Boston Paper Opposes Sinclair-Tribune
Sunday’s Boston Globe argued against the proposed merger on its editorial page. “Anyone who cares about the state of our democracy, then, should care about what’s happening with local television. And that makes right-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group’s bid to acquire Tribune Media’s 42 television stations a matter of urgent concern. An expansion of that size isn’t in the public interest, and federal regulators should move to block it.“
This article was originally posted on bostonglobe.com
Where was the Globe when Comcast/NBC screwed great Boston broadcaster Ed Ansin and WHDH?
Agreed. The Globe should stick to issues that directly affects its own readers. Sinclair has no stations in Massachusetts, only stations in Providence and Albany that reach into Massachusetts. NBC royally screwed Ed Ansin, whose station faithfully broadcast the network for years, but where was the Globe’s objections when the all-mighty NBC decided it wanted to deny him the financial support of the network for his station? Mind your own business, Globe. The workings of television are out of your league, and none of your business.
As one who was in broadcasting for 40 years, I can say the the Globe did the right thing here. At least the Globe is better at presenting differing opinions than Sinclair and their shameless conservative commentaries presented as news. And by the way, Ed Ansin seems to be doing very well in the ratings, without NBC, “Thank You”. In fact, his newscasts are doing better than NBC’s local newscasts. So I would say, Ed Ansing won that battle, so in the end, he turned the tables on getting screwed. Also, the Comcast/ NBC merger did not involve a Sinclair type partner with a shameless very public conservative agenda, with no where near as many stations involved. Sinclair is a cancer on TV ownership which will eventually fold into bankruptcy from its own greed. What they are trying to duplicate, is the too big to fail concept that served the insurance and banking businesses so well. Once they own so many of these properties, the investors (Sinclair hopes) will find Sinclair is too big to fail. What they don’t get is that broadcasting is not the banking industry. There will be no such thing as too big to fail when the public has moved on to other forms of digital communications, regardless of broadcasters technological and marketing advancements. Sinclair’s continued viability depends on their ability to swallow things up. When that’s over, they are done!
That’s odd; the Globe was also silent when Comcast & NBC joining in the liberal/progressive/leftist marriage of the century. Guess they only care about Democracy when non-liberals are involved. Typical.
As soon as the Boston Globe mentioned that Sinclair is “right-leaning” their entire argument collapsed. I highly doubt we would have heard a peep of complaint from them had Sinclair shared CNN’s left-leaning politics. As it is, most of Sinclair’s stations are affiliates of CBS, NBC and ABC and we know which way those networks lean. The Globe’s ‘diversity of viewpoint’ argument is bogus.
Roger T. is on target IMO. Boston Globe is looking for their 15 minutes and it appears that the media made up of mostly left leaning liberals is so afraid that a real or perceived right leaning company could compete in reporting the facts to the viewers. Where was the uproar for NBC/Comcast?
Here’s the most important question that will lead to the real reason for this oddly placed piece on Sinclair.
No one has asked it or answered it in the stories I have seen.
What is John Henry’s position on Sinclair?
What properties or businesses does he own that compete with Sinclair?
Find that out and you’ll understand the origin of this piece.