A viral video of local news anchors at stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group reading out the same promo about "fake news" has deeply disturbed our nation's gatekeepers.
MSNBC's Joy Reid called the Deadspin video "expertly creepy." "Morning Joe's" co-hosts called it "frightening" and "chilling." CNN media analyst Bill Carter said it was "propaganda." Before playing the montage, MSNBC's Katy Tur said, "This should freak you out."
The implication: The Trump administration has engineered an army of North Korean-style agitprop spewers brainwashing the public. An "echo chamber," if you will.
And I'll admit, when I first heard about this SuperCut, I expected to watch a cringeworthy reel of reporters calling Donald Trump our God Emperor who has made 250 holes-in-one and cured AIDS.
But read the text of the promo, from KOMO in Seattle:
Our greatest responsibility is to serve our Northwest communities. We are extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that KOMO News produces. But we’re 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, some media outlets publish these same fake stories … stories that just aren’t true, without checking facts first. Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think.' This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.
At KOMO it’s our responsibility to pursue and report the truth. We understand Truth is neither politically ‘left nor right.’ Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever.
But we are human and sometimes our reporting might fall short. If you believe our coverage is unfair please reach out to us by going to KOMOnews.com and clicking on CONTENT CONCERNS. We value your comments. We will respond back to you.
We work very hard to seek the truth and strive to be fair, balanced and factual… We consider it our honor, our privilege to responsibly deliver the news every day.
Thank you for watching and we appreciate your feedback.
This is the terrible propaganda message?
If I've read correctly, Sinclair is concerned about fake news spread on social media, wants to do factual reporting, and wants to be held accountable for any unfair coverage.
But because Sinclair is conservative-leaning and received a tweet of support from a president who has often decried fake news—and wrongly equated that term with news he simply doesn't care for—there has been non-stop handwringing about the pending end of our republic and the death of a free press.
Excuse me for rolling my eyes.
How could CNN fault Sinclair for a promo asserting its commitment to the truth? For months, the network has run a pretentious group of "Apple" ads touting its own commitment to "Facts First."
How could MSNBC be so upset? Loyal viewers are frequently subjected to "This Is Why You Watch" ads featuring their personalities doing things like pumping up the Parkland high school students advocating gun control. Another one from 2016 featured Hillary Clinton telling Andrea Mitchell how she loved her.
After Barack Obama was re-elected in 2012, a Rachel Maddow-narrated commercial aired for months spiking the football over his victory. For years, the progressive network ran "Lean Forward" ads espousing messages like children belonging to their communities and Republicans being like thieves stealing blueberry pie.
As we've shown for years at the Washington Free Beacon, it's downright eerie how often the media talkers and anchors seem to service a Democratic Party or liberal message, whether it's on gun control, Fire and Fury, tax reform, Oprah Winfrey for president, or how Clinton once had the best 10 days ever, just to name a few.
To hear them all in unison again against a message blasting media biases and agendas is too perfect.