I told him I have concerns about the death penalty. Home > Not Necessarily the News > Season 1 > Episode 9 « TV Season Page. So I told him, 'I refuse to say "prochoice" or "prolife." The 49yearold Democrat had been endorsed by the Baltimore Sun and was leading in opinion polls when he received a call from a friend inviting him to a fundraiser in his honor. Far from the Biblethumping, familyvalues stereotype that Sinclair's critics imagine, the Smiths are a study in contrasts—especially the two principal owners, David and Duncan. In the course of reporting this story, the Smiths, their ecutives, and their attorney have declined dozens of opportunities to comment, including repeated efforts by telephone, email, and a visit to their office. That's the goal at Sinclair: to be seen without being seen. For his part, David Smith began to spend time in the news offices, leaving his suite on the fifth floor to lurk around the newsroom, where he hung a postersized photograph of his girlfriend's eye in a gesture that many employees considered more absurd than ominous, and spending his afternoons hunched over their desks, whispering changes to their work. It featured sketches, parody news items, commercial parodies, and humorous bits made from overdubbing or editing actual news footage. With five dozen stations spread from coast to coast, the cost of producing national news could be substantially defrayed. It was a textbook example of quid pro quo, in which the governor would use taxpayer dollars to pay off a political ally in exchange for campaign commercials. Perhaps by coincidence, it was right around this time that the Smith brothers began cultivating friends in politics. en How, for example, will voluntary institutions acquire information on issues the press are not necessarily reporting, and which are not necessarily the main news stories of the day? For example, while much has been made of Sinclair's conservative bias, little has been said about whose bias it really is. He goes to the highend titty bars. It's about what happens when news and opinion are both subverted, and something else takes over. Not Necessarily the News was an HBO series spoofing news formats with sketch comedy. In 1999, Stokes was widely regarded as a favorite to become Baltimore's next mayor. After fifteen years in politics, Stokes was not surprised by much, but he was shocked to hear that the Smith brothers wanted to support him. ... Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Perhaps more important, by producing their own national news the Smiths could control what was on the air. He's a nut. From award-winning writing and photography to binge-ready videos to electric live events, GQ meets millions of modern men where they live, creating the moments that create conversations. Long accustomed to creating their own broadcasts, many local producers and reporters were especially troubled by the twominute segment called "The Point," which they were forced to broadcast every night, seven days a week. Traditionally, local TV stations do not produce national news. Historically, owners of multiple TV stations have broadcast just one or two networks, like ABC and CBS. Lately, though, this balancing act has been getting harder to sustain. Episode 9. PRAGUE (Reuters) -Czech President Milos Zeman said on Sunday the idea that Russian spies caused a 2014 ammunition dump explosion in the central European country was just one of two theories and the possibility it was an accident should not be ruled out. The only thing left was to keep the system going, to keep their political patrons in power and profit from their policies. It featured sketches, parody news items, commercial parodies, and humorous bits made from overdubbing or editing actual news footage. Written and delivered by Sinclair VP Mark Hyman, "The Point" was clearly an opinion segment, railing against the horrors of liberalism, lamenting the rise of agnostics, Muslims, and Buddhists ("Do they need a deathcage matchup"), announcing the littleknown fact that "embryonic cells originate from a fetus," and predicting that "terrorist leaders would dearly love to see President Bush replaced with Senator Kerry." But what remains clear even without the company's input is that from the outset of their expansion, the Smith brothers knew they would have to rewrite the rules of the television industry. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. For most of the run, the series featured Anne Bloom, Danny Breen, Rich Hall, Mitchell Laurance, Stuart Pankin and Lucy Webb. "David and Duncan came in," says Snyder. Even for a notoriously businessfriendly FCC, this was too egregious to overlook. In 1998, Sinclair had filed a request with the FCC to purchase fifteen new stations, some located in cities where the company already owned stations, but FCC commissioner Michael Powell had been reluctant to approve the deal. For another, they would have no control over those segments and would not be able to enforce quality standards. They were also forced to send tapes of their broadcasts to Sinclair's headquarters as proof that the segments had run. He also goes out to Vegas all the time. Not Necessarily the News is a satirical sketch comedy series that ran on HBO from 1983 to 1990. Home > Not Necessarily the News > Season 1 > Episode 8 « TV Season Page. After 3 Years, Man Finds Out Who's Throwing Used Cups in His Yard. Only this time, it was legal. