{"id":17505,"date":"2018-04-01T16:00:08","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T21:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=17505"},"modified":"2018-04-01T16:39:57","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T21:39:57","slug":"chilling-video-shows-wgns-future-owner-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/04\/01\/chilling-video-shows-wgns-future-owner-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Chilling video shows WGN\u2019s future owner in action"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hWLjYJ4BzvI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>For a frightening glimpse into what may be in store for \u201cChicago\u2019s Very Own\u201d WGN-Channel 9 and WGN AM 720, look no further than to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hWLjYJ4BzvI&amp;sns=tw\">chilling video montage<\/a> that went viral over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Posted by <a href=\"https:\/\/theconcourse.deadspin.com\/how-americas-largest-local-tv-owner-turned-its-news-anc-1824233490\">Deadspin, <\/a>the video shows anchors from local stations owned by Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group reading a message that supports President Donald Trump\u2019s attacks on the news media. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hWLjYJ4BzvI&amp;sns=tw\">Here is the link.<\/a>) All Sinclair stations were required to deliver the message exactly as scripted by the company.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17507\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/04\/01\/chilling-video-shows-wgns-future-owner-action\/\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17507\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-17507\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-150x150.jpg 150w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-300x300.jpg 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-768x768.jpg 768w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-500x500.jpg 500w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-400x400.jpg 400w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-800x800.jpg 800w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-200x200.jpg 200w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-57x57.jpg 57w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-72x72.jpg 72w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-114x114.jpg 114w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo-144x144.jpg 144w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Sinclair-logo.jpg 1071w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-17507\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/a> Sinclair Broadcast Group<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sinclair, already the largest TV station company in the country, plans to acquire Tribune Media, Chicago-based parent company of WGN and stations in more than 40 other cities. If approved, the $3.9 billion deal would put Sinclair into 72 percent of all U.S. households.<\/p>\n<p>To comply with federal regulations, Sinclair has said it would divest ownership of WGN. But it would retain control over the station\u2019s operation under a \u201cshared services agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Critics have raised concerns about the concentration of media ownership under Sinclair and about how it uses the news departments of its local stations to advance pro-Trump propaganda. CNN revealed the latest example last month when it <a href=\"http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/2018\/03\/07\/media\/sinclair-broadcasting-promos-media-bashing\/index.html\">broke news<\/a> of the media-bashing promos mandated to run on all of its stations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Here are key excerpts from the script:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe\u2019re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cMore alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories \u2014 stories that just aren\u2019t true, without checking facts first.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cUnfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control \u2018exactly what people think.\u2019 This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe net result of the company\u2019s current mandate is dozens upon dozens of local news anchors looking like hostages in proof-of-life videos, trying their hardest to spit out words attacking the industry they\u2019d chosen as a life vocation,\u201d Deadspin<a href=\"https:\/\/theconcourse.deadspin.com\/how-americas-largest-local-tv-owner-turned-its-news-anc-1824233490\"> reported.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The specter of Sinclair taking over WGN comes as the station plans to commemorate its<a href=\"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/2018\/03\/23\/robservations-chicagos-wgn-celebrate-70-years-tv\/\"> 70th anniversary<\/a> Thursday with a one-hour primetime special, \u201cWGN-TV: 70 Years as Chicago\u2019s Very Own.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a frightening glimpse into what may be in store for \u201cChicago\u2019s Very Own\u201d WGN-Channel 9 and WGN AM 720, look no further than to a chilling video montage that went viral over the weekend. Posted by Deadspin, the video shows anchors from local stations owned by Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group reading a message that... <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/04\/01\/chilling-video-shows-wgns-future-owner-action\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&#8594;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17505"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17505"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17513,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17505\/revisions\/17513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}