Kabuki Theater- the party out of power has no power; and if DC Dems wouldnāt plant their flag on DACA or a litany of other worthy causes, they wonāt do much about this either.
I need a vacation.
The Drumpf Reich Information Ministry declines your request.
If this is true then I would say the merger needs to be placed on hold until there is a change in management.
The merger should not be put on hold. It should be denied with extreme prejudice. Allowing any company, never mind one so duplicitous and manipulative, to gain so close to a monopoly on a major source of Americansā news and information, is harmful.
That would be true even if we had an FCC that actually cared about regulating a public good (the broadcast spectrum) for public benefit, which of course we donāt.
They would argue that we already have 3 broadcast networks with national reach as well as three cable news networks with the same reach. The real issue is local market penetration.
ādo not dictateā and āmust runā is a bit tough to square but what the hell is Durbin asking? Thereās no question of what Sinclairās up to. They want to discredit objective sources of information.
NOT Going to happen Dickie Boyā¦ Donald will be going to Sinclair once heās done screwing us over.
Yes, take that vacation, because you have nothing to say but stupid shit about my party.
Should, what was that name, Dickie Boy? Should Dickie Boy just shut the fuck up and lie down and not say anything. Itās the Senate where this is how they talk. Theyāre not fire breathers.
I gave up on local news a long time ago because itās empty, but when I have watched theyāre still doing the same thing: if it bleeds it leads. Lots of time devoted to weather with bigger and bigger graphics and lots of time devoted to sports. News of any consequence in between this stuff? Not so much.
Damned if they do damned if they donāt.
Every fucking day. Either they are spineless and never do or say anything or āwhat good does this do?ā
That is my assessment of local news as well.
This is the problem with Sinclair is that they are buying up ABC, FOX, and NBC affiliates (at least those are the logos I saw on the video). If they want to control the message then they need to re-brand all those network affiliates as their own SiNews and provide content to them. Also I wonder if this is not done what would happen if NBC, ABC, and Fox didnāt renew their licenses? Would the other networks have cause to terminate their contracts?
The FCC may be the single most dangerous agency to democracy at the moment. This is because Chairman Pai isnāt just pursuing a strong pro-corporation, antiāpublic interest agenda, but a strong pro-Sinclair agenda.
This merger is only one of several steps Pai has taken to benefit Sinclair, and several of them are naked gifts to the company.
Just to give one example: Pai brought back a rule that Obama eliminated, because it was based on a technology difference that no longer exists. In counting stations against ownership limits, the FCC used to count only half the viewership of UHF stations (those numbered 14 and up on analog TVs), because they tended not to have the reach that VHF (channels 2-13) did. When broadcasting went digital, the difference that justified the rule disappeared (and even reversed to some degree, as the UHF signals are less prone to interference). Obamaās FCC got rid of the discount. Pai brought back the obsolete discount. Sinclair owns a lot of UHF stations.
Eventually, Pai wants to eliminate all ownership limitations, but heās going to give Sinclair a leg up along the way. He says its coincidence. I say it is as coincidental as the fact that all three GOP members of the FCC were at CPAC this year.
More here about how Pai is helping Sinclair.
And here is how US corporations behave when government abandons its regulatory role:
Sinclairās āBrazenā Plan to Sell New York, Chicago Stations With Strings Attached Draws Criticism
Bay Area KRON is the worst. Nothing but crime stories, murders, holdup, fires.
My guess, which could be mistaken, is that heās setting up Sinclair for a situation where in January there can be multiple criminal referrals for furnishing false or misleading information to congress. Which even with the current FCC might turn into a mandatory license-ending event.
One hopes.
VHF? UHF? How many people even know what those two dials were for, nowadays?
Sounds like āBig Brotherā to meā¦