FCC to fine Sinclair $13 million over disguised commercials, highlighting merger concerns

The FCC will fine Sinclair Broadcasting Group $13.3 million for airing commercials disguised as news. Sinclair aired 1,700 spots – including news advertisements that were designed to look like news stories – for a Utah-based cancer research center in 2016.

Reuters’s report of the fine comes as the FCC considers Sinclair’s acquisition of Tribune Media. The deal would result in massive media consolidation with Sinclair reaching 72 percent of television households in the country – in violation of a congressional mandate. The FCC must decide if the Sinclair-Tribune merger is in the public interest.

Sinclair’s deceptive news segments highlight an issue critics of the merger have been raising for months. Sinclair is well-known for disguising editorials and its far-right-wing agenda as local news segments. For example, Sinclair forced its stations to run a segment called “Terrorism Alert Desk” that conflates Islam with terrorism. More recently, Sinclair stations have attacked the Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate group watchdog, with false and misleading claims, amplifying misinformation from far-right sources.

The FCC must decide if a merger to expand a broadcasting company fraught with deceptive editorial practices is in the public interest. Lawmakers have called for an investigation into Chairman Pai’s preferential treatment of the Sinclair-Tribune merger, but it’s tough to imagine how Pai will spin this into a positive for Sinclair. The FCC should deny the merger or, at the very least, pause the review of the merger in light of this fine.

Links:

Exclusive: FCC plans to fine Sinclair $13.3 million over undisclosed commercials (Reuters, Dec. 25, 2017)

Opposition to Sinclair-Tribune merger grows on left and right (Speed Matters, Aug. 11, 2017)

Lawmakers call for investigation into Pai’s treatment of Sinclair-Tribune merger (Speed Matters, Nov. 14, 2017)