Sinclair Broadcasting Group is a national chain who owns TV stations, not Chick-Fil-A. And they decided to brand their stations using mandatory scripts at their 170 channels.

Sinclair offended the anchors, and such bright sparks as Dan Rather, by having all anchors read the script. From the Huffington Post we find this article:

Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns more than 170 U.S. TV stations, has ordered local news anchors across the country to read a script decrying “some media outlets” for “false news” and “fake stories.”

The message is not so bad, but the montage from Univision-owned Deadspin is not a good thing. Yes, a competing news group made this video. Consider the source.

Well, in their defense, a corporate memo does look and sound this way. And this is why PR people generally control delivery of the message better than this. This message is canned and sounds about as fake as a three dollar bill. But that is not the scandal, per Mr. Rather and friends.

News anchors looking into camera and reading a script handed down by a corporate overlord, words meant to obscure the truth not elucidate it, isn’t journalism. It’s propaganda. It’s Orwellian. A slippery slope to how despots wrest power, silence dissent, and oppress the masses.

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) April 2, 2018

Now a side note: the people hyping this “scandal” are working for corporations who would cheerfully order their people to do the exact same thing. If this works. Now whether or not this scripted message is the greatest thing to do (the optics are a little creepy), the response from Rather is amusing and ironic as all get out. The guy who flat out lied and used forged documents said what? Validates Sinclair’s message about fake news like nothing else can.

Because nothing says “fair and unbiased” like a guy making up memos and stories to trash a politician. Gee, why do people think the media is less honest than the random passing embezzler? Could it be people like Dan? Well, Commentary Magazine has a bit of advice for the sobbing left-leaning ones here.

You can blame Sinclair Broadcast Group for the latest bout of Democratic cultural and political anxiety. Center-left observers are confronting what is for them a relatively new phenomenon: overt political bias in ostensibly neutral news media. Welcome to the club.

The Sinclair stations live and die by ratings. And funny how the locals don’t really give a hoot. Because the rest of us want to see the weather or local stories or high school games. Unlike the hipsters Mr. Rather and the bi-coastal elite hang with, we use the news as a source to gather information. Things like the high school sports team or local events are important. Not some overpaid jackass who does not have the brains to fact check. Who is the reason the term “Rathergate” exists?

What viewers in Bozeman and Bay City and Biloxi want, in other words, is information they can use. And to not have condescending jerks from either side force their views on us. We want something to share at the coffee machine or on the bus. And the fact that this message triggered Dan Rather into a crescendo of sanctimony and hypocrisy is a bonus.