A left-wing net neutrality group and congressional Democrats are trying to stop the formation of a new network that will be more in line with Fox News than CNN.
An anti-consolidation group Free Press is urging supporters to tell the FCC to block the Sinclair-Tribune Merger.
If Sinclair succeeds in the $3.9 billion dollar merger, they would own more than 200 local-TV stations reaching more than 70 percent of the country.
There is a point to be made about monopolies but it only seems to apply when it’s conservatives consolidating. That’s really what the so-called Free Press is afraid of.
The Sinclair family are conservative but they deny tilting news one way or the other.
Sinclair president Chris Ripley said in a B & C interview, “That’s just patently false. We produce over 2,000 hours of news a week, and with Tribune it will be probably over 3,000 hours, and the notion that we are centrally influencing or controlling that is preposterous. Local news doesn’t have a bunch of opinion pieces; it doesn’t tilt one way or another. It’s focused on the nuts and bolts of reporting. We wouldn’t be successful economically if we had a broader political agenda we were trying to push through.”
Two days ago, Politico wrote that Sinclair was courting O’Reilly and Hannity for Sinclair which they denied. Politico reported that their private and public postures are different. [Like Hillary?]
Politico used the usual anonymous source with direct knowledge.
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Speculation is that Sinclair wants to set itself up as a competitor to Fox News.
Sinclair has hurdles to overcome if it wants to take over Fox News space. For instance, one station they are buying – WGN – is an entertainment channel, not news.
They have been accused of approaching both Hannity and O’Reilly but they denied it.
Hannity’s contract allows him to leave with 60 days notice and he’s very angry about his friend and boss Bill Shine being fired. O’Reilly is without a job and might not have a non-compete clause.
O’Reilly has promised to expose those who are behind his ousting and that from now on, when he’s attacked, he’ll likely just take legal action.
We already know who they are behind his ousting – they’re leftists, many of whom are tied to George Soros and David Brock. That was made clear by the NY Times.
When these accusations threatened the network, Fox didn’t do a thing to support their targeted staff and they over-compensated the alleged victims of harassment. There are rumors Fox is moving further left. If Sinclair does set themselves up as competition and gets even one of those hosts, it will give disaffected Fox viewers a place to go.
The problem isn’t consolidation, it’s political. The left has never resisted centralized anything. What is obvious is that their major concern is conservatives and Republicans might pick up viewers and believers. They do not want any voice heard but theirs.
Missoula Independent exposes the bias. They are quite unhappy that FCC commissioner and conservative Ajit Pai was appointed commissioner by President Trump.
The FCC under Pai reinstated a media ownership rule that Democrats say directly paves the way for the Sinclair-Tribune deal. The rule, called a “UHF discount,” lets major broadcasters count certain local television stations at a discount towards the national media ownership cap.
Free Press has asked a federal court to block the UHF discount. It’s ironic they call themselves a “free” press when the government in charge of broadband.
Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, Democrats have demanded a hearing on the acquisition. Sinclair might have to give up some of their smaller stations but they will be acquiring major city networks in exchange.
Democrat Ed Markey and one of the net neutrality leftist groups protested outside the FCC today. They protested “hate” media to include Breitbart, Infowars, Drudge, O’Reilly and Hannity. None of the aforementioned are hate media, but this gives a good example of what is actually going on here.
#NetNeutrality protesters attack O'Reilly and Hannity pic.twitter.com/r1tBCiktr9
— Tanya Tay 🇺🇸 (@GoTTdiva) May 18, 2017
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