Snow was falling on Monday at the end of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The talk of the evening was expected to be about the Iowa caucuses, the Emmys, and football. At around six pm local news went sideways with the following announcement:
The Baltimore Sun purchased by Sinclair’s David D. Smith, Lorraine Mirabella, Baltimore Sun
Smith is the Executive Chair of Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which includes Baltimore’s Fox 45 channel.
A spokesman for Sinclair said Monday that Smith made the acquisition with his personal assets and that “Sinclair Inc. has no involvement with the transaction. Mr. Smith will continue to be our executive chairman and chairman of the board.”
There was a time when ownership of a major newspaper and a television station in one market would have been blocked by the FCC, under a law passed in 1975.* (See explanation below.) Since 1996, however, the FCC’s commitment to preserving a significant variety of voices in local media has wavered, if not crumbled. Sinclair is the second-largest television station operator in the United States. Now Smith, the Chair of Sinclair, owns the largest print newspaper in the Baltimore area. The purchase includes the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Carroll County Times, Towson Times, and others, expanding his reach throughout the state.
Sinclair made waves in the news world in 2018 when they required that local anchors read a prepared text that warned of “fake news” from its competitors.
Sinclair Broadcast Group Forces Nearly 200 Station Anchors To Read Same Script, David Folkenflik, NPR
More recently, this involvement in Baltimore City politics caused concern:
“Ads in Baltimore states attorney race were funded by family of Sinclair broadcast group chairman” Sam Janesch, Baltimore Sun
You can learn more about Smith in this article from the Baltimore Banner:
The Baltimore Sun Media Group sold to local businessman David Smith, Liz Bowie, Emily Sullivan, Cody Boteler
My biggest concern about Smith’s ownership of the Sun is the continued consolidation of local news by one media conglomerate. It’s more than any disagreement with Smith’s politics. For journalism to truly serve a free and democratic nation it must be able to represent a variety of voices. Some days it will comfort the afflicted. Other days it will afflict the comfortable. On all days it will present facts that its readers need to navigate community life.
Allowing one person who represents one point of view to control such a large chunk of Baltimore news media - - especially given that person’s record - - is foolhardy and dangerous. The more that independent voices are extinguished, the weaker our democracy.
There are wonderful people working for the Sun and its associated papers and my heart goes out to them. They had no choice in this matter. These local journalists deserve to be able to do the kind of reporting that has continued the make the Sun noteworthy year after year. Right now their future is unknown.
Today I’m going to cancel my subscription to the Sun. It was on my list anyway, as they had raised the subscription rate twice in the last six weeks. I already subscribe to the Baltimore Banner, which looks to be committing more resources to covering Howard County. I’m going to take the money I will be saving and start sending it to Baltimore Beat.
Baltimore Beat is a Black-led, Black-controlled nonprofit newspaper and media outlet. Our mission is to honor the tradition of the Black press and the spirit of alt-weekly journalism with reporting that focuses on community, questions power structures, and prioritizes thoughtful engagement with our readers.
We aim to serve all of Baltimore City, including those with limited internet access and those who are a part of underrepresented communities.
Our organization aspires toward a more equitable, accountable, and rigorous future for journalism that fully represents the stories of all our neighbors. - - Baltimore Beat
Under the leadership of Editor in Chief Lisa Snowden, the Beat is already doing things no other Baltimore news organization is doing: amplifying independent voices and reaching Baltimoreans who have been traditionally ignored by local media outlets. That mission is even more crucial now with the Sun’s new ownership.
Go read the most recent issue of the Beat. It’s free. Then think about a Baltimore where those voices are drowned out or forgotten.
Believing in a healthy democracy means supporting a free and independent press. If one player owns most of the marbles, how free can it be?
*In 1975, the FCC passed the newspaper and broadcast cross-ownership rule.This ban prohibited the ownership of a daily newspaper and any "full-power broadcast station that serviced the same community". This rule emphasized the need to ensure that a broad number of voices were given the opportunity to communicate via different outlets in each market. Newspapers, explicitly prohibited from federal regulation because of the guarantee of freedom of the press in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, were out of the FCC's jurisdiction, but the FCC could use the ownership of a newspaper as a preclusion against owning radio or television licenses, which the FCC could and did regulate.
The FCC designed rules to make sure that there is a diversity of voices and opinions on the airwaves. "Beginning in 1975, FCC rules banned cross-ownership by a single entity of a daily newspaper and television or radio broadcast station operating in the same local market." The ruling was put in place to limit media concentration in TV and radio markets, because they use public airwaves, which is a valuable, and now limited, resource. - - “Media cross-ownership in the United States”, Wikipedia
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