did Gary Weitman, senior vice president for corporate media at Tribune Media.

Others, however, are weighing in on what to expect when Channel 8 officially moves from Tribune ownership to Sinclair.

"They may leave them alone on day-to-day operation of the station, if the station is profitable, but they're not going to leave them alone on politics," Baltimore Sun TV critic David Zurawik said. "They're not just political. They're kind of in-your-face about being political. They have a history of engagement in Republican and right-wing politics, and I think there's a real danger of politics being injected into local newscasts."

It was announced in May that Sinclair would acquire the Tribune stations for $3.9 billion, along with the assumption of $2.7 billion in debt. When all proposed sales go through, Sinclair should end up with more than 230 stations. It will be, by far, the largest television operator in terms of total coverage.

Sinclair announced the hiring of Epshteyn as the company's chief political analyst in April. "Over a year ago, we made a commitment to provide additional political content that goes beyond the podium to provide a true point of difference with additional context," Scott Livingston, Sinclair's vice president of news, said in a statement released at the time.

In one recent "Bottom Line With Boris" commentary, Epshteyn criticized states declining to cooperate with President Trump's commission on voter fraud. In another commentary, he said that former FBI director James Comey's testimony was far more damaging to the president's critics than the president. In another, he called for Republicans to "pass something, anything" that leads to "a true repeal and replace of Obamacare."

In yet another, Epshteyn supported the president's phasing out of televised press conferences, saying that press briefings had "devolved into a circus and a distraction." For this, he blamed the press: "From the very start of the Trump presidency, the press briefings have veered way off course. They have become much more theater than information gathering; theater in which, frankly, the press has often played the leading role."

Zurawik, who has appeared on both CNN's 'Reliable Sources" and Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor, writes about the business and culture of television for the Baltimore Sun. He has been monitoring the Sinclair acquisitions and Epshteyn's editorials.

"I hope that they will use this clout of all of these stations to do better journalism and not yield to the temptation of becoming more political," Zurawik said. "But just when I express this hope, they triple down on Boris. And from what I've seen, this guy just mouths the Trump White House line. This is going to be a big media structure with many stations in battleground states going into the midterm elections."

Victor Pickard, author and assistant professor in the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, agrees: "There is a well-established record of Sinclair slanting hard right in editorializing and aggressively pressuring stations to run pre-packaged, must-run content. There are legitimate concerns about this affecting local content, and, given Sinclair's policies and practices, I think it is troubling."

One Sinclair station, KOMO in Seattle, pushed back against the must-run content by airing it in the early morning hours. Oliver praised the station for being "engaged in clever acts of rebellion."

In several public statements over the last year, Sinclair executives have denied a conservative bias, saying they only seem to lean right because most news outlets lean to the left. "We are proud to offer a range of perspectives, both conservative and liberal," Livingston said in an internal memo sent to news directors this month.

Sinclair already has a major TV presence in Ohio, owning stations in Columbus (WSYX), Cincinnati (WKRC), Dayton (WKEF), Steubenville (WTOV) and Toledo (WNWO).

Pickard, who studies media and corporate institutions, views the Sinclair acquisition of the Tribune stations with alarm for another reason.

"I think it's another sign of extreme media consolidation," he said. "There's a lot of pro-industry agenda in Washington right now, and that's enabling this kind of concentration. For democracy, there is no upside to this kind of concentration. Media monopolies are not good for democracy, and you're seeing further erosion of the safeguards that prevented that."

Sinclair executives declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story. The company did send a statement to be attributed to a Sinclair spokesperson: "Sinclair is committed to bringing compelling news, entertainment and sports content to our viewers across the country. We take pride in delivering news that viewers can trust, that empowers and informs. . . . The Tribune stations will complement the existing Sinclair stations and continue to deliver local news that matters to the communities they serve."

"One of the concerns about media consolidation is that it's anti-market," Pickard said. "It doesn't allow for competition. It detracts from diversity and localism. This kind of media consolidation often leads to a loss of local news-gathering. And remember, Donald Trump campaigned on anti-monopoly rhetoric, saying that media monopolies are bad for democracy."

But author, Fordham University professor and media specialist Paul Levinson does not go along with the gloomy predictions.

"I don't really think there's a downside to it," Levinson said. "This is an area where I actually agree with the FCC. If we were still living in the 1950s or even the '80s, then it would be a cause for concern. Most people would be getting their news from TV, radio and newspapers. But the truth is, nowadays people increasingly get their news from a wide range of sources."

Levinson, who has appeared on Fox News and PBS, believes that owning and controlling more than 200 TV stations doesn't deliver the same media clout that it would have in a pre-internet world.

"It's a different world," Levinson said. "Will Sinclair push a political agenda in Cleveland and those other stations? No doubt about it, but so what? If all Sinclair did was broadcast Boris Epshteyn round the clock, there still would be all of these other outlets where you can get the news."

This has left Levinson feeling unconcerned about Sinclair: "They have zero control over the internet or the other stations in Cleveland. So I'm relatively optimistic about what's happening."