Tomgram: Jay Rosen on a political empire made of TV stations

Practically everyone in America must know by now that Sinclair Broadcasting, a media conglomerate that owns 62 local TV stations nationwide (but none in Washington, New York, or Los Angeles), threatened to air an anti-Kerry "documentary" called Stolen Honor in prime time in the home stretch of the presidential election. A storm of protest on and off the Internet, loss of advertisers, complaints from shareholders, and a drop in the company's stock price forced Sinclair's execs to pull back from the brink of their right-wing political message and air instead a relatively innocuous, "balanced" show.

As Bob Zelnick, former ABC reporter and head of Boston University's journalism program, pointed out recently, "market pressures worked on Sinclair exactly as they should have." End of story. At least, say others, end of story if John Kerry is elected.

Well, says Jay Rosen, journalism reformer and NYU professor, think again. Sinclair -- along with its radio counterpart Clear Channel Communications -- isn't just a typical media conglomerate that happens to have a sideline political message; it's something new in our media world, a political empire made up of television stations. And whoever is elected next week, we better all brace ourselves.

The largest owner of television stations in America, Sinclair until recently existed under the media radar screen, lacking as it does a presence/outlet in America's political and media capitals. Now it's swept out of the imperial provinces and into the glare of media attention. Though we don't yet have a media mogul with a Sinclair-like reach running for office, Italy has been living with the equivalent for years. What we may, in fact, be seeing is the first stage of the Berlusconization of the United States.

Jay Rosen offers below a sobering assessment of the new kid on the media block, one that points us beyond the usual frameworks and towards possible futures that threaten to toss the normal business model of a media corporation out the window. Rosen's weblog Press Think, which is his own little magazine of the Internet, is a daily must-stop for news and newspaper junkies. Now, step out of the frame, off the charts, and into one possible media future. Tom

Off The Charts

Sinclair Broadcasting's Political Vision
By Jay Rosen

On October 7th I was interviewed by Elizabeth Jensen, a media-beat reporter for the Los Angeles Times, who sometimes calls me for expert commentary. She had some news and wanted to get my reaction, but my first reaction was disbelief. My second reaction was: This is going to be huge. What she described sounded so improbable. (And in fact it never came to pass.)

Click here to read more of this dispatch.