Monday, July 31, 2017

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.

37 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:28 AM

    Truth -- the first and most crucial casualty of war, and we are at war, never forget it. VOTE as if it will make a difference. Dark times? You bet. Hang in there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous4:44 AM

    Yes, both dish and direct satellite TV were compromised. Antenna TV compromised. Apple compromised, Small internet companies were purchased and compromised. Owners of these companies sold their customers to crooks and liars, Russia, china etc. Customers were hacked, junk mail galore and privacy invaded. Customers must speak up and hold these corporation accountable for enabling corruption and breach of security. This is about citizen united kock bros funding Donald trump corruption and harming America. Customers must cut off the money flow to bad corporations. Sanctions. Cancel service.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:59 AM

      Heil Hitler...

      Delete
    2. Without the internet we are cut off from others and cannot pass information or organize.

      That is why Trump's FCC tool is going to destroy Net Neutrality.

      No one listens.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous4:51 AM

    "... the only defense we have on our side is the truth."

    Truth? We don't need no stinkin' truth. All your truths are now belong to us.

    AI is fast becoming a potential frankenstein monster for a world of manufactured alt.truth reality in service to the rich & powerful.



    www.msn.com/...Facebook Shut Down An Artificial Intelligence Program That Developed Its Own Language

    Eventually researchers worked out what was going on, and shut down the program. There are obvious concerns with learning computers developing languages that outpace our own abilities to translate and follow their inherent logic. Not to mention that Facebook never designed their AI to be a vanguard of linguistic evolution.
    www.theguardian.com/…Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media

    With links to Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Nigel Farage, the rightwing US computer scientist is at the heart of a multimillion-dollar propaganda network
    ...CNSnews is owned by the Media Research Center, which a click later I learn is “America’s media watchdog”, an organisation that claims an “unwavering commitment to neutralising leftwing bias in the news, media and popular culture”.

    Another couple of clicks and I discover that it receives a large bulk of its funding – more than $10m in the past decade – from a single source, the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer. If you follow US politics you may recognise the name. Robert Mercer is the money behind Donald Trump. But then, I will come to learn, Robert Mercer is the money behind an awful lot of things. He was Trump’s single biggest donor. Mercer started backing Ted Cruz, but when he fell out of the presidential race he threw his money – $13.5m of it – behind the Trump campaign.

    It’s money he’s made as a result of his career as a brilliant but reclusive computer scientist. He started his career at IBM, where he made what the Association for Computational Linguistics called “revolutionary” breakthroughs in language processing – a science that went on to be key in developing today’s AI – and later became joint CEO of Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund that makes its money by using algorithms to model and trade on the financial markets.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous5:05 AM

    It is legal for trump to pardon everyone by TWEEt !!!!

    Be prepared (time we face reality) - when the noose of the justice department gets too tight - PARDONS all around (and mostly likely by tweet) - this will happen (and its legal) - just because it has never been done before doesn't mean that it is beyond trump doing it.
    His entire family (and close advisors) will be pardoned - and he will be either pardon himself (risky - would go to court) or just have Pence pardon him. Since Pence has his own dirty secrets trump doesn't have to worry about him going back on his word and not pardoning him - and Pence wants POWER - total and complete domination over women and the world to squash all religious freedoms except his own version of twisted christianity - so he will do everything and anything to achieve that goal especially since he is just one small step away from it - and that would definitely include giving trump a pardon for everything (to keep pence's dirty secrets in the closet).

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-pardons-russia-probe_us_59762032e4b00e4363e1249b?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:01 AM

      "totally unacceptable, un-presidential, and dangerous, for the President of the United States to conduct matters of national security and diplomacy via Twitter."
      " the threat they represent to Japan, South Korea, and even Alaska, is complicated. For Donald Trump to “tweet” about it is totally unacceptable, un-presidential, and dangerous. “Tweeting” to foreign countries makes the United States seem trivial and inconsequential. Even if Trump is serious about anything he says on Twitter, what foreign power would take him seriously?"<<-----XXX

      https://malialitman.com/2017/07/30/watch-out-china-trumps-tweets-disappointment/

      Democratic People's Republic of Korea?

      Delete
    2. That will be Trump's Saturday Night massacre.

      When he does that, Congress will move forward and impeach him. He can't pardon himself from that.

      Delete
  5. Anonymous5:21 AM

    Our local CBS station is owned by Sinclair and it is has been my favorite channel for 40 years. It is an excellent place to watch news. But, I just sent them a link to this article and said that the first time I see one of these segments on their channel is the last time I will be watching them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:51 AM

      Good for you!

      Delete
    2. I suspect quite a few program managers air the required segments at 3am when few are watching.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous5:47 AM

    One message from Boris Shitstain, and that channel is OFF my viewing list. The republicans are complicit in this fiasco, they will not rein the orange mistake in. He is allowed free rein to do as he pleases.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would hope local stations could at least air that crap with disclaimers. But in any case, yes, take note, boycott the station, boycott the advertisers. We need people who do see this crap on their stations to tell everyone so they can call, write and boycott as well.

