Sinclair Chairman David Smith Responds to Promo Criticism

By Stephanie Tsoflias Siegel 

Sinclair Broadcast Group chairman, David Smith, is shutting down critics of the company’s so-called “corporate news journalistic responsibility promotional campaign.”

In an email exchange with The New York Times, Smith responded to widespread scrutiny of the must-runs after a viral video showed dozens of anchors reading the exact same script.

“Not that you would print it, but do you understand that every local TV station is required to ‘must run’ from its network their content, and they don’t own me. That would be all their news programming and other shows such as late-night talk, which is just late-night political so-called comedy.”

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The segment warned viewers to be aware of “one-sided news stories,” and accused “some media outlets” of publishing “fake stories without checking facts first.”

“You cant be serious!” he wrote in the email to The Times about the criticism of the promo. “Do you understand that as a practical matter every word that comes out of the mouths of network news people is scripted and approved by someone?”

You can read the full story here.

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