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Sinclair Broadcasting Posts Huge Quarterly Loss After Jimmy Kimmel Censorship
from the whoops-I-tripped-over-my-own-ass dept
You might recall that right wing propaganda broadcaster Sinclair Broadcasting recently tripped over its own ass after working with the Trump administration to try and censor Jimmy Kimmel for criticizing the President. The flood of outrage at the Disney/FCC/ABC collaborative effort ultimately forced the company to retreat and put Kimmel back on the air.
Even after ABC retreated, Sinclair tried to push its luck and extend the “pre-emption,” but ultimately buckled and got absolutely none of what it asked for (including an apology from Kimmel for doing nothing wrong). Now Sinclair Broadcasting’s latest earnings reports indicate that things aren’t going well for the company, which posted a 16 percent quarterly loss.
It’s not clear how much of the loss was due to Kimmel backlash and cancellations, and the company wasn’t willing to talk about it. More annoyingly, none of the “journalists” on the company’s earnings call asked them about one of the biggest moments in the company’s recent history:
“It’s not clear the extent to which the Kimmel boycott affected Sinclair’s financial results for the quarter; the company did not provide any discussion of the blackout in its earnings press release and the topic did not come up on the call with analysts.”
Most companies carefully screen what kind of journalists are allowed on earnings conference calls, and then screen questions ahead of time so executives don’t have to deal with uncomfortable realities like: “it’s not good business to be weird partisan zealots who engage in censorship of comedians because they made a mild joke about your mad, idiot king.”
There’s a lot trending against Sinclair Broadcasting. For one, the public’s appetite for right wing propaganda pretending to be useful local news is dwindling. Broadcast TV continues to see slow declines as users shift to streaming. And Sinclair is dealing with a blackout of its ABC affiliate stations on YouTube TV due to an ongoing retransmission feud between ABC/Disney and Google.
Sinclair Broadcasting’s lobbying helped install Trump sycophant Brendan Carr at the FCC. As we’ve discussed, Carr doesn’t actually believe in things like corporate oversight or healthy market protection, and is actively helping Trump defang what’s left of media and consumer protection oversight. So it was interesting to see Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley beg for regulatory intervention in the dispute:
“On the earnings call, Sinclair president and CEO Chris Ripley noted that Sinclair’s ABC stations are currently affected by the Disney-YouTube TV dispute, which has resulted in a blackout of ABC, as well as ESPN and other networks, on YouTube TV since last Friday. Sinclair has 38 ABC affiliates. He blasted both both Google and Disney for the situation, calling them “media giants,” and said local broadcasters are “caught in the middle” of such disputes — which he labeled an “antitrust issue.”
All out of fresh ideas on how to grow its business organically, Ripley is pushing hard for the Trump administration to destroy whatever is left of media consolidation limits so Sinclair can ultimately merge with Tegna and Nexstar and create one big, shitty, right wing company to dominate whatever is left of U.S. local broadcasting.
They want government handcuffed and completely out of their hair when it’s inconveniently preventing them from harming competition and consumers through consolidation and predatory behavior, but then to step in, competently, when it suits their interests. That generally doesn’t work out well for anybody.
Filed Under: brendan carr, censorship, consolidation, earnings, fcc, jimmy kimmel, journalism, local broadcasting, media, mergers, propaganda
Companies: sinclair
Comments on “Sinclair Broadcasting Posts Huge Quarterly Loss After Jimmy Kimmel Censorship”
Sinclair is certainly mostly loosing on the now oversaturated right-wing media market. Google/Disney feud is just an excuse.
Journalists don't join earnings calls
I’m as skeptical of Sinclair as much as the next BestNetTech reader but Karl continues to exaggerate.
Journalists do not join quarterly earnings calls. Those calls are for analysts from the investment research firms. Claiming that these are supposedly biased journalists is a complete lie.
Karl, don’t be as bad as Sinclair. Tell the truth.
