If you haven't heard of it yet, Sinclair Broadcast Group is a media company that owns hundreds of local TV stations across the United States. By some estimates, it's able to reach 70 percent of American households. While there's nothing inherently wrong with owning hundreds of local stations, things do get morally questionable when it comes to how Sinclair approaches editorial control. Ideally, the news department of a TV station, be it local or one of the big national cable channels, would have editorial freedom from the channel's ownership. This is obviously not always the case (see News, Fox), but it's the goal. This freedom allows journalists to follow stories without fear that they might run afoul of a rich boss's financial interest or personal political grudges or what have you.

That is decidedly not what's happening at Sinclair broadcasting. In fact, just the opposite. Sinclair is taking newscasts that previously dealt in local news and politics and is now forcing heavily partisan, conservative opinions on national issues down every single station's throat. And now one local news station's workers are complaining to their union.

WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, has been broadcasting local news for over 60 years, but just since Sinclair bought the station, some of its local coverage has begun to be squeezed out in favor of far-right opinion segments produced by the Sinclair mothership. The three segments that have caused particular controversy, according to a complaint from Electrical Workers Local 1228 (the union that represents station employees):

‒ The Terrorism Alert Desk, advertised as a daily news update about terrorist activity. ‒ News pieces from [Boris] Epshteyn, Sinclair’s chief political analyst. ‒ A clearly labeled opinion show featuring Mark Hyman, a former vice president of the company.

It should be noted that Boris Epshteyn was the communications director for Donald Trump's inaugural team, so that should give you an idea of what we're dealing with here. One way to describe it would be gross, but another would be "attempted indoctrination." The thinking seems to be, "Well, we already have the people who watch Fox, but maybe this way we could sway some people who don't make the conscious choice to want to see conservative political coverage." It's as if they want to sneak some right-wing talking points in the background while the family is waiting to see if their kids get a snow day from school. Not only is that despicable, but it's terrifying. So next time you turn on your local news and they tell you about a water-skiing squirrel who came to town, don't be shocked if it's followed up with someone telling you why Mexicans need to "get out of our country."

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