New Baltimore Sun owner and Sinclair Broadcast Group Executive Chairman David Smith has been quietly involved in a lawsuit accusing Baltimore City Public Schools of defrauding taxpayers, documents show. Smith has had several discussions with the plaintiffs and their attorneys about the suit and is behind a corporation paying the plaintiff’s legal fees, according to documents obtained by The Baltimore Banner. All the while, Baltimore’s WBFF, Sinclair’s flagship station, has covered the case extensively without disclosing Smith’s role. A WBFF spokesperson said that WBFF reporters and staff did not know of Smith’s involvement in the lawsuit, and that the station will add disclosure to its stories. (Doug Wells/AP)
STIRR, a free, ad-supported OTT streaming service owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, has expanded the content offerings on its STIRR City channels to include locally-produced news specials, beginning with Baltimore is […]
Exclusives
WMAR, WBAL, WBFF, WNUV, WMPT and WMPB are now broadcasting with ATSC 3.0 technology.
Baltimore Files FCC Complaint Against WBFF
The Baltimore State’s Attorney filed the complaint against the Sinclair Fox affiliate, alleging a pattern of coverage of the state’s attorney’s office that is “blatantly slanted, dishonest, misleading, racist, and extremely dangerous.” It also claims the station “appears to be an intentional crusade” against Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby (above), “which given today’s politically charged and divisive environment, is extremely dangerous.” Sinclair defended WBFF’s reporting in a statement.
Openings In News And Marketing
New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a news producer in Memphis, a brand manager in Baltimore and a senior writer/producer in Albuquerque, N.M.
Sinclair promotes the 17-year veteran from sales director to lead its Fox affiliate and oversee services provided to CW affil WNUV.
The veteran journalist joins Sinclair’s Baltimore Fox affiliate from WHDH Boston.
“Project Baltimore” at Sinclair’s Baltimore flagship Fox affiliate WBFF, is a team focusing only on education, a perennial problem in the city’s well-funded but badly underperforming public schools. The Project Baltimore group works in a separate building, isolated from the newsroom, free of daily news obligations.
Sinclair-owned Fox affiliate WBFF Baltimore (DMA 26) has promoted reporter Mary Bubala to main evening news anchor effective Wednesday, Nov. 27. Bubala will co-anchor every evening newscast with current anchor […]
Former WJZ Anchor Mary Bubala Now Reporting For WBFF
Baltimore’s WBFF Earns 5 National Headliner Awards
WBFF Meteorologists OK After Collapsing On Air
WBFF’s New Set Demonstrates ‘Next-Gen’ Thinking
WBFF Sues School System Over Records Request
WBFF To Start Morning News 30 Minutes Earlier
Police Shoot Man In Costume Outside WBFF
A man dressed in an animal costume and wearing what police suspected was an explosive device strode into Baltimore Fox affiliate WBFF Thursday afternoon and, after a standoff, was shot three times by city police officers. The 25-year-old man was in serious condition at a hospital Thursday night. The suspicious device turned out to be chocolate bars, wrapped in foil and attached to wires and a computer circuit board. (WBAL photo)
After a suspected bomber walked out of Sinclair’s Fox affiliate in Baltimore and ignored instructions, police opened fire. Station employee Casey Clark Jr. livestreamed the entire event on Periscope.
WBFF Tops Baltimore Media In Social Activity
In this second installment of a new weekly series, NetNewsCheck and audience intelligence firm Shareablee benchmark the social media activity of local media outlets in Baltimore. This week’s Social Scorecard shows WBFF, Sinclair Broadcasting’s Fox affiliate, leading in social media actions, narrowly topping WRBS-FM. There’s also a breakdown of Baltimore’s top 10 social performers over a six-month period.
WBFF Drops 2 Staffers After Misleading Video Edit
WBFF Apologizes For Misleading Edit
Sinclair’s Baltimore Fox affiliate WBFF apologized Monday night online and on-air for misleadingly editing and airing a video Sunday of a protest march in Washington to make it seem as if protesters were chanting “kill a cop.”
WBFF’s Edited Protest Chant Under Question
Three times since Sunday, Sinclair’s Baltimore Fox affiliate WBFF has played a misleadingly edited clip from last week’s national “Justice for All” March in Washington, D.C., to make it sound like protesters were calling on people to “kill a cop.”
WBFF To Launch 4 P.M. News, Weather Ch.
The Sinclair-owned Baltimore Fox affiliate will launch a 4 p.m. weekday newscast starting Jan. 12, Bill Fanshawe, the station’s general manager, confirmed today. Fanshawe also confirmed that WBFF is going to launch a 24/7 digital weather channel in conjunction with Weather Nation perhaps as soon as next week.
How Local TV, Cable Covered Md. Shootings
All the TV stations in Baltimore say they’re the ones to turn to for breaking news. Coverage of a shooting Saturday morning at the Mall in Columbia that left three dead put those promises to the test in a major way. Not everyone passed.
WBFF Wants WTTG Out Of 3 Md. Counties
Sinclair-owned WBFF, Baltimore’s Fox affiliate, wants the signal from WTTG, Washington’s Fox O&O, out of Maryland’s Anne Arundel, Howard and Harford counties and has petitioned the FCC over the matter. Now Laura Neuman, Anne Arundel county executive, wants WTTG’s signal to stay, at least in her county, and has asked the commission to deny WBFF’s request.
WBFF To Launch Weekend Morning News
Sinclair’s Baltimore Fox affiliate is planning to launch weekend morning news programs starting Jan. 20. The news programs will air from 6 to 8 a.m. Saturdays and 7-9 a.m. and 10-11 on Sundays.
The early news in Charm City is going to get more competitive starting April 9 when Sinclair’s Fox affiliate introduces a newscast at 5 p.m. anchored by the station’s first-string team of Jeff Barnd and Jennifer Gilbert.
Baltimore TVs Mobilize To Stalk Digital Lead
In Charm City, the only daily paper, The Baltimore Sun — which went behind a paywall in October — rules the roost, but Baltimore’s TV stations are taking some bold strides on the mobile front in an effort to draw bigger audiences and change the digital media pecking order.
