Left Vs Right John Oliver Fake News and Sinclair Broadcast Group Merger Essay

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Fake News: John Oliver and Sinclair Broadcast Group

Comedian John Oliver did a segment on Sinclair Broadcast Group, essentially asserting that the television behemoth had a conservative bias, which slanted news towards falsehoods and non-facts. Oliver’s criticisms of Sinclair arose during a time when the broadcast group was close to sealing the deal on a merger with Tribune Media, a deal which was worth just under $4 billion and which would have a significant impact in the consolidation of local television networks. This is the event that caused so much of the controversy, as some political commentators seemed to think this would cause alt-right messaging in local news profiles, whereas others dismissed it as a business as usual.

Oliver used his platform on his weekly HBO show to assert that the predominantly right-wing prejudice that Sinclair demonstrated, which he said rivaled that Fox News and Breitbart, was often riddled with lies—a statement that was made with repeated humorous jokes, but also clear examples directly from the media of attack ads riddled with falsehoods (Locker). For example, Oliver played a piece of local news originating from the Sinclair Group, which asserted that Obama had amassed over $750 million during one of his presidential campaigns and that Obama had never revealed where the money had originated. The ad supposed that perhaps this was because some of it was from the terrorist group Hamas. Clearly this ad used the word “might” and did not assert an outright lie; however, speculations such as these given over mass media channels could influence viewers: not everyone might understand that these statements are wild speculations and not being asserted as facts (Locker).

One of the major issues with the television conglomerate that Oliver was quick to point out was not merely that it was exceedingly conservative, “adding it wouldn't be a problem if ‘the opinions were confined to the commentary or the ad breaks.’ Oliver, though, said Sinclair steers the ideology and tone of broadcasts across the country on TV stations it owns. He said Sinclair distributes news scripts to its stations, one of which suggested the FBI’s investigation into President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn was politically or personally motivated” (Breland).

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For example, Sinclair Media Group had local news broadcasters all over the nation reciting this piece of text into the homes of Americans all over the country. “Did the FBI have a personal vendetta in pursuing the Russian investigation against President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn?” Sinclair anchors wondered in front of camera rolling all across the nation (Breland). Oliver noted that one of the major issues with certain Sinclair segments is that some of them are presented to media stations as “must run” and that these segments are being run during local news: the key problem that Oliver noted is that none of these segments were presented as commentary, but as fact (Locker). The problems within this are obvious: opinions should not be presented as facts and delivered on a local format that people trust: it resembles a willful manipulation of the American public (Locker).

However, not everyone sees this as a danger; many view the merger as a routine business deal and find Oliver’s statements to amount to nothing more than hysterics (Smith). Consider the following summary: “The Right is gaining more platforms to deliver its take on the news, and this trend is posing a danger to the historically unbiased, nonpartisan, straight-down-the-middle reporting of the major media. Who says so? Why, John Oliver” (Smith). The argument here is clear: the major media is already biased and the bias that exists is often towards the left. Thus, by this argument there’s no harm in giving more right-leaning journalists a platform,….....

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"Left Vs Right John Oliver Fake News And Sinclair Broadcast Group Merger", 29 September 2017, Accessed.20 May. 2025,
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