Boris Epshteyn — Coming to WREG soon?
[pullquote-1]Industry trade magazine AdAge reports that Christopher Ruddy has asked the FCC to take time and carefully weigh any decision allowing the Sinclair Broadcast Group to go through with a deal that would bring the media conglomerate a total of of 233 local TV-news stations, including Memphis’ WREG.
Via AdAge:
“I am calling for delay,” Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax, a conservative outlet with a 24-hour cable news channel, said in an interview. “I think it needs more vetting.”Ruddy, a friend of President Donald Trump, adds a conservative voice to liberal critics of the deal who are wary of Sinclair building a network of local stations featuring the company’s pro-Trump commentary.
If you don’t know who the players are here NewsMax is a frankly conservative multi-platform media company where TV hosts comfortably compare unflattering news reports about President Trump to “lynchings.” That comparison’s no anomaly at NewsMax, which recently dipped its toe in the cable news business. Though marketed as Fox-light it’s been a reliably safe space for Right-Wing cranks and conspiracy theorists.
Sinclair’s been collecting local news stations. Holdings currently include ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliated properties in an environment where local TV news has more reach than all four major cable news stations combined with NewsMax tossed in like a set of Ginsu knives. Frankly conservative and unapologetically Trumpist, Sinclair requires local stations to air segments by former Trump staffer Boris Epshteyn, the sixth person interviewed in ongoing probes into Russia’s impact on U.S. elections.
NewsMax CEO Worries About Sinclair Broadcast’s New Acquisitions, Media Consolidation
For pretty much everything you need to know about Sinclair and Boris, and what might happen to Memphis’ WREG if the FCC approves Sinclair’s latest takeovers click here.
So basically we’ve reached this weird patch of Spacetime where a company invested in a national cable news product promoting kooks and conspiracy theorists can run headlines like “Local Broadcast Wins as National Media Increasingly Distrusted” with a straight face.
Welcome to The New Fairness in a marketplace of ideas that’s somehow even worse than it was when irresponsible media narratives were seeded and tended by media organs with no agenda beyond basic profit motive.
