Hey, we have a petition urging the FCC to ensure that broadcasters use the public airwaves to benefit local communities and their information needs. We’re sending this to the agency in the wake of reports that media giant Sinclair plans to significantly reduce or outright eliminate several local newsrooms.

Sinclair has long abused its power to stifle local news, evade media-ownership limits and spread bigoted lies and propaganda on its newscasts — proving that it has zero interest in actually serving local communities.

Will you take action with us today? Then read Craig and Jessica’s email below!

Thanks so much,

All of us at Free Press

Friend,

Sinclair sucks.

The right-wing media broadcaster has announced it is eliminating entire local newsrooms at five local-television stations. It’s also drastically cutting newsroom staff at an additional five stations — and requiring these stations to instead broadcast segments from its “National Desk” — long a source of disinformation and right-wing propaganda.

The move will end most or all local reporting at as many as 10 stations across the country. Many of these stations are in states that will decide the next presidential election, which will now get content pumped in from Sinclair’s national headquarters.

This is just the latest in a series of shady moves from Sinclair. Broadcasters like Sinclair have been allowed to consolidate, ignore their public-interest obligations and ditch local news in favor of fluff, propaganda and nationally produced and syndicated stories. Meanwhile, these companies keep lobbying Congress and the FCC for more regulatory relief and subsidies.

Tell the FCC that broadcasters must use the public airwaves to help local communities and serve their information needs.

We cannot continue to reward companies like Sinclair with exclusive licenses to profit off of the public airwaves. Instead of fulfilling the FCC mandate for localism and diversity, this company has long forced stations to run cookie-cutter content and imposed its right-wing views on communities across the country.

And Sinclair has also been caught lying to the FCC. When it tried to buy Tribune in 2018, it misrepresented the nature of its control over the many stations it already owned. This attempt to bypass the FCC’s media-ownership rules and push its merger through failed when even the Trump FCC couldn’t ignore Sinclair’s falsehoods.

In other words, this broadcaster lied to the agency, isn’t doing local news and isn’t serving the public interest.

We need to return the public airwaves to local, independent broadcasters that serve their communities. Tell the FCC that broadcasters must use the public airwaves to benefit local communities and their information needs.

We need a whole new vision for local media in this country. And we’ve got ideas.

Stay with us and thanks for taking action,

Craig, Jessica and the rest of the Free Press team
freepress.net

P.S. For too long the FCC has let broadcasting conglomerate Sinclair lie to the agency and undermine the public interest. Take action with us today and tell the FCC that broadcasters must use the public airwaves to benefit local communities.