      Delete
  7. Leland5:55 AM

    I don't watch any of the broadcast stations. I get my news through research and from stations outside the US.

    On the positive side, I just received an email from a friend of mine in Sweden and in that email she called Humpty Trumpty "the orange Hitler". I told her it was good to hear that some of those in Europe feel the same way as those of us with some brains.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:23 AM

      My sister is traveling in Ireland and Scotland. She said they do not like Trump either.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:46 AM

      A truth about the drama at White House press briefings is the behavior of Trump and his surrogates delivering conflicting messages.

      This behavior of chaos and mixed messages is habitual. There is a pattern of dysfunctional behavior that when the media reports X about Trump the surrogates declare X is fake and Y and Z are true. When Y and Z are reported Trump and surrogates yell "Fake News"! Their goal is to con people it is everyone else who lies or makes things up even when there is video or tweets of what was said. They create an appearance of high morality, disdain for anyone who lies while they spin and spew lie after lie and misinformation. This is mental and emotional manipulation and tactics of gas lighting.

      Pay attention to the patterns of behavior. When they switch positions or state alternative to opposite stances they will lie they never said the former.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:15 AM

      Someone told you how to fix it. Wake up already folks.

      Delete
    4. There are a few locals I watch for shows but I watch no local news.

      Since summer when everything is in re-runs I've been using my iPad exclusively for watching. I have HULU, HBO, PBS, Acorn and Amazon Prime. I find I can get along great with all of these and watching CBS on my laptop. I need my Colbert fix.

      While there are advertisements on some of these they are paid commercial advertisements for products I don't buy and never will. Sinclair doesn't have a foot in these markets. They also don't own Yahoo, Google, Associated Press, Huffington Post, The Guardian, the NYTimes, the Washington Post.....

      Delete
  8. Randall7:12 AM

    I'm currently reading a novel that speaks DIRECTLY to a fascist takeover of America.
    In this novel, one of the first things the new president does is take control of the media...
    And, ironically, the novel,
    "It Can't Happen Here"
    was written by SINCLAIR Lewis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:57 AM

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Lewis

      "In his Nobel Lecture, Lewis praised Theodore Dreiser, Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, and other contemporaries, but also lamented that "in America most of us—not readers alone, but even writers—are still afraid of any literature which is not a glorification of everything American, a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues," and that America is "the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today." He also offered a profound criticism of the American literary establishment: "Our American professors like their literature clear and cold and pure and very dead."

      Boosterism>Branding>tRUMP!

      Delete
  9. Anonymous7:31 AM

    call it a WAR room "Reporters quickly noticed that Trump was pointing to a room in the White House that does not exist:" Reporters quickly noticed that Trump was pointing to a room in the White House that does not exist"
    "Trump babbled about records being created and repeated his tweet from earlier in the morning where he tried to take credit for Obama’s accomplishments, but the one thing that WAS missing from the press coverage was the swearing in of Kelly."

    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/07/31/watch-mentally-trump-repeatedly-call-white-house-cabinet-room-boardroom.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:17 AM

      http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/alzheimers-like-his-dad-trump-mocked-for-confusing-white-house-with-his-reality-tv-show/

      Delete
  10. Anonymous7:32 AM

    Sinclair Broadcasting is exactly what should not be allowed on our airwaves. Pure right-wing propaganda full of lies. Just wait until the Trump administration anoints it our only television outlet. Each hour, each day we are moving closer to fascism - of the Trump/GOP variety.
    Beaglemom

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:18 AM

      Well sweety heart, the Russians have been cultivating America.
      Look for the overtones.
      Pay attention. Get angry.
      Why do you think Putin smirks all the time?
      USA was bought and sold a century ago folks. Shrug.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous7:45 AM

    http://lnr.politicususa.com/follow-leader-aumf-make-america-2358/

    "How far are we willing to be dumbed-down by dummies allowed above the law, to not recall? How far are we willing to let those caked in the mud of yellow journalism, to be left behind, exposed only to a Sinclair Group POV?"
    "ollowing the soulless, who are the real tax dodgers, draining the public trust, ignoring diminishing infrastructure and suppressing the votes of the oppressed, we become their clones,"the truth about our pattern of indulgencies in injustice, vainglory, over-zealous hero worship, gun violence and acquitting those who live by it – though sometimes forgiven, targeted too often off camera. For family and friends, a snatched life is never forgotten:Can our Democratic Republic corrode into anarchy? If we allow propagandists shouting the most outrageous excuses for a free pass: He’s ‘Just New to This,’ give him a chance – yes, we won’t need an Alaskan house look-out for foreign missiles."

    https://www.publicintegrity.org/2017/07/07/20971/become-citizensleuth-and-uncover-trump-administration-mysteries

    M.M.
    http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/late-show-michael-moore-calls-army-satire-trump-warns-tweet-distractions-1024772

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous8:13 AM

    john BARRON miller: Bed $hee'T's ?
    "President Donald Trump and his team have seen their dirty laundry thrown around Washington and the world, with few policy accomplishments to show for all their drama."

