This video is featured on YouTube as “1984 in 2018. Stop this.” But is that an accurate characterization?

Conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcasting owns numerous local TV stations across the country, and headquarters prompted local TV news reporters to read the following:

Hi, I’m (A) ____________, and I’m (B) _________________.

(B) Our greatest responsibility is to serve our ___ communities. We are extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that ____ News produces.

(A) But we’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media.

(B) More alarming, some media outlets publish these same fake stories… stories that just aren’t true, without checking facts first.

(A) Unfortunately, some members of the media use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control “exactly what people think” … This is extremely dangerous to a democracy.

(B) At ____ it’s our responsibility to pursue and report the truth. We understand truth is neither politically “left nor right.” Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever.

(A) But we are human and sometimes our reporting might fall short. If you believe our coverage is unfair please reach out to us by going to ____news dot com and clicking on CONTENT CONCERNS. We value your comments. We will respond back to you.

(B) We work very hard to seek the truth and strive to be fair, balanced and factual. … We consider it our honor, our privilege to responsibly deliver the news every day.

(A) Thank you for watching and we appreciate your feedback.

That’s innocuous enough … until you watch the compilation, which is meant to make this sound like it’s a sinister propaganda effort. But “this happens across the country all the time,” notes Erick Erickson. “It’s only a big deal now because Sinclair is calling out the rest of the media so the rest of the media is responding.” And boy are they responding. “Expertly creepy,” “frightening,” “chilling,” “this should freak you out,” “propaganda” — those are just some of the criticisms leveled by Leftmedia talkingheads, uniformly and without a corporate script.

Who’s guilty of groupthink again?

It’s fair to argue that Sinclair’s effort is pro-Trump bias coming from local news. But the phony outrage is being driven by the Democrat/MSM Propaganda Machine, which so vastly outweighs local media in terms of coverage and influence it’s laughable. These leftist propaganda mouthpieces are throwing stones from a glass house.

“The critics are now upset about our well-researched journalistic initiative focused on fair and objective reporting,” said Scott Livingston, senior vice president of news at Sinclair.

Ironically, while the Left is using the montage to skewer these stations for committing to the standards of Sinclair’s mission statement, at least Sinclair’s anchors and reporters say what journalistic standard they pledge to abide by. The Leftmedia networks would never commit to such standards.