Dan Rather is in agreement.
Via Reason:
How stupid is the panic over Sinclair Broadcast Group’s hamfisted, “must-run” promotional video decrying “fake news”? This stupid: Yesterday 12 senators, including reported presidential aspirants Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), officially requested that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “investigate Sinclair’s news activities to determine if it conforms to the public interest.” If such an inquiry were to uncover “distorted news reports,” the senators reckoned, that “could disqualify Sinclair from holding its existing licenses” and put the kibosh to its proposed purchase of Tribune Co. television stations.
“Multiple news outlets report that Sinclair has been forcing local news anchors to read Sinclair-mandated scripts warning of the dangers of ‘one-sided news stories plaguing our country,’ over the protests from local news teams,” states the letter, authored by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). “As strong defenders of the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and freedom of the press, we are alarmed by such practices….Must-run dictates from Sinclair harm the freedom of the press guaranteed in the First Amendment by turning local journalists into mouthpieces for a corporate and political agenda.”
FCC chair Ajit Pai this afternoon responded with a curt thanks-but-no-thanks. “In light of my commitment to protecting the First Amendment and freedom of the press, I must respectfully decline,” Pai wrote. “I have repeatedly made clear that the FCC does not have the authority to revoke a license of a broadcast station based on the content of a particular newscast. I understand that you disliked or disagreed with the content of particular broadcasts, but I can hardly think of an action more chilling of free speech than the federal government investigating a broadcast station because of disagreement with its news coverage or promotion of that coverage.”