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/trumps-white-house-is-full-of-tabloid-rumors-and-accusations-about-russia-mistresses-and-money/

    "Then there’s, of course, the 35-page dossier that stroked Trump’s perceived hatred toward negative press coverage. Sometimes called the “Golden Shower Gate” dossier, the political opposition report detailing the president's alleged close relationship to Russia again ade it into the news this month when the president told The New York Times that he believed former FBI Director James Comey made him aware of it as a means of leverage."

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous8:16 AM

    OT?"The former Texas governor accepted the nomination reportedly believing he would be “a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry” as head of the Department of Energy, which he proposed abolishing during his 2012 presidential campaign."

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/we-laugh-a-lot-about-it-trump-cabinet-officials-make-fun-of-rick-perrys-ignorance-about-nuclear-arsenal/

    NOT FUNNY^

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous8:53 AM

    'R-T':"“Only six months into his presidency, Moscow has assessed that Trump is a naif, an incompetent weakling who cannot deliver what Russia needs,” Schindler wrote. “He is therefore expendable.”"
    "“Now that Trump is expendable to Moscow, he ought to worry that leaks unflattering to him and his entourage may go public,” Putin is biding his time and, right now, he’s holding most of the important cards. {tRUMPf card}He may ultimately decide Trump’s political fate, which now resides in Moscow’s {poo't'y} hand".
    {BET>tiny djt's Go't' 'too' 'GoPee' NOW.}
    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/ex-nsa-analyst-warns-putins-latest-moves-shows-trump-is-expendable-and-gop-should-worry-too/

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous9:27 AM

    People who are smart can just turn that shit off. We don't have to be slaves to the almightly tv. Same as the internet. There's an on and off button.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Leland11:38 AM

      I do NOT watch TV of any sort. The only time my TV is on is when I watch a DVD.

      My reason originally was the amount of pure GARBAGE that was on, like five or six shopping channels or a history channel that showed only highly questionable religious "history" that had no proof or consciousness sucking "comedy" shows.

      I told the satellite company to shove it and cut the feed from the dish they mounted to the house. The tried to tell me I owed them another year on my contract. I sent them a copy of my original contract and told them they could sue if they wanted.

      I removed the dish when they failed to come get it. They tried to sue for that. When I sent them a copy of their admission of mistake which said they would come get the equipment by such and such a date, they shut up again.

      Any suggestions on how to get them to STOP sending me their crappy ads for their services? I'd like to "save a tree or two".

      "People who are smart can just turn that shit off." There's a bit of a problem with that: we apparently don't HAVE smart people in any significant numbers any longer.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous9:39 AM

    Nearly all Cabinet officials attend Bible lessons with right-wing pastor who compares Trump to biblical heroes

    ...The most notable, however, is Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

    “He’ll go out the same day I teach him something and I’ll see him do it on camera and I just think, ‘Wow, these guys are faithful, available and teachable and they’re at Bible study every week they’re in town,'” Drollinger said of his influence.

    He said that the group is the “best” he’s “ever taught” because the officials “are so teachable; they’re so noble; they’re so learned.”

    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/07/nearly-all-cabinet-officials-attend-bible-lessons-with-right-wing-pastor-who-compares-trump-to-biblical-heroes/

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous9:51 AM

    McCain F*cked Over Senate Republicans On Trumpcare In A Much Better Way Than We Already Knew

    http://addictinginfo.com/2017/07/30/mccain-fcked-over-senate-republicans-on-trumpcare-in-a-much-better-way-than-we-already-knew/

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous9:52 AM

    How One Man Influenced The Republican Party’s Transformation Into The Grand Old Putin Party

    https://thesternfacts.com/how-one-man-influenced-the-republican-partys-transformation-into-the-grand-old-putin-party-141589792320

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous9:53 AM

    Trump Jr. Now Tied to Mexican Drug Cartel’s Money Laundering Scheme

    https://thesternfacts.com/

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous10:54 AM

    This is not going to work for very long. My kids have never seen a network show on television. They are 11, 7 and 2. They consume everything on line through Netflix and Hulu. During the last election, I did not see one single political ad. Sinclair is basing its business model on an old and quickly outdated system. The only people they will reach are older Americans and poor Americans who are sadly already brainwashed by Fox News. But as more internet access becomes available to them, they will start losing this group too.

    There was a recent tape of Russian students on Youtube challenging their teachers. They lived their entire lives under Putin's propoganda. The older teachers still believed it, but the kids said that they saw the truth in real time via news from other sources on the internet.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous12:06 PM

    is this 2117 or 1984??? i guess i'l be getting my news off the internet from now on.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This is the exact same strategy the Death Party used to get us where we are today, only it's media, not politics.

    The GOP spent a lot of time from the ground up, getting their people on school boards, city councils, then in state legislatures and in the Governor's mansions. With that support this year they took both houses of congress, the White House and soon the Supreme Court.

    Now they're doing the same through the media.

    Meanwhile the Democrats are busy smelling their own farts only trying to win 'safe' races and those they think are easily won.

    "A Better Deal" and concentrating on anti-trust violations?

    WTF?

    ReplyDelete

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