April 2, 2018
…asks Democrat candidates nationwide to boycott Sinclair
Democratic Congressional candidate Amy McGrath, a retired U.S. Marine Lieutenant Colonel who is running in Kentucky’s sixth district, pulled all campaign ads from a local television station owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group, and is now calling on all Democratic candidates nationwide to do so as well.
McGrath’s actions were fueled by the recent revelation that Sinclair forced dozens of local news anchors at its stations to recite a script warning viewers about fake news and accusing other members of the new media of using “their platforms to push their own personal bias,” Jacey Fortin and Jonah Engel Bromwich report for The New York Times.
Sinclair, the nation’s largest owner of television stations, has been criticized in the past for asking its stations’ news directors to donate to its conservative political action committee and forcing local stations to run pro-Trump content.
“Sinclair’s corporate-mandated ‘must-read’ right-wing script on its nearly 200 television stations about ‘fake news’ is itself an extreme danger to our Democracy and eerily mimics the propaganda efforts that authoritarian regimes often use to control the media in their own country,” McGrath said in a press release. “I call on all Democratic candidates across the country to take a firm stand against this frightening development to our Democracy and refuse to buy advertising time on all Sinclair-owned television stations. Through the power of a boycott, and how we use our supporters’ contributions, we can stand up to this threat to our independent media and send a firm message that these actions will not be tolerated in a nation where the freedom of the press is vital.”
Written by Heather Chapman Posted at 4/02/2018
