Sinclair Broadcasting forced nearly 200 local news anchors to read the same propaganda script word-for-word

In March 2018, video journalist compiled footage showing something most Americans had never witnessed: dozens of local news anchors, working at stations across the country, reciting the exact same script word-for-word. They spoke in unison about fake news and irresponsible reporting. The coordinated message wasn't a coincidence or a voluntary decision made by local newsrooms. It was a directive from corporate headquarters.

Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns or operates more stations than any other company in America, had mandated the script. The company required nearly 200 news anchors at 45-plus local stations to read the identical warning to their viewers. Each anchor sat in front of their camera in cities from coast to coast and delivered talking points about the dangers of "one-sided news stories" that are "extremely dangerous to our democracy."

When the video went viral and reached millions of viewers, Sinclair's initial response was predictable. The company downplayed the requirement, characterizing it as a standard corporate practice—merely a shared editorial on media responsibility. Executives suggested critics were overreacting and that local stations maintained editorial independence. Some defended the script as a reasonable attempt to address legitimate concerns about media bias and misinformation.

This defense didn't hold up under scrutiny. News industry experts and media analysts pointed out that no other broadcasting group of comparable size had ever written news scripts and forced local anchors to deliver them verbatim. The practice was unprecedented in modern American broadcasting. Local news, by design and tradition, is supposed to be answerable to local communities, not controlled by corporate messaging departments hundreds of miles away.

The evidence went beyond the viral video. NPR's reporting documented how the mandate had actually worked in practice. Anchors were instructed to read the script "as written," leaving little room for modification or local judgment. Some anchors expressed discomfort with the directive in interviews, but they complied because their employment depended on it. The script itself was framed as corporate commentary, but its distribution method—mandatory broadcast on local news programs—blurred the line between news and propaganda.

What made this particularly significant was the scale and reach. Sinclair's stations covered a substantial portion of the American television market. When the company decided to use its local news platforms to amplify a corporate message, it affected millions of viewers who trusted those local anchors as community journalists. Those viewers had no way of knowing the words they were hearing came from a boardroom decision rather than local editorial judgment.

The incident revealed something uncomfortable about modern media consolidation. As ownership of local news stations concentrates in fewer corporate hands, the ability of any single company to shape the information environment across multiple markets increases dramatically. Local news, once independent and community-focused, had become another vehicle for centralized messaging.

This matters because public trust in news media depends partly on the belief that what you're watching reflects local journalistic standards and community values. When that trust is undermined by undisclosed corporate mandates, it damages the credibility of all local news. Viewers deserved to know whether the anchor speaking to them was expressing the station's judgment or reading corporate script. The Sinclair incident proved they didn't.