Right-wing broadcaster wants to reach more homes in Oregon

Later this week, we’re joining a group of allies to announce the total number of people who’ve asked the FCC to reject the dangerous proposed merger between right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting and the Tribune Company.

According to our records, your signature is missing. Can you add your name before this week’s FCC meeting, where Trump’s FCC Chair wants to vote to undo regulations on media monopolies?

Sign the petition to the FCC: Stop the right-wing pro-Trump Sinclair Broadcasting group from merging with the Tribune Company — and reaching more American homes with its propaganda.

If you want a perfect example of why this is a terrible idea, and how Sinclair Broadcasting is just right-wing propaganda masked as news, look no further than their coverage of the sexual misconduct allegations against Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore.

A local reporter on a Sinclair-owned television station in Alabama ran a report where she claimed, based on exactly four interviews, that she could not find a single person in Alabama who believed the charges against Moore. Breitbart News is unsurprisingly amplifying this story from a local report across the country.

Daily Kos’s own Laura Clawson explains how this is a perfect example of why Sinclair, and its proposed merger with the Tribune Company, is so dangerous:

[O]ne of the things that makes Sinclair dangerous is that it owns local stations, so its propaganda feels more authentic, while being harder to identify—Sinclair products don’t come with a big Sinclair label on them a la Fox News. They come labeled ABC or CBS or NBC, so they’re pulling credibility both from a national affiliation and from a local home. Then their work gets grabbed up by Breitbart to circulate in the far-right echo chamber. And they’re trying to grow and spread their poison further.

Sign the petition to the FCC: Stop the right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting group from merging with the Tribune Company and reaching more American homes with its propaganda.

Below, you can see a version of the email that my colleague Paul Hogarth sent to many of you last month

The ultra-conservative Sinclair Broadcasting company owns 193 television stations across the country, and currently reaches 40 percent of American households. If the FCC approves its merger with the Tribune Company, Sinclair will reach 72% of U.S. homes.

This is media consolidation at its worst. The FCC deadline is approaching in the first week of November, so now is the time for us to push back.

Sinclair is infamous for injecting its right-wing views on local TV affiliates, such as requiring news shows to run a daily “terrorism alert.” If this merger goes through, they will do even more to influence news coverage that could affect the 2018 and 2020 elections.

Sign the petition to the FCC: NO to the merger of Sinclair & Tribune. We do not want a right-wing propaganda outlet infecting more American homes.