Sinclair Clip Cited at Panel on Decline of Local News
A widely viewed clip of Sinclair anchors nationwide repeating company talking points was shown at a panel on the decline of local news with journalism experts. President Andy Burness of Burness, which represents nonprofits and organized Thursday's panel, showed the…
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Deadspin news website clip from earlier this year. "Sinclair is a rebuttal in their view to the dominance of the left wing on major networks," said Boulder, Colorado, blogger Dave Krieger, fired earlier this year from the Daily Camera for running an editorial that slammed the newspaper's hedge-fund owner, Alden Global Capital. "That’s their motivation." Krieger and Nicco Mele, director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, agreed the likes of Sinclair aren't a new trend, as politically slanted or driven news in the U.S. dates back a few hundred years. "Ideologically driven news doesn’t bother me too much," Mele said. "There’s a long tradition of it in America." What's important is that consumers know what that slant is and that the content is truthful, attendees were told. Panelists warned that's not always the case on social media. "You frequently don’t know that you’re making an ideological choice in your news consumption" such as on Facebook, Mele said. For traditional media, panelists made a pitch for more diversity, as wider representation of women and other groups in tech and telecom is drawing attention including from FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1811280035). Such efforts need to begin even before job applications are filed and reviewed, Krieger said. Mele recounted that when he was a Los Angeles Times executive several years ago, "the newsroom was overwhelmingly white. I do think that hurt the business in a substantial way." Tronc, which returned to the Tribune Publishing name, separately earlier this year sold the paper to a local billionaire who has pledged to hire staff and make other changes. "Over the past several years, the Los Angeles Times has made increasing diversity within our newsroom a top priority, to better serve the community," a spokesperson emailed. "Each year we make progress." She said 36 percent of the paper's journalists aren't white, compared with 23 percent in U.S. newsrooms overall in a recently released survey that said it had low participation. Since 1984, the paper has had a program to "develop" young journalists and to increase diversity, she noted.