With regard to the letter dated June 24 sent by Senators Warren, Sanders, and Booker, to the Department of Justice and the FCC, the following statement should be attributed to Free State Foundation President Randolph May:
“Senators Warren, Sanders, and Booker wish to use Sinclair Broadcast Groups’s acquisition of 21 Regional Sports Networks and Fox College Sports from Walt Disney Company as a means to pressure Sinclair to alter what the Senators characterize as Sinclair’s 'partisan political messaging.’ In the context of matters involving principally sports programming, they say they are concerned about Sinclair’s efforts 'to inject conservative-tinged coverage into local markets.’
Of course, neither the Department of Justice nor the FCC has any business judging the content of Sinclair’s programming to assess whether it is 'partisan' or ‘ onservative.' For either agency to do what the Senators ask is inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech and freedom of the press. The Senators know better — or surely should if they wish to run for president. Aside from whether their characterizations of Sinclair’s programming are even accurate, their purpose, an improper one, is to use government power to influence Sinclair’s editorial discretion.
It’s sad that Senators Warren, Sanders, and Booker are trying to misuse the agencies in this way. The media, which have an interest in promoting a proper understanding of the First Amendment, ought to call them out for it."
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