Sinclair & the Growing Reach of Conservative Media

On the Media | May 12, 2017

For all the comparisons made this week between the Trump administration and the Watergate-era Nixon administration, one factor is decidedly different: the media landscape. Back in 1973, the media were almost universally critical of President Nixon. There was no “right-wing media” apparatus such as we recognize today -- at least not beyond the editorial pages.

Now, after several decades of consolidation and deregulation, there are Fox News and Breitbart and the Daily Caller and the Drudge Report to jump to the President’s defense. And, thanks to a recent change to FCC rules, America's right-wing media landscape seems poised to grow even stronger: on Monday, the conservative-leaning Sinclair Media put in a $3.9 billion dollar bid to buy Tribune Media, a purchase that would make Sinclair the largest TV broadcasting company in the country.

Bob speaks with Paul Farhi, who has been covering the Sinclair bid for the Washington Post, about what this deal might portend for the future of news.

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