The current freak-out about Sinclair Broadcast Group's practice of imposing propaganda scripts on local broadcasts is well-justified. But as bad as it is, I do wonder how much of a difference it will make. I don't know anyone who gets their news from their local television station. While local news must still watched by some people (enough to make it still profitable), I would suspect that a much greater number of people never watch local news and that the local news audience tends to be older and (for lack of a nicer way to put it) dying out. Even if Sinclair took over every single local news program, its influence is going to be limited to the same demographic of gullible conservative older people that is already Trump's base.
In fact, the Sinclair controversy is probably going to further discredit local news channels with the younger more diverse demographic that will dominate the voting population in the near future.
