6.10.19 Bee-otch of the Day: Sinclair Broadcast Group

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Name: Sinclair Broadcast Group
Age: 48
Occupation: broadcasting dinosaur
Last Seen: Hunt Valley, MD
Bee-otched For: giving one of their weathermen a cold front
 

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Sadly, in any business, the boss is always right.

Even if he or she is wrong, they're right.

One man, Joe Crain, is learning the hard way about that statement.

He was a meteorologist for WICS-TV in Springfield, Illinois, an ABC-TV affiliate. Last week, he put up a "Code Red" alert, which is designed to warn people about severe weather days ahead of the National Weather Service's warnings. However, many claim that the Code Red alerts are simply a way for WICS and other Sinclair stations to sensationalize its newscasts. Some even joke that stations are forced to put up Code Red alerts even on a cloudy day.

In Crain's case, he was upset that Sinclair brass made him put up a Code Red alert on a newscast last week because there was only a SLIGHT risk of thunderstorms on a Wednesday. On that Monday, Crain told his viewers that the Code Red alerts weren't his idea, but rather Sinclair corporate's. He told viewers that he's heard all the complaints about WICS's Code Red Alerts and he's with them.

Since that broadcast aired, Crain's profile is now off WICS's website. Now, his fans are attacking their Facebook page with their disgust of them firing Crain. Messages include "#freejoecain" and messages about how Sinclair has cheapen local newscasts over the past several years.

Sinclair is one of America's largest broadcasters. Here in west Michigan, they own WWMT-3 (CBS) and CW7. In other parts of the state, they use shell companies to control more than one station in the market, squeaking by the FCC's requirement of companies owning only one station per market depending on market size. They have two stations in Traverse City (WPBN-7&4 (NBC) and WGTU 29&8 (ABC)) and three stations in the Flint area (WEYI 25 (NBC), WBSF CW 46 and WSMH Fox 66). Hell, in the case of WWMT-3, they're licensed to Kalamazoo, but their IDs claim that they're from Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek. In ANY station ID, they can use Grand Rapids and Battle Creek as long as Kalamazoo is mentioned first. Well, what WWMT is doing is a no-no.

Sadly, Sinclair is turning their local newscasts into cookie cutter pieces of shit with must-air mandated segments like the Terror Alert Desk and ultra-right-winged Russian commentator Boris Epshteyn. Some of their stations have even resorted to airing the segments early in the morning when viewership is low.

Now that the controversy regarding Cain is gaining a lot of attention, word has it that advertisers are leaving WICS in droves. So far, four advertisers have pulled their ads from the station and simulcaster WICD-20 in Champaign. Among them include a chain of Ace Hardwares.

Since Reagan killed the Fairness Doctrine in 1987 and the 23 years since Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the overall quality of television and radio journalism has gone down the shitter. Thankfully here in Grand Rapids, we DON'T have to watch WWMT's newscasts since IMHO WOOD-TV does a helluva better job, plus Nexstar doesn't forcefeed right-winged idiocy down their viewers' throats. OK, so Old Man Steffen is a climate change denier, Rick Albin has worked for the Repukes and they do newscasts downtown when fArtPrize is in session, but nobody's perfect. Fox 17 gets a lot of news from Fox News Channel and a lot of the women on WZZM-13 are hambeasts.

Sadly, I feel worse for northern Michigan and the fact that Sinclair owns my childhood NBC affiliate, WPBN 7&4 (NBC) and through a shell company, WGTU ABC 29&8. Over the air, only two full-power stations do newscasts. The other is locally-owned WWTV 9&10 (CBS), although through a (SURPRISE!) shell company, they own WFQX Fox 32. Like 7&4 does for 29&8, 9&10 produces newscasts for Fox 32. Thankfully, there's WMNN "MiNews 26", but their signal's very weak outside of Cadillac.

The point is, instead of making the media better for all of us, the government - both Rs and Ds - have fucked it all up. Instead of real, fair and balanced news, we have stupid Code Red bullshit every time there's a cloud in the sky. In the olden days, if you had a talk radio format, if you aired Rush Limbaugh, Thom Hartmann would have to air afterwards. Now, AM radio is all-Rush 24/7.

But yes, we have a choice. If we don't want right-winged shit on our TVs, we can always boycott their sponsors. Same goes with all of Sinclair's stations. IIRC, they were close to bankruptcy many years ago.

Let it happen again.

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