President Donald Trump defended Sinclair Broadcasting from media attacks Monday after a compilation video in which their anchors read statements against fake news was widely circulated over the weekend.
Sinclair recently had its local news anchors read a script warning viewers about fake news.
“The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media. More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories,” the anchors say in the video. “This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.”
WATCH:
How America’s largest local TV owner turned its news anchors into soldiers in Trump’s war on the media: https://t.co/iLVtKRQycL pic.twitter.com/dMdSGellH3
— Deadspin (@Deadspin) March 31, 2018
Members of the media, including comedian Jimmy Kimmel, warned that the script is propaganda and is itself dangerous to democracy.
President Donald Trump tweeted a defense of Sinclair on Monday, arguing that “Fake News Networks” have no room to criticize other networks “for being biased.”
“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,” he said. “Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke.”
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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2018