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. The ensemble cast played regular newscaster characters, as well as various roles in sketches and dubbing real-life news footage. After a 1982 special, the series ran from 1983 to 1990. They saw it and took it out. Instructing local reporters in their Baltimore station to dig up dirt on Ehrlich's rival, Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the Smiths launched an almost cartoonish frontal assault on Townsend. Reporting each controversy as an isolated event, almost every major newspaper and television network has either skipped or skimmed the larger story of Sinclair itself. Just as the company was willing to violate FCC regulations to ercise illegal control of TV stations, and just as the Smith brothers were willing to spend illegal amounts of money on their political patrons in exchange for political favors, they have also been willing to cast aside their own convictions in the interest of profit, championing moral values from the back rooms of topless bars and railing against political corruption while setting new standards for it—giving more than 95 percent of their political donations to the Republican Party, then basking in the rewards of loose oversight and unfettered access to elected officials. This time, it would pay off. For the final season, the series switched to a live, up-to-the-minute format and also included reports from many other correspondents including Will Durst, Merrill Markoe, Richard Rosen and Harry Shearer. Never mind that Smith's own behavior had almost nothing in common with Hyman's moralistic segments. With Alan Thicke, Joanna Kerns, Kirk Cameron, Tracey Gold. Between 1971 and 1985, the company consisted of just one small station, WBFF in Baltimore, and if the owner, Julian Smith, had any ambitions beyond that station, he kept them to himself. According to one former Sinclair employee, the Smiths made no secret of their screening process. "These people want to dominate the public sphere, but they don't want us to know that.". ' At one point, we tried to put the word editorial in the tease, but that quickly went away. "He's a whoremonger. To many reporters and producers at Sinclair stations, this was nothing short of bizarre. In the spring of 2002, the congressman announced that he would run for the Maryland governorship, an uphill battle in which he would need all the help he could get. It was based on the British series, Not the Nine O'Clock News. It featured sketches, parody news items, commercial parodies, and humorous bits made from overdubbing or editing actual news footage. "Duncan's place was set up like Tara. It was switched to "Hooray For The City" by Jack Mack & The Heart Attack in 1985. (And yes, we use the word "news" very, very loosely). Especially since last year's presidential campaign, the company's efforts to inject partisan spin into its local "news" have become increasingly bold and increasingly obvious. Broadcasting those programs would not be optional. "I remember one of the parties for Ehrlich," says a former Sinclair ecutive who has known the Smith brothers since the 1980s. US News is a recognized leader in college, grad school, hospital, mutual fund, and car rankings. Luckily for Ehrlich, when the helicopter deal was exposed, he had already won the election by a 4 percent margin and was on his way to the governor's office, where he would quickly get to work on the next insider deal with Sinclair. Episode 9. In April 2004, the company forbade all of its ABC stations to air a segment of Nightline in which Ted Koppel read the names of American casualties in Iraq, which Sinclair's management considered "motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States." It was based on the British series Not the Nine O'Clock News that had just ended earlier in 1982. "The first question I was asked was 'What do you think of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge' " recalls the employee, who was also asked whether Jesse Jackson is a uniter or a divider and which three people in the world he'd most like to shut up. Ehrlich fired off a series of letters to Powell, mincing no words. As a result, the story of Sinclair is not merely about the rise of bias in the news, because bias is a product of idealism. By the time Stokes stepped aside, they had already focused their attention higher up the food chain, on a sitting U.S. congressman: Robert Ehrlich Jr. from Baltimore County. Equally suspicious is his enthusiasm for the Iraq war. They had gone from a scattered collection of broadcast towers to the nation's largest independent owner of television stations. 