Well folks, say goodbye to Sinclair Broadcasting shortly. It's driving towards its demise. It is starting now with their Diamond Sports group and will spread more broadly. Eventually It will impact a whole bunch of local stations pushing conservative talking points. It appears that the entire right-wing ecosystem is in dissarray. OAN and Newsmax are being taken off of most cable and satellite feeds. Fox News facing potentially crippling payouts to Dominion from legal action to the point that the merger with News Corp was dropped. And now the demise of Sinclair coming into focus. Report: Bally Sports Owners Facing Bankruptcy Sinclair Broadcasting, the owner of the TV partner of the New Orleans Pelicans, is facing Chapter 11 bankruptcy. https://www.si.com/nba/pelicans/nba/bally-sports-owners-bankruptcy-pelicans Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns Bally Sports regional channels, is reportedly headed for "the biggest financial disaster in sports media history," according to Bloomberg analysis. Diamond Sports Group, the subsidiary that manages Sinclair Broadcast Group's 19 Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks, is facing crushing debt issues and is headed for bankruptcy. Bloomberg broke the news that "Diamond will probably skip a mid-February $140 million interest-only payment servicing around $8.6 billion in debt as it prepares for a Chapter 11 restructuring that will roil the $55 billion U.S. sports media business." Sinclair's third-quarter earnings report in November revealed the struggling broadcaster had hired advisers LionTree and Moelis & Co. to “talk to parties about deleveraging, strategic partnerships and things of that nature.” Under Bloomberg’s reported plan, Diamond would finish a restructuring in May or June, after any NBA playoff broadcast obligations for the Pelicans. A proposed restructuring of Sinclair Broadcast's Diamond Sports Group would turn over ownership to the largest creditors. Regional sports networks like Bally Sports New Orleans would take the brunt of any financial hits or cutbacks. Fans of the Pelicans most likely would not face significant in-season changes if those plans work out. However, Bally Sports New Orleans is still not available on YouTube TV, Hulu Live, and a few other popular streaming services. DirecTV and Spectrum remain the only current options but still require purchasing a separate, more expensive subscription. Diamond rolled out Bally Sports+ application this fall as a $20-plus per month subscription for regional channels and is now reportedly considering new individual game plans or just letting fans pay a smaller fee to watch the last few minutes of a game. There is doubt those options will change the broadcaster's fate. NBA teams have heard fan complaints about Bally Sports streams not working. That ongoing issue is "hurting the product and unacceptable to our organization” according to Greg Bensel, Senior VP of Communications. The Pelicans considered broadcasting games themselves after hearing from several broadcast rights bidders, including NBC. Bally Sports won the contract in no small part due to promising to “have a different feel” to the broadcast this season. This preseason, Bensel explained during a media conference call that negotiations included Bally Sports providing “enhancements from a production standpoint” including the camera and graphics packages. Now those plans have little financial backing. Sinclair reported in late 2022 Diamond was sitting on approximately $585 million in cash. The RSN streaming giant needs to pay team partners around $2 billion this year just to maintain its rights deals. Meanwhile, organizations depending on broadcast revenues will face severe belt-tightening, since rights deals can be terminated amid the restructuring. Bloomberg detailed how Diamond's $630-million first-lien loan is currently trading at just 92 cents on the dollar. The report explained how nearly $5 billion in “lower-ranked bonds” trading at under 10 cents on the dollar signals “a near-total wipeout for subordinated creditors,” the news service said. Sinclair wants to explore additional revenue streams using Bally Sports Plus for streaming options that charge customers by the game. However, Bloomberg states, "that kind of new revenue-stream talk is a day late and billions of dollars short." "When we constructed this new agreement with Bally Sports New Orleans the main priority was distribution and the ability to deliver our games directly to our fans...We are still working on every option with Bally Sports New Orleans to improve the accessibility, ancillary content, and distribution of Pelicans programming to all of our fans across Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region,” Dennis Lauscha, President of New Orleans Pelicans explained before the season. “We examined a number of options that were taken into consideration, but Bally Sports New Orleans, with its new Bally Sports+ platform and high-quality production, proved best for the Pelicans and their fans," explained Karen Brodkin, Executive Vice President of Endeavor, the consulting group that helped the Pelicans find a broadcast deal this summer. With just over half of the season already in the books, Bally Sports has fallen short of those expectations and its parent company is lacking operating cash. Now it appears the New Orleans Pelicans will have to go back to the drawing board for next season.
