HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from Sinclair's Soldiers in Trump's War on Media Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Sinclair's Soldiers in Trump's War on Media

Deadspin
Commentary
YouTube
3 HN users recommended this commentary3 months2020–2025 score 3.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN cites it as a vivid example of media consolidation and coordinated messaging.

A Deadspin compilation of local news anchors at Sinclair-owned stations reading the same scripted message about irresponsible one-sided news. It was assembled by Timothy Burke.

“the Deadspin video of dozens of local news anchors reading the same editorial content handed down by Sinclair Broadcast Group is striking” (HN, 2023)

1 strong recommendations · 2 recommendations · 7 citations · 10 critical · Commentary · partly dated

20 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@EGreg Dec 2020 Strongly recommends
on HN thread We can have democracy or we can have Facebook
Read more
It’s more than facebook. It’s CAPITALISM. People have to always preface any criticism of it by saying “there is nothing at all wrong with capitalism, but...” But no, the actual ECONOMIC SYSTEM and the incentives and constraints it exerts on institutions and organizations is responsible for what is happening. It selects for the current types of organizations and outcomes by its very nature. You see, both our news and our social networks are driven by a profit motive and face market competition . Thus they are forced to adapt to changing circumstancss in certain ways: Act 1. Journalism was disrupted by the Internet, and survived by adopting the FOX News model of locking in an audience and being biased, showing one part of the story. MSNBC explicitly did it, while CNN jumped the shark after the Malaysian Airlines flight, realizing it can lock in audience. One sided clickbait outrage articles are the norm. There is some attempt to have journalistic integrity and policy focus at Vox and NowThis, but then you also have MotherJones, OccupyDemocrats, DailyKos and more on the left. You have all kinds of independent podcasts like TYT network, Kyle Kulinski, David Pakman, Majority Report, etc. And similarly for the conservatives, libertarians, etc. We are divided also because giant corporations like Sinclair Television bought up all the local stations and outlets, resulting in this: [this video] No really, watch it. It’s black mirror level, and you can see the capitalism at work here. Top do
Sinclair stations reading identical scripts
@Minor49er Mar 2022 Recommends
on HN thread DuckDuckGo “down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation”
It doesn't need to be a secret. If you have a megaphone that everyone hears all the time, you will simply have more influence than people who whisper quietly. 6 companies dominate the media [1] which together make up at least 90% of all media [2]. Note that this isn't limited to just news. [1] [link] [2] [link] Also, you might find this video either amusing or alarming [this video]
Local stations reading identical scripts
@justin66 Feb 2023 Recommends
on HN thread Half of Americans now believe that news organizations deliberately mislead them
> In one small consolation, in both cases Americans had more trust in local news. This trust in "local" news is often misplaced given how many local news outlets - television stations or newspapers - have been subsumed by larger interests. For anyone who hasn't seen it, the Deadspin video of dozens of local news anchors reading the same editorial content handed down by Sinclair Broadcast Group is striking: [this video] [link] There is an awful lot of really, really good stuff put out by local newspapers and TV stations but people ought to be thoughtful about their use of any media.
Shows dozens of local anchors reading identical Sinclair-supplied script.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@indrora Nov 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Students pay price for UM diversity goals (2019)
Read more
Conjecture, but backed up by the experiences I had with Journalism classes in college, part of my major: Such pieces are typically written by a high-ranking individual within the publication, but they wish to deflect the backlash that can come from writing such a piece, so the "staff" name is used to shield the writer from criticism. It's mostly Must-Run content: Content that a funding source or otherwise powerful position within the organization has deemed must be printed. Must-Run content is commonly used to burn or otherwise redirect vitriol, or more often establish a common message among many publications. Such things are also used to push local news outlets to [tow a line]( [this video] ) by their parent organizations (such as Sinclair Media group) In the case of staff revolting, it's used to shield the individuals. In the case of a single high ranking individual, it's used to shield the individual by forcing the group to take the hit. The practice is common enough it is [regularly a topic of discussion in citation styles]( [link] ).
Sinclair pushing must-run content to local outlets
@KronisLV Dec 2021 Cites it
on HN thread For Third Year, Committee to Protect Journalists Excludes Assange
Read more
I think that most systems are flawed and, given enough time, will be corrupted and ruined. That has happened with (to my knowledge) every communist nation out there, from USSR to Cuba. Similarly, that has already happened with the capitalist US: corporate interests over those of people, and the interests of the rich over everyone else; at times, it's something like the plot right out of a Deus Ex game: [this video] . Honestly, the same is also probably happening with the more socialist leaning EU, at least based on how many stories about corruption and bribes one hears on the news in my country, not even thinking about the same on a grander scale. I don't really have any solutions to offer or ideologies to push and i'm not sure whether individuals being politically active is (always) even that effective, just look at Russia and how many people there are in prisons, or how polarized everything is in US with identity politics. All i can say for sure is that humans and human nature are the common denominator in every single one of those systems, in which the reality eventually differs from the theory behind them.
Corporate interests over people
