The New York Times Michael Barbaro, about this today high the news anchors all start by setting Our greatest responsibility is to serve our communities, what they are forced to say next has drawn attention to local news and who their actual being asked it Friday April six what this means that a complete report with tiny? Why send Bob Richardson Michael Goodridge, with the weather RON, Brooks on sports and the eyewitness news team.

Hello there. Here's what's happening at ten four Arizona decision. Eighty is just eight hours away. My mom was in Ankara. She was the first female evening anchor in the state of Arizona me and every day with voters choosing a president, a congressmen senator in various local offices. Such a supervisor, Sesar and Susan, is the place that she moved too, and she was a child off to San Diego for a couple years. But she moved back because many evening anchor a couple years after that I was born. I've seen video of it a noose a story that ran the day, was born when they send a camera over to visit my mom and hospital room. So are you essentially brought into this world on tv, I mean the camera. Wasn't there as I was being born, he was there a couple hours after Aaron Ways worked in local news for fourteen years. I went off to college and wanted now

to do with journalism I measured in theater and after college. I went off to Microsoft and did the Tec thing for a couple years and whose own After I'd been there for about a year that I realized. I missing that instant gratification. So I took a week off and went back home to sign and hung out the station for a week and wrote, stories and went out on a drug bustin proved I could do it, and so they hired me as a producer to you started to work in the newsroom, where your mother was an anchor. I did I very rarely saw her most of my time there I was. Producing the morning, so she was anchoring the six in the ten, so we literally pass the night she'd be wrapping up. The late I was filling up for the overnight shift and how did you like the work I loved it? It's incredibly rewarding you get to

make something every day and see the results of what you do every now, and then you come in the next day and you ve got a blank slate and was there's something about the fact that, with local news that made you take pride in it but yeah. It's that connection to a community. It's odd, because local news is a very transient business. Very few folks stay in a market four years or decades and the ones who do to be those trusted. Local anchors, my mom could have played the tv news, our game and left Tucson and picked up the family every couple years from two thousand to a fee. Next, to LOS Angeles, a bigger and bigger market throw, but she didn't she chose to re. Her family into some, because it was a sense of

I will always be thankful to her, for that gave us in Ireland, and I really afford thirty tomorrow. So what was your first big break in the newspapers so I was in Tucson for about a year and a half and decided to see what else was out there and ended up heading up to Portland Oregon. So I took it. Mostly it producer position bottom of the wrong. Pretty quickly worked my way up and after spending my twenties in Portland, which is a great town to be single in your twenties I got married had a kid and we decided it was time, head somewhere else. So I started looking around for other positions and getting offered a new director job in City Iowa, and it was a big promotion for me at that.

When I been a manager of filling basis in Portland getting to run the newsroom when folks weren't there but getting my own newsroom. My own shop was a great opportunity, so we packed up and move the MID west This is still at sunrise. Hey may fourteen boy say this: man is passing counterfeit bills and they want your help catching him. I ones who are terminally ill might give easier access to and what was your vision as news director for running this tv station, who much hope. For me it was a chance to build something. It was small struggling station. It came from an ownership group that had gone through a fairly spectacular bankruptcy. A couple- prior was still basically being held by the bankruptcy court. The creditors

and you know in a market that size that you're gonna be working with. Maybe few veterans, but primarily new reporters and that, me was exciting so. You knew going in this job that this was small station that financially struggling in the town those two things were in some ways a draw for you, because it meant that you had the abyss. Data to put your own imprint on yeah. It was that feeling of being a part

that place when did that this was going well and that you are enjoying this work. When did that feeling, I start to change so after I been there for about a year and a half we got word then Sinclair was looking at buying station, and these things take a couple months to close Sinclair ended up officially buying the station in fall around October pointer. Do you think there was founded and ancient seventy one by the current chairman's father Julian think, there's he was an electrical engineer with a deep curiosity about new broadcasting technology. Sidney ember is a media rapporteur for the times. The companies are very small. It was one radio station and one television station in Maryland in Baltimore by it.

What did you get bigger and it starts buying more more stations which coincided with this sort of deregulation that allowed companies to own Morse We saw no reason no harm to the public that would result from networks Acquiring stations, and after all the touchstone honest it seems to me, not ought not to be the. So the Hollywood producers the networks or donors, but rather whether or not the viewers in particular mark are better off and we believe they will be if we permit groups able to acquire their stations. That does mean that minutely on stations, are do very well. They do do very well in markets depending upon the owners and their management capabilities, but there are economists tell us some very good efficiencies that result when an entity is able to grow larger and this oftentime serves our people very well in our society, and we ought not to lose sight of that system,

in a time where a company could own a certain number of issues that might have been a cap and suddenly there wasn't that thing that they re veto for a long time. The cap was, I think, five, and then they moved up to seven and then twelve so familiar. Well for a company to own, not just a handful of stations, but a very large number of local TB yeah and by the early two thousands Sinclair owned in something like sixty stations across the country. We knew the station was up for sale and some one was going to come in at some point and by the fact that it was Sinclair. Looking at us was also not a surprise and on paper seemed like a good thing, because you ve got a very large well resourced company coming in and so the hope would be an owner like that comes in and starts. Given you more reporters, you start adding news casts the sorts of things that you hope to see when a well resourced,

