(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Sinclair platforms extremist who regularly calls for executions of conservatism’s enemies [1] ['Daily Kos Staff'] Date: 2023-10-04 Sinclair Broadcast Group is one of the largest television station operators in the country, controlling nearly 200 stations. It owns affiliates for all three major networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) and for Fox. It uses its local news studios to push arch-conservative narratives to viewers in "news" segments packaged to be introduced by local anchors and reporters. That is, when Sinclair hasn't simply shuttered those local newsrooms outright. If your local news broadcast has ever run segments featuring hard-right conspiracy cranks like Boris Epshteyn, Sebastian Gorka, or the eternally weird Mark Hyman, it's a Sinclair station. Sinclair is often condemned for running straight-up propaganda, but a recent faux-news segment went even further. Media Matters reports that at least 16 of Sinclair's television stations have run "sponsored" segments featuring Stew Peters, a white nationalist infamous for regularly endorsing the executions of politicians, journalists, and other enemies of conservatism. The segments that Sinclair aired don't mention Peters' calls for executions. Instead, Sinclair meteorologist Brian van de Graaff introduces Peters as a supposed financial expert. The purpose of the roughly two-minute segment? To convince viewers to buy gold. The segment is sponsored by precious metals company Goldco, the same company that pays Sean Hannity to hawk their services. It's just another part of the seemingly endless grifting by conservative personalities. For the record, the precious metals companies you see advertising on television are often scams. Their products are touted as "investments" to shield you from this or that future apocalypse. Customers later looking to sell back their purchased gold or silver coins will soon learn that the company's prices were inflated and that there's little chance the "investment" will result in anything but a loss. It’s low that Sinclair ran a faux-news segment featuring a fake financial expert pushing viewers to invest in a sketchy market. It’s even lower that Sinclair gave airtime to an extremist notorious for his endorsement of murdering public figures. From Media Matters: A Sinclair Broadcasting Group spokesperson told Media Matters about the Peters segment: “We were not aware of the association and are reviewing our internal policies on sponsored content. The segment in question is no longer on our air.” Sinclair’s claim that it was "not aware" of Peters' history of antisemitism, his links to white nationalism, and his overt bloodlust is almost certainly not true. If nothing else, there is little chance that such a powerful media group would allow a top network meteorologist to sell himself to a paid sponsor without at least doing Google-level vetting of the sponsor’s spokesman. (Unless the company is run by gerbils, which is admittedly a possibility.) Any such due diligence would immediately have identified Peters as a violence-promoting antisemite. That is simply what he does. He regularly advocates for revolution and for other political violence. Recently, he aired a segment that called for the executions of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. The reason? Kelce's advocacy for COVID-19 vaccines. It’s very likely that Sinclair knew he was a dirtbag because the segment it aired called him "the producer of the film Died Suddenly," the hoax-promoting film that claimed "elites" had manufactured the vaccine to cause mass deaths and take over the world. There's no damn way Sinclair didn't know about that. What probably happened was that Sinclair had at least some idea of who Peters is, but still let the segment run because money. After Media Matters came asking for an explanation, Sinclair’s press office leapt up with its hair on fire and released that statement. Of course, conservative media outlets could simply not bleed their readers and viewers dry with sponsored promotions of sketchy investments, so-called survival gear, and food buckets meant to protect you from Mexican immigrants, who "are great bricklayers and great people" but harbor "terrorists" in their midst. The grift will never end, of course. But there's something remarkable about putting forward a pro-execution fascist so that he can tell your viewers to buy gold and silver just in case trouble starts. Sign the petition: Tell mainstream media to stop normalizing authoritarians. RELATED STORIES: Media buries the lede (again) on Biden's urgent address on dangers of Trump, fascism Rep. Paul Gosar says Gen. Mark Milley would be ‘hung’ in a ‘better society’ Republicans are embracing anti-vaccine disinformation. So what happens next? [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/4/2197082/-Sinclair-platforms-extremist-who-regularly-calls-for-executions-of-conservatism-s-enemies?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_6&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/