The Sinclair arm of the Kremlin is feverishly sliming Biden continuously. Sinclair floods local news websites with hundreds of deceptive articles about Biden's mental fitness https://popular.info/p/sinclair-floods-local-news-websites This month, Sinclair Broadcast Group has flooded a vast network of local news websites with misleading articles suggesting that President Biden is mentally unfit for office. The articles are based on specious social media posts by the Republican National Committee (RNC), which are then repackaged to resemble news reports. The thinly disguised political attacks are then syndicated to dozens of local news websites owned by Sinclair, where they are given the imprimatur of mainstream media brands, including NBC, ABC, and CBS. For example, on June 10, Biden attended an event on the White House lawn celebrating Juneteenth. The event included a musical performance, and Biden listened with a broad smile but did not dance. The RNC's "research" team posted a clip of Biden on X with the caption, "Why isn't Biden moving?" Hours later, the RNC's post was embedded into an article published by Sinclair's National Desk, with the headline, "Biden appears to freeze, slur words during White House Juneteenth event." The article claims, without evidence, that Biden was "dazed" and only "snapped out of his stupor" when the man next to him put his arm around his shoulder. It also quotes the Trump campaign's social media response to the same RNC video: "Lights are on but no one’s home." The incident was described as one of "multiple senior moments" for Biden during the event. The other "senior moment" highlighted in Sinclair's article is based on a clip posted on X by Fox News' Sean Hannity, one of Donald Trump's closest allies. Hannity posted a low-quality clip of Biden's speech at the event with the caption, "Biden sparks concern as he slurs his words during Juneteenth speech." Biden, who has been open about overcoming a stutter that he has had since childhood, slightly swallows the word "history." But the full video of his speech shows that he spoke clearly. The article concludes by promoting an absurd rumor, based on a deceptively edited clip, that Biden soiled himself on stage while attending a D-Day celebration in Europe a few days earlier. "Biden’s strange stooping motion caused several terms to trend on X, including 'diaper,' 'pooping' and 'pooped,'" Sinclair's National Desk reported. On June 6, Sinclair also devoted an entire article to amplifying the right-wing fabrication that Biden soiled himself on stage. The URL for the article even includes the word "pooping." According to Sinclair, the incident "paints a poor picture for President Biden, 81, who is fighting off harsh criticisms of his physical and mental capabilities." Another article referencing "pooping" was published by Sinclair and syndicated to its affiliates on June 7. Each of these crass political smears masquerading as journalism was syndicated to at least 86 local news websites owned by Sinclair. Articles produced by Sinclair's National Desk are published at the exact same time on every local website. The June 10 article, for example, was published on each website at exactly 9:24 AM Eastern. This suggests these articles are automatically syndicated, and local journalists at affiliates are not able to exercise editorial discretion. When these articles are syndicated, they appear alongside identically formatted articles on local government, weather, and sports. Sinclair did not respond to a detailed list of questions about these articles and its editorial practices. Instead, Sinclair sent the following statement: It is evident that you are promoting a specific agenda regarding Sinclair, a false narrative you continue to push irrespective of the facts, allowing you to gain clicks and some notoriety. We do not believe you can remain objective. On June 13, Sinclair's National Desk published an article headlined, "Biden appears to wander away during G7 summit, escorted back by Italian PM." The article links to a social media post by right-wing polemicist Collin Rugg, who commented on a video clip by RNC Research. Rugg says Biden "appears to start wandering off at the G7 summit and has to be handled back in," describing it as a "clown show." The Trump campaign claimed Biden was "wandering around like a brain-dead zombie." Sinclair, echoing the Trump campaign's political attack, described it as one of "a string of strange incidents for Biden." There was nothing strange about the incident. The G7 leaders watched a skydiving demonstration, with each parachuter carrying a flag for each nation. Biden briefly walks away from the group to give another parachuter a thumbs up. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Biden "was being very polite and went over to talk to all of them individually." Nevertheless, Sinclair framed the G7 incident as another example of Biden's mental infirmity. The article linked Biden's conduct to Sinclair's previous allegation that Biden was "dazed" during the Juneteenth celebration and suggestions that Biden soiled himself at the D-Day event. It was then syndicated to the same large network of local news affiliates. Baseless attacks by the RNC, the Trump campaign, and Sean Hannity were now legitimized under the branding of ABC, CBS, and NBC. Sinclar was participating in a disinformation campaign led by Trump supporters and Trump himself. "[Biden] goes over to France and something happened and it’s not good, I don’t know what it is," Trump said in an interview with right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. This is the level of journalism that is being automatically syndicated to dozens of local news outlets, which most Americans still trust as a source of information. The tactics Sinclair is using on local news websites are similar to those it is deploying on local television. Last week, Popular Information and Public Notice exposed how Sinclair aggressively promotes specious claims about President Joe Biden's fitness for office through dozens of local newscasts. The man behind the attacks All four Sinclair articles attacking Biden's age this month were written by Jackson Walker, a member of Sinclair's "Rapid Response Team." Walker was hired by Sinclair less than two months after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2023. Walker spent his college years writing for The College Fix, a national right-wing student publication. The College Fix is based in Hillsdale, Michigan, and is connected to Hillsdale College, a far-right educational institution closely aligned with Trump. The College Fix was founded in 2011 by John J. Miller, the director of journalism at Hillsdale College. Its purpose, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, is "to groom young conservatives for careers in the news media by placing college students in internships with right-leaning publications." Many academics have criticized The College Fix for factual inaccuracies, biased language, and publishing articles that "were completely off base." On X, Walker frequently highlights when his stories are circulated by Libs of TikTok, an anti-LGBTQ activist. Walker retweeted a post by Libs of TikTok that highlighted one of his articles and described the LGBTQ community as a "child mutilation cult." Other articles published by Walker this year include "US Oil & Gas Association accuses 'Leftists' of hypocrisy," "Stefanik files misconduct complaint against judge in Trump trial," "Female darts player forfeits competition over trans opponent," and "House Judiciary Committee slams Biden after Penguins bobblehead theft." Unlike the articles attacking Biden's age, however, these articles appear on a much smaller number of Sinclair affiliates.