To the Federal Communications Commission:

We’re calling on you to hold early license-renewal proceedings to examine the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s alleged deception. If you determine that Sinclair lied to the Commission, you should find that Sinclair is of unfit moral character to be a broadcaster, revoke all of Sinclair’s broadcast licenses, and return the public airwaves to independent broadcasters that will serve their communities and comply with the law and with FCC rules.

Sinclair has long abused its power to stifle local news, evade media-ownership protections, and spread racist and Islamophobic lies and propaganda on its newscasts. It’s shown time and again that it has zero interest in actually serving the public — and now Sinclair has shown that same blatant disrespect and dishonesty to the FCC.

You must investigate these apparent misrepresentations and hold Sinclair accountable.

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    #StopSinclair

    Help us Stop Sinclair for Good

    One of our biggest victories in 2018 was defeating the Sinclair-Tribune merger. This was a disastrous deal that would have expanded the Sinclair Broadcast Group (also known as Trump TV) to 70 percent of households in the United States.1

    Sinclair is a deceitful company that pushes racist and Islamophobic content into the living rooms of our friends, families and neighbors. It forces the local-TV stations it owns to air “must-run segments” filled with propaganda pulled straight from Trump talking points.2

    Stopping Sinclair’s expansion was a major win. But we have an opportunity to do more. The Sinclair Broadcast Group has lied to the public and now it turns out that it may have lied to the FCC too.

    It seems that Sinclair misrepresented to the FCC the nature of its control over certain broadcast stations to bypass the FCC’s media-ownership rules and push its merger through.3

    We’re calling on the FCC to investigate Sinclair’s alleged deception of the agency. If the agency finds that Sinclair did in fact lie it needs to hold the company accountable. That means revoking all of Sinclair’s broadcast licenses and returning the public airwaves to independent broadcasters that will serve their communities and comply with the law and with FCC rules.4

    Sign the petition to join us.

    1. “Trump-Friendly Company Buys Rights to Deliver Local News to 70 Percent of Households,” New York Magazine, May 9, 2017: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/05/right-leaning-company-to-deliver-local-news-to-most-of-u-s.html?gtm=top>m=bottom

    2. “Kushner: We Struck Deal With Sinclair for Straighter Coverage,” Politico, Dec. 16, 2016: https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-campaign-sinclair-broadcasting-jared-kushner-232764

    3. “Don’t Be Fooled by Sinclair’s Shell Games,” Free Press, Feb. 22, 2018: https://www.freepress.net/our-response/expert-analysis/explainers/dont-be-fooled-sinclairs-shell-games

    4. “Free Press Calls on the FCC to Revoke Sinclair’s Licenses If the Broadcaster Lied to the Agency,” Free Press, March 5, 2019: https://www.freepress.net/news/press-releases/free-press-calls-fcc-revoke-sinclair-licenses-if-broadcaster-lied-agency