TV journalist caught in crossfire between Seattle media

When Sharyl Attkisson read that she was the target of a recent Seattle PI blog, it was unexpected. But she wasn’t surprised.

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“It was sort of a long, rambling blog with inaccurate and, I think, unfair information that talked about me and my program,” Attkisson told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson. “She never called me or contacted me. I don’t think she ever has seen my program. It argued against right-wing, conservative propaganda.”

The journalist was caught in a crossfire — between local news providers — as a national media controversy continues. Attkisson alleges that the attack is a small part of a larger conspiracy as Sinclair Broadcasting Group attempts to purchase Tribune Media — a move that will make it the largest local media company in the nation.

“Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson” airs Sundays across TV stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group. The news program appears locally on KOMO. Sinclair has been criticized for spreading a Conservative agenda via its media channels. The blog post on the Seattle PI website places Attkisson in the Sinclair mix for such criticism. Writing under the PI’s “Boomer Consumer” column, Rita R. Robinson reviews a news feature on Attkisson’s show about burdensome bureaucracy. Robinson argued this was right-wing propaganda against government. She says that Attkisson neglected to offer two sides and only interviewed one biased source — The Heritage Foundation.

Attkisson counters that assertion. She has solely interviewed Democrats for stories. She has also won an Emmy for investigating Republican freshman fundraising. And she also has reported on scandals in both the Obama and Bush administrations. The recent story on bureaucracy was a topic she felt resonated across party lines.

“Unless you are very, very fringe, in my view, you’ll view most of these as non-political and very fair,” Attkisson said. “Just different viewpoints on a lot of different subjects.”

Attkisson pointed this out in a written response to Robinson’s column. It was printed in an update to the blog.

Attkisson: Nothing weird going on

The journalist acknowledges that her program airs on Sinclair stations, but says that the broadcasting company is not doing anything out-of-the-ordinary. Many have pointed to “must run” segments on Sinclair stations that appear to have a Conservative slant. Attkisson says Sinclair is not an anomaly.

“To act as if there is some strange, nefarious new thing happening by this company is just completely wrong,” she said.

A script was recently read by local anchors at all of Sinclair’s stations. It stated that modern news has become slanted. The stations pledged to provide fact-based reporting. It has been alleged that this is proof of the company’s heavy-handed control of local news.

“I’m not sure why everybody is upset about that,” Attkisson said. “I think they seem to think there’s some weird, coordinated directive of stories going out, instead of understanding these are promos which are done by all companies, all news corporations.”

“It’s a mission statement,” she said. “I saw the text after this came out. I can’t disagree with anything they are saying. They were asked not to wear partisan colors – red or blue. They were simply saying … that there’s been a lot of misreporting in the national news … and they are saying at the local level … they are going to check their facts twice. They are going to make sure what they report is accurate and fair.”

The Sinclair conspiracy

Attkisson alleges there is a propaganda campaign waged against Sinclair as it attempts to expand. Video of a recent Sinclair must-run segments has been collected, edited together, and passed around to create a narrative. Many news reports echo the same negative message about Sinclair. The Seattle PI blog appears to be another beat in an echo chamber.

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“It’s the same sort of tactics typically accessed and used by Media Matters, which is the Hillary Clinton / Obama left-wing smear group,” Attkisson said. “This is the sort of thing they do … just think of any big groups or interests that would not like the merger to go through.”

“When you see a coordinated campaign of narrative, such as the one going on right now, you can certainly debate all the points being raised,” she said. “But when you see this campaign on social media and see who is passing it around, you have to wonder who had access, and how did they get to all those stations’ videos and edit it together? Who is pushing it?  You have to say to yourself, ‘who is wants me to believe this, and why?’”