Sinclair's Growth Matched by Criticism

For a glimpse at the Sinclair Broadcast Group's particular place in the American media landscape, consider the firm's quest several years ago to add a new group of TV stations to its growing empire. The Federal Communications Commission had some problems with the deal -- a sensitive transaction because it involved the still largely banned practice of owning more than one station in a given market. In this case, not only was Sinclair getting the stations for a "small fraction of their value," but the commission found that the company, operating under an agreement merely to manage the stations, had instead effectively taken control of the outlets before the purchase.

The agency fined the company $40,000 for violating FCC rules.

Then it let Sinclair buy the stations anyway.

One commissioner, Michael J. Copps, was disturbed enough to write a strongly worded dissent to the 2001 opinion. "What makes Sinclair's practices disquieting ... are its maneuvers to acquire interests in multiple stations in seeming contravention -- if not violation -- of commission rules," he wrote. "With each transaction over the years, Sinclair has stretched the limits of the commission's local television ownership rules."

Under President and Chief Executive David D. Smith, the conservative-leaning, publicity-shy Sinclair has grown from its modest beginnings by pushing the limits of government regulations. The company has drawn notice for aggressively expanding its control over multiple outlets in a single market, sometimes in ways its critics call underhanded, although the FCC generally has gone along.

In the last two years, Sinclair has started to take advantage of its reach with controversial programming decisions such as centralized newscasts intercut with right-skewing commentary, and banning its seven ABC affiliates from showing Ted Koppel's roll call of military dead in Iraq, deeming it an overly political edition of "Nightline."

But its most recent move -- a plan to air a film attacking Sen. John F. Kerry days before the Nov. 2 election -- catapulted it into the midst of a hotly contested presidential race. Though Sinclair, under pressure from advertisers, shareholders, viewers and Democrats, changed course and ended up offering what was generally regarded as a balanced report on 40 stations Friday night, the flap brought widespread attention to the firm and its practices.