WOAI anchor Delaine Mathieu on Sinclair promos: ‘This was awful’

Delaine Mathieu, WOAI anchorwoman, wrote on Facebook that she and Randy Beamer had no choice but to voice Sinclair-mandated promos if they wanted to keep their jobs. Delaine Mathieu, WOAI anchorwoman, wrote on Facebook that she and Randy Beamer had no choice but to voice Sinclair-mandated promos if they wanted to keep their jobs. Photo: WOAI /Courtesy Delaine Mathieu Photo: WOAI /Courtesy Delaine Mathieu Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close WOAI anchor Delaine Mathieu on Sinclair promos: ‘This was awful’ 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

WOAI anchorwoman Delaine Mathieu wrote on Facebook Tuesday that it was “awful” having to deliver promos mandated by parent company Sinclair Broadcast Group that seemed to echo the views of President Trump.

However, she and chief anchorman Randy Beamer had no choice, she added, if they wanted to keep their jobs.

“Trust me, this was awful,” Mathieu wrote in response to a critic on Facebook. “We had several closed-door meetings and even had to re-record our version because we looked so mortified in the first cut.

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“But we gathered our composure and did our job knowing this would happen,” she added. “It sucks. It just does. You will make your judgment and I can’t change that. But I wish you well!”

Her reaction was prompted by a post Tuesday by San Antonio resident Lola Crane, in which she shared a story that ran in the San Antonio Express-News about an anti-fake news Sinclair script that dozens of anchors across the country - including those on WOAI and KABB here - were obliged to read on the air.

“I used to think Randy Beamer was pretty cool, not anymore. Not an ounce of integrity, turns out he’s just a puppet,” Crane wrote. “You too Delaine Mathieu. Shame on you News 4 San Antonio!”

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“Yeah, shame on us for wanting to keep our jobs so that we could continue to support our families,” Mathieu fired back. “This wasn’t a choice nor a script that we wrote.”

The script she referred to has been read on the air by anchors across the country — including Beamer and Mathieu on WOAI and Jessica Headley and Ryan Wolf on KABB — on stations owned by Sinclair, one of the nation’s biggest broadcasters.

In the promos, the newscasters decry “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country” before warning that this is “extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

An outcry followed with media and academics denouncing the mandated promos. It intensified when the website Deadspin posted a supercut video that showed more than 30 anchors and anchor teams reciting the promo at the same time.

Texas State University professor Tim England, for instance, called it “a dark day in broadcast journalism.”

On the Facebook thread, posters seemed to agree, condemning the practice and Mathieu and Beamer along with it. .

“Sinclair Broadcast Group,” Crane wrote, “made you all look like fools and propaganda tools.”

“My point exactly,” Mathieu responded. “Blame the ones who put us in this impossible situation.”

More criticism followed — one poster, Beth Goethe, even called for the anchors’ resignations.

“You always have a choice. It makes me wonder what else you would do to ‘keep’ your job," Goethe wrote. “I have 2 words for you and Randy: Get. Out.”

“That’s an unbelievable statement to make,” Mathieu replied. “Give me a break. I’m not going anywhere.”

The anchorwoman’s final words on the matter, however, weren’t a defense of her actions, but a compliment for her WOAI colleague: “And for the record, Beamer is still pretty damn cool.”

Contacted by text today about the Facebook exchange, Mathieu declined to comment except to underscore my assertion that it sounded like “an awful situation” for the anchors.

“Yep,” she replied.