A Threat to Our Democracy

Multiple News station have been reported saying the exact phrase word for word, what does this mean for news?

Nicholas Perreault, Staff Writer

The Sinclair Broadcast Group owns over 173 different local news stations. A chilling video recently surfaced of the Sinclair news stations reading a script word for word all at the same time. With so many news stations directing the same biases and news at so many people what will happen to the modern news flow?

Modern news stations often cover many different stories along with different perspectives of the same story. Most viewers jump back and forth between stations to insure they get the whole story with both sides. The Sinclair broadcasting group makes the idea of avoiding biases much harder, and it also sheds light on the matters of fake news and biases in the media.

“This Represents a threat to our democracy”. These chilling words were spoken on each station Sinclair owns. The video (made by Deadspins Video Director Timothy Burke) that gained much popularity on the forum site Reddit lined all of the news stations up side by side. Each station spoke in sync saying those words. The notion is terrifying. So many news outlets regulated to state the same scripted speech implies a true threat. With the news being so regulated how can one find an unbiased story. These stations control a majority of news and with Sinclair regulating, “fake news” could occur. When asked, Peter Censullo had this to say on the subject: “It’s a real threat to our democracy.”

Recent times have highlighted how so much of the media are biased and filled with stories you cannot fully trust. In the past the news was the news, no politics or opinions intertwined. It is important that as a reader, watcher, or as a person that you stay aware of what you are reading and to see through and “fake news” and bias that may come your way in the modern media.

Picture taken from the Comparison video of the Sinclair news stations