Trump TV is alive and well and coming soon to a local station near you.

Courtesy of Press Herald:  

In the midst of the local news, a taped commentary from President Trump’s former special assistant Boris Epshteyn appeared on the screen, trumpeting the administration’s position with what he thought selective use and abuse of facts. 

McCutcheon, a small-business owner and political independent, describes the experience as “surreal,” “extremely jarring” and “so out of place with the friendly, local broadcast from news people I’ve come to trust over the years.” There was no rebuttal, no context, no alternate point of view – a situation he found concerning. 

WGME-TV (Channel 13) and WPFO-TV (Channel 23) each carry the segments nine times a week on orders from their owner, the Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the nation’s largest owner of local television stations and an aggressive, unabashed disseminator of conservative commentary supporting the Trump wing of the Republican Party.

......

Portland’s WGME, a CBS affiliate, and its sister station WPFO, a Fox affiliate, are required to air them. They are the only stations in Maine that are forced to run editorial commentary by their corporate parent. 

“It’s unheard of to have one company pushing one specific agenda reaching so many people and doing it in a way designed to evade local input,” says Craig Aaron, president and CEO of Free Press, a Washington-based group that opposes media consolidation. “The idea of having local stations offer an array of viewpoints is great, but what we get with Sinclair is one set of political leanings being broadcast everywhere.”

Yes, Sinclair Broadcasting is the same conservative news outlet that John Oliver warned us about at the beginning of this month.

What may be even more troubling than the fact that Trump TV will now be broadcast into our homes while camouflaged as local news coverage is how they ended up with so many local TV stations under their control.

Courtesy of The Stern Facts: 

Sinclair Broadcasting is buying dozens of local television stations from the Tribune Company, which will expand their reach to create the largest local news broadcast empire our country has ever seen on TV. 

It’s taken some very special help from the Trump Administration. 

With the addition of one of Trump’s top surrogates, the stage has been set to distribute Administration propaganda nationally, without telling the audience that they’re watching biased local news, even though it’s branded ABC, CBS or NBC. 

Sinclair says it has 173 television stations in 81 markets, broadcasting 514 channels and having affiliations with all the major networks. 

By 2013, Sinclair Broadcasting owned more TV stations than anyone else in the country. 

Now, they will vastly exceed the FCC’s cap on how much local television market share a single corporation — 39% of the national viewing market to be precise — is allowed to hold after purchasing the Tribune company’s 42 stations and 14 more in a separate deal. 

But first, they cut a deal with during the campaign with Jared Kushner for “good” coverage of the Trump Administration, which seems to have paid off with a major regulatory change in their favor. 

What was that regulatory change?

This:

The FCC caps broadcast licensees from reaching more than 39% of Americans to limit the amount of power concentrated into the hands of a single television broadcaster. 

It took a vote on changing regulations initiated by the FCC’s fiercely partisan Trump appointee Ajit Pai who resurrected a regulation that the Obama Administration killed in 2016, reinstating rules about UHF TV signals to enable the $3.9 billion dollar deal that will take Trump TV from 30% of America’s television households up to 72% of local viewers. 

That folks is one of the most egregious examples of "pay for play" that I have ever seen.

But even though that was a major clarion call for Tea Party conservatives, and their queen Sarah Palin, back in the day they won't utter a peep about it.

Why?

Because it helps further their agenda, that's why.

Face it my friends, journalism, facts, and even the fabric of our reality are now under constant assault. And the only defense we have on our side is the truth.

Here's hoping that will be enough.