Just like biased and fake national news from media corporations across the United States, Virginia's TV news has become unreliable over the years since the 2010s, focusing on mainstream trends, American Celibeites that no one cares about, and other stuff that literally has nothing to do with Virginia at all. Most of the television stations in Virginia are owned by Gray Television (GA) E. W. Scripps Company (OH) Tegna Inc.(Tysons, VA), Nexstar Media Group (TX), Graham Media Group (Chicago, IL), and the most controversial one, Sinclair Broadcast Group (Baltimore, MD). Note: Ion Media does have their own affiliated stations in Virginia but they do not produce local content.
According to a 2019 study in the American, Political Science Review found that "stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a "conservative" direction relative to other stations operating in the same market."†
Local TV news remains one of the most important sources of news for many Americans across the United States. More than 25 million viewers watch local news each night — a substantially larger audience than watching national cable TV news like MSNBC or Fox.
In fact, with the collapse of the print news industry, local TV news may be one of the few remaining reliable sources of local news coverage. Political scientist Erik Peterson, for instance, documents a 28 percent average decline in local newsroom staff from 2004 to 2014.
One good example of Roanoke's WSET-13 (owned by Sinclair) talked about Former First-lady Michelle Obama's podcast, boring Hollywood celebrities that no one cares about, national social media trends, out-of-state news, and other B.S. that is not relevant to Virginia in any way shape or form.
The same station, unfortunately, likes to make race-baiting news stories, like they did with the Gretna man that said his Danville physician assistant increased his medication dosage after he noticed a Confederate flag on the PA's wall.* 😒
Traditional TV is dead and is considered an outdated concept. For Virngians, if they want their "real" local news, it is recommended to look it up online from a local news website or your trusted local newspaper. If you have poor internet or don't have one at all, Local newspapers still have a little life left.
Local news is important for local communities, when a corparation like Sinclair acquires a station and increases its national coverage, those stations lose a few hundred viewers or more, on average. In other words, there’s no evidence that Sinclair changes its focus in response to demand for more national news. Once Sinclair takes over a station, millions of Americans are exposed to a more politicized, left or right-leaning news broadcast with less local coverage every night.
Local news matters for all Virginians and the rest of the nation.
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