Columbia Journalism Review: The Effects of the Sinclair Network

It’s not logical local television. The conventional local TV news formula for financial success is to offend as few people as possible. But WSYX’s mish-mash of community news and corporate-mandated conservative commentary is the template that Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns WSYX, uses to effectively thumb its nose at convention. And it’s working. Sort of.
Some would argue that local TV news has been so bad for so long that it seems absurd to cast the struggle between Sinclair and its critics as a battle for the soul of local TV news. Still, Sinclair is enough of a force that it bears watching, and there are signs that its strategy is being copied. Sinclair owns, controls, or supports sixty-two stations nationwide, more than any other broadcaster, and airs local newscasts on thirty-eight of them. In recent years it has been the enfant terrible for critics of media concentration, as it gobbled up stations, stripped them of resources, and pulled as much editorial control as possible to corporate.