@specialist Mar 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Chinese disinformation targeting U.S. features fake people on fake news programs
Max Headroom goes mainstream. This tech will save the Murdochs, Sinclairs, every purveyor of infotainment, so much money . No more salaries for anchors. No more huge payouts to settle (sexual) harassment and descrimination lawsuits. Agitprop like this will be automated, turnkey, ubiquitous: Sinclair's Local News Anchors all Read Same Script [this video] So much potential. These are exciting times for trolls and grifters.
Sinclair anchors reading same script, cited as automation precedent.
@bombastry May 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Former Deadspin writer raided by FBI for Fox News hack
Read more
To provide a bit of context, this article is about Timothy Burke. His most famous work is the compilation video of news anchors on Sinclair-owned local news stations reading the same script about how media bias is "extremely dangerous to our democracy".[1] He is also known for breaking the infamous Manti Te'o fake girlfriend story.[2] Additionally, he is noted for having a complicated computing setup to monitor, archive, and disseminate videos from dozens of live sources simultaneously. Some of these details appeared in a profile by the New York Times [3] and also appear in this article. Burke often shares short clips of offbeat moments from sports and news channels. The article states that he has recently shared behind-the-scenes clips of Tucker Carlson on his former Fox show; it appears likely that this raid was related to determining the origin of those clips. [1] [this video] [2] [link] [3] [link]
Compilation of Sinclair anchors reading the same script, by Timothy Burke.
@trod123 Oct 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Uber terms mean couple can't sue after 'life-changing' crash
Read more
Voting - First-pass-the-post fails mathematically once two majority parties come to power, no third party can win, and if both parties are subverted (into one hidden party with a hidden agenda) democracy then fails. We are seeing a perfect example of this with regards to Harris/Trump. Trump closely aligns with Fascism, Harris policies closely align with Marxism/Communism. You only have a choice between the two, is that even a choice? Protest - Has always relied on the inherent threat of violence and leaders being responsive to the groups involved. It has been shown in the last 20 years that the threat of violence no longer works, and leaders have learned to be no longer responsive at all once they have been elected so long as they don't commit any crimes or scandals that would force removal of them from their positions. Additionally, when protests occur, surveillance of any protest guarantees government retaliation moving forward for all individuals involved. Surveillance is never by itself, there is always government harassment associated with it that are often impossible to prove. Any protester has likely seen the telltale signs of this, and it never ends. (i.e. mail goes missing, both sending and receiving, communications/cell phone calls become unreliable in ways ou can't know a message was sent, internet services may throw weird errors on a continual basis, email/submissions dropped silently (i.e. job applications/resumes, or other high importance items like taxes). Crim
Sinclair anchors reading identical script.
@cryptoz Jun 2021 Pushes back
on HN thread King County, WA bans facial recognition software
The linked source is a Sinclair News outlet. They are probably the worst media conglomerate in America honestly. Their news is constant fear and I view anything by them as poisonous information because it is just as likely meant to mislead as it is to inform. Sure, KOMO publishes some real news. They also publish lies and wildly misleading stuff. [this video] [link]
@cies Jul 2022 Pushes back
on HN thread Yes, social media is undermining democracy
Which democracy? The US is barely democratic. To be truly democratic in my book, the people need to rule. Voting on one of 2 evils every few years while having "your representatives" raped by lobbyists 24/7 is not people ruling: it's a facade for a system in which money rules. Pieces like this merely serve as a pretext for your fake-democracy to get more powers to sensor the, in this case, "social" media. [this video]
@LinuxBender Nov 2024 Pushes back
on HN thread Ask HN: What Is Wrong with the News?
What do you consider "the news" Skimming the Infotainment dopamine sites for fun but not for news. There has never been a news site and probably won't ever be in my opinion. Not newspapers, radio, television, scrawling on cave walls. Everyone has multiple agendas, hidden agendas and some more obvious. Somewhat off topic from your question I enjoy when people make a mashup of all the "news" sites repeating the exact narratives they were given verbatim whilst playing circus music. Example [1] [1] - [this video] [video][2 mins][warning: does not contain circus music]
@genewitch Feb 2025 Pushes back
on HN thread The Deep Research problem
Read more
a sincere question; how is >A "review website" which is all that, but with fake reviews that promote one brand over the others… a chain of such websites that link to each other to boost PageRank scores… which are then cross-linked with a huge number of social media bots…" functionally different than a majority of news outlets in the US parroting the exact same story, verbatim? This is extremely dangerous to our democracy. [this video] * please note, i am glibly linking that youtube video as a completely transparent example of what i am talking about. There are many (many) more examples. don't read into the content of the video so much, and just think about the implications.
@KennyBlanken Jun 2025 Pushes back
on HN thread Musk-Trump dispute includes threats to SpaceX contracts
First off, Trump skyrocketed to political fame with his nonsense claims about Obama's citizenship. The slide started in the 80's when Reagan killed off the 'fairness doctrine' which meant news outlets could present completely one-sided coverage of an issue. Couple that with massive consolidation of newspapers and TV news stations where all the programming is heavily coordinated and groups like Sinclair started pushing identically worded "false news" narratives across all their stations: [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close