Is the current state of WJLA the future of WJAR?
On August 20, Media General reached an agreement to sell WJAR to Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Sinclair also recently closed on a deal with Allbritton Communications, and with that changes at Allbritton's flagship WJLA-TV (ABC) channel 7 in Washington, D.C. started.
In the following article from Paul Farhi of The Washington Post, the changes to WJLA are explored.
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There’s a new owner and a new approach to the news at WJLA-TV, Washington’s ABC affiliate. Under the direction of its ambitious corporate parent, the station’s news operations have taken a subtle but noticeable turn to the right.
Last week, for example, WJLA viewers woke up to a new face on the morning news: Mark Hyman, a veteran conservative pundit, who offered some criticism of President Obama.
In his video commentary, Hyman railed against the inconsistent enforcement of a ban on travel to Cuba by Americans. Noting that the music stars Jay Z and Beyoncé had “partied up” in Havana last year without penalty, Hyman insinuated that Obama had protected the couple from prosecution. “It occurs to me that Beyoncé and Jay Z are close friends of the president and first lady,” said Hyman, adding sarcastically, “You don’t suppose . . . oh, never mind. He’d never do that.”
Hyman’s critiques — which range from warning about the cost of Obamacare to advocating the abolition of the Transportation Security Administration — will be a regular feature on WJLA, just as they are on dozens of stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the new owner of ABC 7.
The Hunt Valley, Md.-based company in July received federal approval of its $985 million purchase of WJLA, its sister cable news station, NewsChannel 8, and six other stations owned by Allbritton Communications. Arlington, Va.-based Allbritton, which continues to own Politico , had operated WJLA for 40 years.
Since completing the acquisition, Sinclair has moved swiftly to remodel WJLA, by far the largest and most important asset in the company’s rapidly expanding portfolio. The company has spent $2.8 billion over the past three years to buy stations, and now owns or operates 164 of them, making it the largest station operator in the nation.
In addition to adding commentaries from Hyman, an executive at Sinclair, WJLA has begun a partnership with the editorially conservative Washington Times to feature the newspaper’s “Golden Hammer” award on the air each week. The award recognizes “the most egregious examples of government waste, fraud and abuse,” as determined by the Times. The Aug. 28 award, for example, went to state and local governments that give Hollywood filmmakers tax credits to lure movie and TV productions, which WJLA’s report suggested amounted to a government subsidy of scripted sex and violence.
The station has also begun to carry pieces produced by Sinclair’s Washington bureau about national issues and federal programs. These stories have generally been critical of the Obama administration and tend to offer perspectives primarily from conservative think tanks.
On Friday, WJLA’s 6 p.m. newscast aired a piece from Sinclair’s Washington bureau about a new $96 million urban combat facility at Fort A.P. Hill south of Fredericksburg, Va. “Some are questioning whether it was worth the cost as the military shuts down bases across the globe,” anchor Maureen Bunyan said in her introduction. The story included criticism of the new base from the head of a group called the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.
Sinclair is controlled by chief executive David D. Smith and his three brothers, the sons of Julian Sinclair Smith, who started the company with a single UHF TV station in Baltimore, WBFF, in 1971. The company flirted with bankruptcy in the early 2000s but has grown rapidly in the past three years, more than doubling its station count through acquisitions.
Over the years, the company and its executives have been consistent financial contributors to Republican candidates. Its stations have also aired a series of news programs that Democrats have found objectionable.
“They have developed a reputation over a long number of years of pushing their stations to air news framed by a conservative worldview,” said Craig Aaron, the president of FreePress, a Washington organization that advocates for greater diversity in media ownership. “They have a way of [presenting] the news so that Republicans will like it a lot better than Democrats. . . . When a company is as big as they are at a local level, it’s a cause for concern.” FreePress challenged one aspect of Sinclair’s acquisition of Allbritton during a federal review, arguing against Sinclair’s request for waivers to a federal regulation that prohibits a company from operating multiple stations in several cities.
Whatever the politics, competitors say Sinclair can run an aggressive news operation. “They see themselves as a very local station,” said Michelle Butt, news director at Baltimore’s WBAL-TV, which competes against Sinclair-owned WBFF. “They really listen to their viewers and customers. They have a very local newsroom, and I love that about them. Competition is good for all of us.”
Sinclair’s takeover has caused some unease in WJLA’s newsroom. Staffers say some of the stories ordered by Sinclair on a “must-run” basis don’t meet the station’s long tradition of non-partisan reporting. Moreover, they suggest that airing criticism of the federal government without rebuttal is bound to play badly in a region that is home to hundreds of thousands of federal workers.
“You can’t run a TV station in Washington by telling government workers that they’re a bunch of criminals and crooks,” said one of the station’s journalists, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he risked being fired if identified. “You can’t be the anti-
government channel in Washington. They’re going to lose the trust they built up with people over years and years. We’ve told people, ‘We’re just like you,’ not, ‘We’re looking out for the tea party.’ ”
Sinclair executives declined multiple requests for comment. A WJLA spokesperson, Abby Fenton, replied to an interview request via e-mail last week: “Everybody is really busy right now. Would love to find a time in the future but now is not the time.”
As this story was being reported last week, Sinclair sent a memo to station employees directing them not to discuss the station’s operations with outsiders.
As it has done elsewhere, Sinclair has moved swiftly to replace WJLA’s longtime management team. Bill Lord, the general manager, was dismissed two weeks ago. Doug Culver, vice president of news at WJLA and NewsChannel 8, was fired Thursday, followed on Friday by the dismissal of Dan Patrick, the managing editor.
Newsroom employees say they were alarmed last month by comments made by David Smith in an introductory staff meeting. According to several employees, Smith repeatedly said the station’s newsroom would “work for” its advertising-sales department. The statement surprised and disappointed some employees, who said newsroom decisions had been independent of advertising concerns under Allbritton’s management.
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Of course, nothing is set in stone until it's done, but the vast changes being made at WJLA reflect the Sinclair way.
Stay tuned.