when he comes in to what had been a poorly resource station, and we had hoped they would have seen what we are doing. There is something that had a lot of potential for growth. So what happens at these stations? That Sinclair is buying up what changes The actual data day operations says Sometimes these stations are happy to hear that a company like Sinclair is buying them because they are now have resources to go out and report. Local news resources that they might not have had before Sinclair came in, but pretty quickly These stations are to realise that things aren't as rosy as they seemed so right around the time the sales closing fly down to North Carolina for a meeting with news directors from other stations that had been recently acquired by simpler and

we're all at the airport, begin on a ban on the way to the hotel and talking and someone asks about must run pieces so I must run is a segment that is generally centrally produce that Sinclair asked decisions to run. It sends out these segments to its nations across the country, and it says, run these during a specific period of time. So it's not like request its generally, not a flight request. Now it orders these stations from them and explanation that came from another use director who'd, been part of the group for probably couple months was just that these stories, come down and you bury them at like five, a m when no one's watching and yet their conservative, but you just random and you move on the implication was not a big deal and corporate, wasn't really watching or cared when they ran.

Hello. I'm our climate. We these we're in after the sale to Sinclair understand. When is the first time that you interact with content, That surprises you, maybe even startled here. He was probably one of the mark Hymen commentary pieces, is the deal J being used to silence media groups that hold the Obama administration accountable? Islamic radicals believe it's they're calling to convert or all non believers. It's time to ignore the crazy and adopt the same energy policy to turn a blind eye to those who fit this profile and to them and our communities is sponsible black churches in those counties organised a soul to the Poles campaign to drive Obama voters straight from church to vote We may soon see another islamic state for more stored, disappoint, headlines, dot, net followers on Twitter Facebook, I market I mean they work clearly labelled as commentary, and that continues to be Sinclair's defence,

to this day is well. We label are commentaries commentary, but you still using your trusted local anchors, who do not have a bias and have spent decades playing complete lay down the middle you're using those trusted local anchors to give credence and Give weight to that commentary. What did you of the fact that these directives, we're being handed down within this company to the stations and ned you really didn't, have much of a choice about how to respond to them. That was new and- still to this day, completely unique to the waste in clear operates. I'd been part, other large and small station groups, both before and after my time with Sinclair and the way corporate works in every other station grouping, tree is that they'll provide guidance on the broad picture of the way you.

Cover the news or present the news, but the day to day content decisions about what each station runs in every other station group is left to the local news directors and if there is corporate content that comes down something that stations can run if it and there is actually not a whole lot of it in other station groups at all, with Sinclair its it's different. It is something that you must run and you must Put it in your newscast, and you can't touch it and that made me is, as a journalist, very uncomfortable. Did. Ever. Ask your anchors or the reporters on air to fulfil these orders yeah times I'd die, wasn't keeping very close track. Partly because I probably didn't want to know so you don't wanna talk about it because you were in some ways ashamed of it. O d deeply affect uncomfortable, whatever you'd like to call it, it was just

a fundamental moral quandary on my part. I I just couldn't. Do it comes down to that? sleeping at night. Looking yourself in the mere in the morning was at that point realized. I needed to find something else. So is it safe to say that you left the station because of what Sinclair was asking you and your colleagues to do because you had a fundamental objection to what your new corporate parent was doing,

absolutely since twenty fourteen Sinclair has continue trying to grab that it basically hit a wall at a certain point, because as regulatory limits on how many stations Ecuador and when President Tromp was elected, Sinclair and its chairman, David Psmith, began pushing for changes to these regulatory limits on the number of stations in the oven. For if you believe as I do, that the federal government has no business intervening in the news, then we must stop the federal government from intervening in the noose business, and that is why, this afternoon, I shared with my fellow commissioners in order that will reform or media ownership rules and help pull the government once and for all out of the newsroom and quickly the Federal Communications Commission began rolling back regulations and that one of the things it did was it eased a cap on how many stations at broadcaster could own and

clear, benefited immediately announcing a deal for Tribune media accompany you might recognize, because it used to be a company that a lot of newspapers linking LOS Angeles Times, but today, They are a lot of local tv stations, in buying Tribune witches. What, since I want to do, it would be buying up dozens more tv stations. That's right! This merger would allow Sinclair to reach seven in ten american homes, and it would have more than two hundred stations across the country. Would that make the largest owner of tv station in the country, Clearer in fact was already the largest donor of stations across the country, and this deal would make it even bigger. And city. What have we seen with Sinclair's programming in the past four years since November, twenty four

Teen Sinclair has required at stations to run a daily segment from what it calls its terrorism alert desk, for example, of the terrorism. The large ask in Washington on Wednesday Master, some british officials say terrorism related Wes or at a record high three, how these are generally supportive, severe mongering height segment months. It's a sixteen percent increase from the year before, and they also will run conservative commentary from pundits. Like me, I'm in an Boris Epstein, whose of former spokesmen for President Trump on, the latest conservative talking point whether AIDS media sit on along with other cable news. Networks is struggling to stick to the facts or North Korea. The president is sending a message that comes up on that issue, do not back down and diplomatic discussions with those in your the deal directly with Donald Trump, who will be a lot less interested in nice or health care? Government directed health care can be deadly origin

or is. The threat of terrorism has not diminished continued to be under constant threat of attack or taxes. Half of us are for everyone else are tariffs. The new terms on steel, aluminium are pushing partners to engage. Fair trade with the United States and their definitely right, leaning segments that are then shown on local newscasts Is there a sense that Sinclair has got more liberated to do this and might be doing more since tromp was elected.

