On Thursday, consumer watchdog group Allied Progress announced they will be purchasing ads on several Sinclair stations around the U.S. to call out the media giant for forcing local stations, including KOMO in Seattle, to air pro-Trump talking points.
The ad also asks viewers concerned about Sinclair’s increasing stranglehold on local media to call the FCC and demand they not approve Sinclair’s nearly $4 billion bid to buy the Tribune Media Company. If approved, this would give Sinclair, an arch conservative, multi-billion dollar corporation with a clear partisan agenda, access to over 70 percent of American households via the public airwaves—airwaves Sinclair does not pay to rent.
“We’re running these ads to ensure Sinclair’s local viewers know the company’s politically motivated owners are forcing the anchors they trust to advance a partisan agenda that has nothing to do with news and everything to do with politics,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress. “It is important that every American understand this is only the beginning.”
Although Sinclair recently made national headlines for requiring local news stations to air pro-Trump messages without rebuttal, this is hardly new for the company. In the aftermath of 9/11, for instance, they required on-air employees, including weather forecasters, to vocalize support for the “War on Terror.”
The one-week buy begins Friday. Watch it here:
