6.2.20 Bee-otches of the Day: Sinclair Broadcast Group and WWMT-TV Kalamazoo

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Name: Sinclair Broadcast Group
Age: 49
Occupation: right-winged broadcaster
Last Seen: Hunt Valley, MD
Bee-otched For: being AWOL in Grnd Rapids                                                              

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Here in west Michigan, we're the most-news-friendly TV market in the state. 

Let's face it: Detroit's CBS O&O, WWJ-TV 62 doesn't even have its own news department. The only original news broadcasts in the Motor City come from FOX-O&O WJBK-2, Graham Media NBC WDIV-4 and Scripps ABC WXYZ-7. Here in Grand Rapids, we have Sinclair CBS WWMT-3, Nexstar NBC WOOD-TV 8, TEGNA ABC WZZM-13 and Scripps Fox WXMI-17.

When the melee between cops and Black Lives Matter protesters hit downtown Grand Rapids Saturday night, three out of the four big TV stations did their best to cover it. The winner of the evening was WOOD-TV, whose coverage continued well into the early hours of Saturday morning. Despite some technical glitches early on, the NBC station quickly rebounded with their coverage. Weekend anchor/weekday reporter Leon Hendrix was a real rockstar, manning the news desk from 6 p.m. until the wee hours of the morning solo. WZZM 13 and Fox 17 were on most of the night, cutting though network programming. However, they both ended their coverage briefly to show syndicated repeats (Fox 17 showed a Friends rerun) before going back to riot coverage around 2 a.m. or so. 

Needless to say, all the reporters, camera crew and others broadcasting from the battleground deserve multiple pats on the back for risking life and limb during the altercation. As a matter of fact, a cameraman for WOOD-TV was attacked by somebody for destroying an ATM. Nonetheless, these reporters hustled to dodge pepper bullets and tear gas. 

But sometimes when Rome burns, Nero plays the fiddle.

Of west Michigan's big four stations, only WWMT was absent. They were the only news station in west Michigan not to break into network programming. Instead, they simply saved everything for their 10 p.m. newscast on the CW 7 subchannel and 11 p.m. news on NewsChannel 3. Instead, the station aired a 48 Hours repeat. After the 11 p.m. news, it was Ring of Honor wrestling, mandated from their parent company, Sinclair.

On Monday night when protesters in downtown Grand Rapids were out past curfew, 8, 13 and 17 showed the line of cops running and arresting them. WWMT, on the other hand was showing a year-old episode of Wheel of Fortune. Instead of allowing their viewers to see history tragically unfold, they felt that it was more important to show a program on repeats due to COVID-19.

So while 8, 13 and 17 were doing their duty of informing the public about the destruction going on downtown, 3 felt it was more important to show unimportant network reruns and subpar wrestling. Funny how they call themselves "NewsChannel 3" and they don't put news first. Yes, stay classy, guys.

But, what do you expect from a station that's owned by Sinclair?

Yes, WWMT is the second-oldest TV station in west Michigan and they have the worst owner. By default, they have the most-biased newscasts because of the must-air stories their parent company force them to air, like Boris Epshteyn's bullshit commentaries and the so-called Terrorism Alert Desk. Also on Sunday mornings, the last half-hour of Face the Nation is moved over to CW 7 so they can show another Sinclair must-air, Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.

So, why didn't WWMT break into programming to show their footage of the riots? Is it because they're technically a Kalamazoo station, even though their not-so-legal ID has them saying "Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo/Battle Creek"? Is it because they didn't want their reporters and staff to get hurt? Is it because breaking into riot coverage would mean less ad dollars for the station and their company? 

Well, this is Sinclair we're talking about here. Recently, they were slammed with a colossal FCC fine of $48 million for their botched buyout of Tribune Media. Not only that, I guess Tribune was beyond pissed that their deal fell through and ended up selling most of their company to Nexstar. Here in Grand Rapids, Nexstar already owned WOOD-TV 8 and low-rent Battle Creek ABC outlet WOTV 41. Since Tribune owned WXMI, it would have put Nexstar over their ownership caps for west Michigan. This was why WXMI ended up in the hands of Scripps. 

It's no secret that I'm no fan of Sinclair, a company whose patriarch, David Smith was busted for soliciting prostitutes in the 1990s. The company is known for transforming their local newscasts into shitty knock-offs of Fox News Channel to pander to the MAGAts who soak it up. Thanks to Reagan's elimination of the Fairness Doctrine and Clinton's Telecom 96, there's no real fair and balanced television journalism anymore. Instead, we have cookie cutter bullshit from companies like Sinclair. Not only that, they've created fake companies so they can also own more stations in the same market, like they did in Traverse City and Flint. 

Even when WWMT was owned by their previous owner Freedom Communications, I wasn't a huge fan of them. To me, WOOD-TV was always the lesser of all the news evils, even if they kissed the Devos family's ass and have a climate change denier for their chief meteorologist. I can't stand Juliet Dragos on WZZM 13 and 17 is, well, a Fox affiliate. 

Look, when you're not there for your viewers, people will revolt. In a way, it's like if a tornado touched down and the station simply kept airing regular programming. Downtown Grand Rapids was a disaster area Saturday night and WWMT needed to be there for their viewers. Yes, they're legally a Kalamazoo station first and foremost. But since they are Grand Rapids' de facto CBS affiliate, they need to represent them, too. Shame on them for not being live during the riot. 

Somewhere, John Fetzer is spinning in his grave.

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