No they're doing it more, but people are definitely noticing more high and fox an eternity of Jessica Headway at on Ryan Wolf, our greatest responsibilities to serve our assent. Antonio community were strictly proud of a quality, balanced journalism, the fox it and Tonia produces. So we are concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible one sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming people really started noticing Watson Clare was doing last weekend when the website dead been published, a video that showed Ankara's that dozens of singular stations reading the same anti media with lays bare media more alarming. Some media outlets publish these same fake stories without checking facts. First and fortunately, some members in the media use their platforms to put their own personal, biased and agenda to control exactly what people think this an extremely dangerous to our democracy must runs in the past, have generally been introduced by an anchor with script, but then their pre packaged segments. This was different and that all of the anchors were actually reading the same script. So the anchors became the segment. The anchors became the segment, that's the sharing of biased and false move all too common, unfortunately, truly dangerous George. This is extremely dangerous to our democracy. This is extremely dangerous to our democracy is extremely dangerous, star democracy, so

Did you think when suddenly, just a few days ago, this all exploded in the national media? With this video on debt spend what were you thinking when Sinclair's relationship with these tv stations we became national news. I was: deeply sad for everyone in those videos when people I they were people, I knew people I'd work with people. I may not have worked with a but have seen on the air. For years and two some of their credit they gave, video all the sincerity of a proof of life, hostage, video meaning they looked uncomfortable? Oh, they were clearly uncomfortable by what they are being expected to do and say I don't any, certainly not many of them, truly believe what they were reading, but they have no choice It sounds from what you're saying that you are sympathetic to what these Ankara

how to do I'm absolutely sympathetic, and that goes back to me growing up. I think about had that been my mother in nineteen. Eighty three fi was six seven years old, and my mother was told to read something like that she would have had the of, stand up for your values as a journalist and quit and lose your job and then find some way to feed your family or could have read it and done suck up and said all right. It's promo but I've. The work, and I want to be a journalist and- every single one of those anchors that has a family that has a spouse that has a connection to account do the that they have lived in four twenty or thirty or forty years. Every single one of them was in that position. And in what is your mother think about all of us. Did she walked that video of other Sinclair

you're saying the exact same thing. She saw it I'm sure she was as horrified is there to us she's out of the business for over in years now Yes, he lives in Seattle. Now she gets Como Sinclair station up there, but she doesn't want much and ass. They don't think she watches much tv I dont want much local tv anymore. Either we don't cable anymore, and where I live up in the mountains, you can't get anything over the air, so occasional EL streamer local news cast on my phone fund feeling nostalgic again, but I guess in some ways I've moved on to some. Both of you in a sense have started to give up a bit on tv news.

I think we have to wear. Thank you very much appreciate, Michael than my pleasure, we'll be right back. But you can use a snack right about now how about it. Hosty grill cheese sandwich just be one and if you happen to achieve gooey cheesy perfection, you maybe spired to upgrade your tiny drab kitchen. Only you won't be able to do it alone. Moment of new found passion the people of. U S. Bank wanna help no matter what your cooking up their dedicated to turning your new inspiration into your next pursuit. U S back equal housing under member if the icy

use what else you need to another day answering a question from a reporter aboard air force. One on Thursday president trunk denied, knowing about the one hundred and thirty thousand dollar payment, that his lawyer Michael. Sixteen election made to prevent her actress, Stephanie Clifford weeks before the twenty sixteen election, cheese was meant to prevent her from discussing an affair withdrawn in two thousand and six, the clean could complicate the present legal battle against Clifford claimed that the confidentiality agreement she sighed is involved because the president never signed by denying that he knew about any agreed. The president here to be confirming Clifford argument,

which could allow her to break her silence. Without consequence, the daily is produced my view, Belk Linsey years, Rachel Quest any bread and emails. I accessories common, clear telescope, peach cow and Michael Simon jobs, with editing help from the recent interest. The Tobin is our executive Produce Samantha Hennig is our editorial. Our technical manager is brand fish and our theme, music, is by your Bloomberg and then lands of wonder specialities.

To SAM doling Mikhail who shot and Daniel Ramirez. That's it I'm worried about you. Do you, Lloyd, tough problems and shy away from a debate. Do you think uncertainty limits potential? Neither do we have a university of Chicago Booth, school of business. We believe in asking questions and questioning answers with campuses. Chicago London and Hong Kong, the booth MBA is for people who see challenges as opportunities and want the skills to make positive change in any market anywhere in the world, ready to find York Kennedy Search Chicago booth that EU today to learn more