Media has become big business. Historically, the media's job was to inform. Now, the job of media has become to sell. The media's job of selling is only accomplished by capturing an audience. Capturing an audience today requires a high level of entertainment value (note C-SPAN's ratings). Most Americans now get their news via Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jon Stewart and the like. Mainstream media has certainly noticed this trend. Mixing news with entertainment has now become the norm.
Many Americans are upset about Sinclair Broadcasting. Sinclair is a symptom of a much larger problem. Nevertheless RestoreUS.Org intends to address the symptoms as a way of fixing the more systemic issues.
Sinclair was founded in 1986 and is traded on the Nasdaq Exchange (symbol SBGI). Sinclair has 20 FOX, 19 WB, 6 UPN, 8 ABC, 3 CBS, 4 NBC and 2 independent stations in the United States and is in 24% of all households.
There are many debatable issues concerning Sinclair. Are there editorials fair? Do they slant their news? Do they have the right to slant their news on the public airwaves? Did they try to influence the past election? Is the FCC doing an adequate job at enforcing their rules? For opinons on these questions see Sinclair Action web site
These are valid questions. However, RestoreUS.Org will choose to wait on addressing these issues. Instead, we will approach this from another viewpoint. Let's presume, Sinclair, via the first amendment, has every right to do what they have done. Then, at a minimum, Sinclair's business model includes an active and high profile role within politics.
What Will We Do?
This is where RestoreUS.Org will proactively and aggressively exercise our first amendment rights.
RestoreUs.Org will get our message out loud and clear by communicating through mechanisms which corporations (including the media) understand.
It is important for corporate america to analyze whether their business model should include being active in politics in a regular and high profile manner.
Stay Tuned for details on how RestoreUS.Org will address corporate america in general and Sinclair in particular if they choose to make politics part of their business model.
