CBS Austin Among Dozens Airing Sinclair’s Media-Bashing Script

AUSTIN, TX — If you watch local television news in Austin, you may have noticed your favorite on-air personalities reciting a script warning viewers of the perils of biased and false news perceived by some as pervasive.

Your local televised news source wasn't the only one spreading this message, apparently: The script was handed down by Sinclair Broadcast Group brass to its on-air personalities to read at more than 66 stations nationwide, including local KEYE-TV.

A new analysis from media watchdog group Media Matters for America found that dozens of news stations — at least 66 across 29 states and Washington, D.C. — recited the same Sinclair-mandated script to collective viewing audience in the millions as a requirement of their bosses.

You can watch anchors from local Sinclair-owned KEYE (CBS Austin) reciting the script below:

Yet KEYE represents just a sum of the parts. Taken in the aggregate, a mashup video of the repeated script throughout the Sinclair landscape suffuses this mass messaging with an added vibe of Big Brother-like eeriness:

The claimed public-service-style intent of the messaging has backfired or was lost on many, including media critics who have labeled the mass mantra as nothing short of Orwellian. Other media watchdogs said the net effect was more akin to one of those hostage videos in which imprisoned victims are forced to spew propaganda by their captors — in this case with a message closely aligning with sentiments echoing Donald Trump's repeated attacks on the free press he persistently calls purveyors of "fake news."

In addition to airing in Texas, the spots launched March 23 at Sinclair-owned media properties in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and other states.

Related story: Austin TV Stations Face FCC Fines Over Spots Airing As News

Timothy Burke, video director at Deadspin, tracked down the local affiliates and found out when the scripts had been force-read, as he called it. He then spliced the numerous broadcasts into one, giant video, each uttering the same message in lock-step cadence:

“The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control exactly what people think. This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

Last month, CNN first reported that Sinclair, which owns or operates nearly 200 TV stations in the U.S. and is trying to buy Tribune Media, would require its anchors to record a promotional video about “...the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country.”

Peter Chernin, a media investor and longtime president of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., called the Deadspin video “insidious,” according to the New York Times. Conversely, Democratic Rep. David Price of North Carolina on Monday called the video mashup “alarming,” “disturbing” and “pro-Trump propaganda.”

On Monday, CNN obtained a memo in which senior vice president of news Scott Livingston defended the duplicated scripts, categorizing them as a "well-researched journalistic initiative focused on fair and objective reporting." He disputed reports that local anchors were embarrassed they had to recite the scripts, and blasted what he called “misleading, often defamatory stories" about his company in the wake of the mass airings, CNN reported.

"For the record, the stories we are referencing in this campaign are the unsubstantiated ones (i.e. fake/false) like 'Pope Endorses Trump' which move quickly across social media and result in an ill-informed public," Livingston wrote. "Some other false stories, like the false 'Pizzagate' story, can result in dangerous consequences. We are focused on fact-based reporting. That's our commitment to our communities."

Sinclair journalists leaked details of their contracts on Monday and said they faced fines if they quit while under contract, The Guardian reported. Chaired by David Smith, a multi-millionaire with close ties to the Trump administration, Sinclair is the nation's largest broadcaster that reaches about 38 percent of U.S. households.

Inevitably, Trump weighed-in on the matter Monday morning. Not surprisingly, he sided with Sinclair on this one while taking yet another shot at the free press: “So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased,” he tweeted. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”

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