Re:
That’s a strange statement to make when it’s quite common for them to do that, especially when it comes to notable companies. And this may blow your mind, some journalists are also business analysts!
Why are you making shit up? If Sinclair only allows pre-screened journalists on the earnings call that they know will behave those journalists are de facto biased.
Don’t be as bad as Sinclair, don’t make shit up.
Re:
This is the slongle stupidest fucking thing I’ve read in a long while. Congrats on that feat.
They are entirely consistent
Regulation that’s good for me is good for everyone. Regulation that is bad for me must therefore be bad for everyone…
Think they'll notice?
Hey Sinclair, if we wanted Fox news, we would watch Fox news. We’re not watching Fox news, so…
No Journalists on Earnings Call
It’s large investor reps on the earnings calls, not journalists. Given how important access is to them, there’s zero chance they’re going to ask anything embarrassing in that call, especially when they already know most of the answer. The next general shareholder meeting is hopefully another story….
Re:
Another one who thinks that journalists doesn’t attend earnings calls, what are you basing that argument on?
I know for a fact that journalists attend earnings calls for notable companies (if allowed) because those calls are often newsworthy.
Re: Re:
It looks to me that U.S. companies might actually be legally required to allow the general public (including journalists) onto their earnings calls. Here are a couple of PDFs about legal compliance:
* Earnings Releases: Legal Requirements & Practice Tips
* Earnings Release Compliance Guide Public Company Tool Kit
Those are not 100% clear about whether a company could meet their requirements some other way, such as by posting a summary ahead of time or a transcript shortly thereafter. The company can probably choose who, if anyone, is allowed to ask questions. But the calls basically have to be public, and transcripts of Sinclair’s calls are easily found online.
Also, investment analysis is a type of journalism: “the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the ‘news of the day’ and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy.” Journalism’s usually meant for a public audience, but doesn’t have to be.
“Local broadcasters”
Sinclair, you ain’t that, and you don’t give a shit about local broadcasters other than raiding them
Payments are backward
Maybe ABC will figure out that they should be paying YouTube TV for the service of distributing their content to a large viewer-base. The distribution payments have always seemed backwards to me. The broadcasters are outsourcing distribution and expecting the service provider to pay them. Maybe the next time I need to get my car serviced, I’ll see which garage will pay me the most.
Re:
No. They’ll eventually just go extinct, but in the haze of mergers and spinoffs and rebrandings it’ll be difficult to tell.
You could’ve said the same about iCraveTV or Netflix or Aereo, or about the VCR long before them. People who see where things are going aren’t going to work at the traditional media companies, which means those companies will only get more out of touch over time. And they’ll be fighting against everything that could save them.
I love that he put “journalists” in quotes to disparage them, implying that he is above them, and yet wrote this article that has little journalistic merit. This is an opinion piece stuffed full of bias written to dump on people he doesn’t like so that the people who agree with him will cheer him on. If he thinks he is a journalist, he is very incorrect. He is just another of the millions of internet trolls and his writing seems best suited for arguing with bots on Twitter.
Re:
The people who lack self awareness are the biggest projectors, a group you belong to.
On top of that, you don’t even seem to understand that all opinion pieces are by their very nature stuffed with bias, just like your argument here is stuffed full of bias.
Also, journalists are supposed to ask probing questions – when they don’t to keep their interviewee happy they are “journalists”. Get it?
Now go back and wallow in your self inflicted misery and stupidity.
Re: Re:
A journalist who doesn’t ask questions and just repeats what they’re told uncritically is not a journalist, they’re a stenographer or unpaid PR agent.
'The only good regulation is a republican written regulation!'
Republicans: Regulations are a bane of existence and have no business in a free and fair market!
Also republicans: This other company is doing something I don’t like and/or hurting my/my company’s profits, regulate it so it can’t do that any more!
Sinclair is garbage. May they rot!