President Donald Trump on Monday morning defended Sinclair Broadcasting after the company came under fire for requiring local news anchors to read promotional material alleging bias from other media organizations.
“So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased. Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke,“ the president tweeted Monday morning.
Trump’s tweet came several minutes after CNN aired a segment on a viral video from Deadspin that cut together footage from Sinclair-owned stations reading the same script on “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country.” CNN first reported on the promo.
Sinclair, a conservative-leaning company, owns or operates nearly 200 television stations in the U.S., including Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates.
The script also accuses “some members of the media“ of using “their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think.’“