4 Seasons - 0 Episodes. Over time Hyman's segments even began to take the shape of news segments, with an introductory graphic and score, sitdown interviews, and pan shots of Hyman delivering his monologue while strolling through various farflung military bases. BGG News editor W. Eric Martin exhibits signs of obsessive completeness and complete obsessiveness – and invites you to join him in this fruitless, yet satisfying quest Recommend. ", As the war in Iraq dragged on and American casualties continued to rise, Hyman's editorials became more and more vitriolic, charging that Peter Jennings "appears to favor terrorists over America," labeling candidate Kerry "a gundecking sea lawyer," and reminding his viewers to "remember to spend your money on California wines and Wisconsin Cheddar instead of on the French imports.". Not Necessarily The News News: “ A 2,000-year-old cat etching was found at the Nazca Lines Site in Peru. Breaking News Emails* *You can select which emails you'd like to receive. It featured sketches, parody news items, commercial parodies, and humorous bits made from overdubbing or editing actual news footage. He asked me about every hotbutton issue. Everyone on the air was trying to distance themselves from it. A local Denver organization is petitioning the Federal Trade Commission to force Denver Area News Stations to drop the word “news” from their advertising and promotions. Concluding that Glencairn was a shell corporation, the FCC fined both companies $40,000 for the "illegal transfer of control," then immediately gave them a goahead to continue exploiting the same loophole—a contradiction that prompted one FCC commissioner to write in disbelief that the verdict "merely points out that lines have been crossed while allowing Sinclair to run over these lines and to continue its multipleownership strategy.". Episode 8. The Smiths also lent Ehrlich a helicopter, free of charge, to fly around the state—a contribution that was not recorded on Ehrlich's campaignfinance reports but which would have exceeded the legal limits by more than 200 percent if it had been reported correctly. Not Necessarily the News is a satirical sketch comedy series that first aired on HBO in September 1982 as a comedy special, and then ran as a series from 1983 to 1990. An early prototype of the compassionate conservative, Ehrlich was young, almost ridiculously handsome, and an upandcomer. "Propaganda always works better if it seems not to be propaganda—if it seems to be entertainment, or if it seems to be news," says Mark Crispin Miller, a professor of culture and communication at New York University. Many of the most critical questions surrounding the company have yet to be asked, let alone answered. Ultimately, the investment didn't pay off—Stokes lost the race—but the Smith brothers had whetted their appetite for political access. The Smith brothers would be cohosts. A satirical sketch comedy featuring parody news items, commercial parodies, and humorous bits made from overdubbing or editing actual news footage. Having converted the first floor of their office building into a newsroom, in 2002 the Smith brothers announced that they would begin distributing news and editorial programs to their stations. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, thenView saved stories. It also included early appearances from Jan Hooks, and, among the many writers the show employed, was the first credited professional television writing gig for Conan O'Brien, Greg Daniels, Al Jean and Mike Reiss. Maybe, she should just stay home and cook meals for the family. When Snyder applied for a job in the mid'90s, the Smith brothers attended her interview, peppering her with personal questions. Not Necessarily the News. He's always getting the private upstairs rooms, champagne, the works.". He sits in his office and thinks of these things. For one thing, 90 percent of Glencairn stock was held by the Smiths' minor children. In the span of barely five years, the Smiths had undergone a radical transformation. Sure, it might be the largest independent owner of television stations in America, an empire of sixty channels spread across thirtyseven cities with a signal that reaches nearly a quarter of the TVwatching public, but even if you happen to receive that signal and watch it every night, getting your Sinclair news and Sinclair weather and Sinclair commentary from a Sinclair station, chances are you've still never heard of Sinclair and have no idea you're watching it. 1: Episode 1 2019: 2: Episode 2 2019: 3: Episode 3 2019: 4: Episode 4 2019: 5: Episode 5 2019: 6: Episode 6 2019: 7: Right there on the screen, you'll see the old familiar logo—a peacock, an eye, the ABC bubble—and the anchors will look the same as ever, and the fact that the station has been purchased by Sinclair will be no more apparent than the fact that twenty or thirty minutes into the program, the real news will suddenly fade to black and Sinclair's news will take over. 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