Stunning Supercut Shows Sinclair Stations’ Collective Push Of Controversial WSJ Report On Biden’s Mental Fitness

Local news channels across the country used a nearly identical script to push coverage of a controversial Wall Street Journal article questioning President Joe Biden’s mental fitness.

An eerie supercut compiled by Popular Information shows how anchors on dozens of channels owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group parroted the story in an apparently coordinated fashion. Each segment deferred to national correspondent Matthew Galka’s comment that Biden’s questionable mental acuity could be an “election decider.”

However, the Wall Street Journal story is reported without highlighting the concerns raised about the article by prominent media critics, who attacked the piece for its lack of balance in sourcing. The article in question, titled Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping, was published on June 4 and based its claims on “interviews with more than 45 people.”

CNN’s Oliver Darcy said the 3,000-word article contained “glaring problems” and Poynter’s Tom Jones questioned its heavy reliance on anonymous Republican sources and the comments of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) — who the article’s author even noted takes a “tactical” approach to describing Biden.

Despite this, according to Popular Information’s investigation, the WSJ article’s claim that Biden is “slipping” has been discussed 64 times on air on Fox News and Fox Business. Popular Information also found that the article was the topic of at least 15 articles on Fox News’ website.

This

kind of partisan seizure of the story is probably to be expected. In its analysis, however, Popular Information focuses on Sinclair, which operates 185 local TV stations across the nation. The writers point to polls which suggest local news is much more highly trusted medium and that pushing “attacks on Biden’s mental fitness under the guise of ‘local news’ is an extremely powerful tactic.”

Sinclair is owned by David D. Smith, a prominent donor to Republican causes.