Sinclair Fires Journalist

[opebo]

So who controls media, the owners or the employees?

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/2004/la-na-sinclair19oct19,1,4232426.story?coll=la-bottom-elect2004

[opebo]

When is the program going to air?

Whenever the Bush campaign and the owners think is best.

[opebo]

So who controls media, the owners or the employees?

The owners.  Opebo, that is why they are called owners.

Exactly. Which is why the fact that the employees are liberal is irrelevant; the owners are conservative.

Precisely so.  Some people are so literal-minded on here - you have to spell it out for them. 

[opebo]

You guys watching Sinclair's stock tank?

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SBGI&t=1d

Yeah, its tanking, but even if they lose the whole value of the station they'll gain a lot more in patronage if Bush is re-elected.

[opebo]

Business owners don't write the actual news coverage

They direct it down to minute detail, and also fire anyone who diverges from their planned propaganda.  That's one of the main benefits of owning a media outlet - automatic political influence.  See the article I linked at the beginning of this thread.

[opebo]

I'll certainly agree that the owners of this relatively small group of stations are.  This doesn't qualify as the entire media.  It doesn't even own a station in my market.

Do you know what percent of US households are covered by Sinclair stations?

No, but I do Sinclair owns slightly less than 7% of all commercial stations in the US and that the bulk of the stations it owns are not affiliated with the any of the three major, and higher rated, networks. 

You seem to be attempting to make two two points:

I think the two points were:

1)  It is the owner, not the employee journalist, who determines the political bias and campaign efforts of a media institution.

2)  While it is possible that not all owners are pro-Bush,  certainly a lot bigger percentage of owners are for Bush than journalists.

[opebo]

You going to tell me Ted Turner is a conservative?

THe cable news networks are run by the owners.  The network news is run by the editors, the owners focus more on the entertainment portion of the network since it makes far, far more money.

So, they own something and have the potential to completely control it, and thereby have great political influence, but don't bother because they're too busy worrying about reality shows.  Unlikely.  I think they will find time to control both in precisely the way they want.

[opebo]

So who controls media, the owners or the employees?

The owners.  Opebo, that is why they are called owners.

They don't own the airwaves, the public does. They can't do whatever they want with the airwaves.

I think they can right now, as the administration is in charge of the FCC.  Unless a court could block it?

[opebo]

The airwaves are regulated as interstate trade. They're public only in that sense.

I believe the airwaves are owned publicly and only licensed to corporations.

[opebo]

You can't have 100,000 people trying to broadcast to the same channel. So it's a regulated "trade."

The Congress's power to regulate interstate free trade shouldn't be seen as the power to censor.

Hah, then why can't I see porn on TV?

[opebo]

I will add that Sinclair is not running the entire documentary.

Yes!  They caved, the cowards.