Fox 47 tweeted Monday that it didn't air a "promotional announcement" from Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest owner of local TV stations in the US. Instead, the station "stayed true to our commitment to provide our Madison area viewers local news, weather and sports of interest to them."

A TV station in Madison, Wisconsin, said it has refused to air a widely criticized message that its powerful and conservative parent company required local news anchors across the country to read to viewers.

In response to the Sinclair message aired: "WMSN/FOX47 Madison did not air the Sinclair promotional announcement during our 9pm news this weekend. Rather, we stayed true to our commitment to provide our Madison area viewers local news, weather and sports of interest to them." https://t.co/MdQ568cWrH

Neither the station nor Sinclair responded to BuzzFeed News' request for more information, and the circumstances and extent of the station's refusal to air the message remained unclear Monday.

However, the tweet appears to refer to a controversial message about fake news that local news anchors at numerous Sinclair-owned stations read on air in recent days. In the script, anchors around the country state that they are "concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible stories plaguing our country."

"The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media," the message continues. "More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories."

The message mirrors President Trump's oft-voiced claim that the media pushes "fake news." And last month CNN reported that some local journalists were uncomfortable with the message, which Sinclair reportedly wanted broadcast "to create maximum reach and frequency."

Over the weekend, Deadspin compiled videos showing dozens of anchors reading the message. Many prominent journalists have criticized the message, with NPR's David Folkenflik referring to it as "anti-media propaganda" and Politico's Jack Shafer describing it as "more than a little hypocritical."

On Monday, however, Trump jumped in to defend Sinclair, tweeting that the company is "far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke."