Creator of Deadspin's viral Sinclair video worries he may have bolstered the company's message

Deadspin

Millions of people watched the viral video created by Deadspin video director Timothy Burke, showing anchors from around the country reading from the same Sinclair script. Burke says so many people watched the video that it could've been viewed in three different contexts. One as proof of "fake news" that is usually promoted by right-leaning outlets and President Trump. Another as a creepy, Orwellian video, as was intended. "The third context," he says, "is perhaps the most frightening, and may constitute the one from which a majority of viewers encounter it. Absent any background on media consolidation in this country, nor knowledge of what Sinclair is and what political angles they push on their viewers, such a middle-of-the-road viewer could simply conclude that 'you can’t trust the news,' and, when confronted with this video evidence that 'they’re all reading from the same script,' simply mark down his or her internal confidence in news media in general."

ALSO:

• Sinclair showed an ad attacking the company by bracketing it with its own pro-Sinclair message
• How Sinclair Broadcast Group violates its own rules
• Sinclair commentator resigns after threatening to sexually assault Parkland teen David Hogg