Trump to have a second town hall on right-leaning Sinclair stations
Joe Biden was also allegedly offered an opportunity to have a town hall with group.
President Donald Trump is headed to a town hall with Sinclair Broadcast Group.
It was recently announced that the president will participate in the town hall moderated by ex-Fox News conservative host, Eric Bolling, whose show, America This Week, airs on Sinclair. The Wednesday night event will air on the broadcast company’s CW and MyNet stations.
Sinclair Broadcasting says that it also offered a spot to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden according to Scott Livingston, Sinclair senior vice president of news, reports Deadline.
“We have been in touch with his team and we are hopeful that we will be able to feature him and bring his policy positions directly to the voters in a similar fashion,” Livingston said in a statement.
Trump has a long history with Sinclair Broadcast Group. As Vox reported, Sinclair came under scrutiny in 2018 after segments from various news outlets owned by the company all echoed the same anti-media rhetoric. Deadspin even created a video of the hosts all eerily making the same statements.
A study of Sinclair by political scientists concluded that when the company would acquire a station, the news coverage would lean conservative. The researchers also found that viewership declined after the change in coverage. As Vox points out, “the rightward tilt isn’t enacted as a strategy to win more viewers but as part of a persuasion effort.”
When Trump got wind of folks accusing Sinclair of being biased he sent out this tweet, “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.”
Despite claims of them being fake, Trump recently sat down with NBC News for a town hall with Savannah Guthrie. The debate got heated very quickly as Gurthie questioned Trump on an array of topics from his coronavirus diagnosis to the conspiracy group, QAnon. In regards to his testing positive for COVID-19, he admits it isn’t on his daily schedule. And when it comes to tweeting about conspiracy groups, he says it was just a retweet.
Read More: Biden campaign warns Trump ‘can still win this race’
“That was a retweet, that was an opinion of somebody, and that was a retweet. I’ll put it out there, people can decide for themselves, I don’t take a position,” Trump responded to Guthrie.
“I don’t get that,” Guthrie responded. “You’re the president — you’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever!”
After the town hall, Trump’s campaign sent out a statement that he “soundly defeated NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in her role as debate opponent and Joe Biden surrogate.”
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
More About:Politics
You Might Like
