SINCLAIR AND THE PUBLIC AIRWAVES: A HISTORY OF ABUSE

Found on sinclairwatch.org: Sinclair and the Public Airwaves: A History of Abuse -- the whole thing is a .pdf and can be downloaded from the site, but here's the summary:

Key Findings. This report presents a compendium of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s worst excesses, including:

• Replacement of local news coverage with prerecorded, ‘centralized’ programming. Entire segments of‘local’ news are actually produced at Sinclair’s “News Central” in suburban Maryland and then rebroadcast at local affiliates across the country. The practice, designed as a cost-cutting measure, has resulted in the loss of local voices across the country, less resources for genuine local reporting, and staff cuts.

• Use of privileged access to the public airwaves to promote its own agenda. Sinclair has a record of using its access to scarce public airwaves to support Republican viewpoints at the cost of serving the public interest. Sinclair’s near-exclusive support for the GOP has coincided with consistent Republican leadership support for media regulatory policies that would bolster Sinclair’s bottomline, largely by allowing the purchase of additional local television stations in markets which Sinclair has approached (or surpassed) present ownership limits.

• Engaging in ethically and legally questionable practices in order to expand market holdings. Sinclair's drive to expand its media empire is enabled by the maintenance of an outdated regulatory loophole, the “UHF Discount”, which is no longer sound policy. Additionally, Sinclair maintains a suspicious relationship with another company, Cunningham Broadcast, which enables Sinclair to control the programming of more stations than is presently permissible in several markets.