It’s going to take a bit of time. Please bear with me through the process.

🔺 Publicly traded

🔺💲 Publicly traded but mostly privately owned

💲 Privately owned

🔷 Non for profit and/or trust ran by board of directors (Note: I suggest taking a long look at who the board of directors are, especially AP and NPR)

There are a lot of Brits running a lot of American (or thought to be American) media groups, I’m going to include quite a few British publications. There is also an American on the BBC board.

  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    🔺💲 Sinclair Broadcasting Group (many local news stations)

    ◾ Owned by The Sinclair Broadcasting Group

    A publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith.

    The company is the second-largest television station operator in the United States by number of stations (after Nexstar Media Group), owning or operating a total of 193 stations across the country in over 100 markets (covering 40% of American households), and is the largest owner of stations affiliated with Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Sinclair also owns four digital multicast networks (Comet, Charge!, The Nest, and TBD), and sports-oriented cable networks (Stadium, Tennis Channel, and Bally Sports Regional Networks). On June 2, 2021, it was announced that Sinclair had become a Fortune 500 company, having reached 2020 annual revenues of US$5.9 billion (equivalent to $6.8 billion in 2023).

    A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that “stations bought by Sinclair reduce coverage of local politics, increase national coverage and move the ideological tone of coverage in a conservative direction relative to other stations operating in the same market”. The company has been criticized by journalists and media analysts for requiring its stations to broadcast packaged video segments and its news anchors to read prepared scripts that contain pro-Trump editorial content, including warnings about purported “fake news” in mainstream media, while Trump has tweeted support for watching Sinclair over CNN and NBC.

    Shell companies: Deerfield Media, Howard Stirk Holdings, and Mercury Broadcasting Company

    ◾ CEO is David D Smith

    David D Smith

    David Deniston Smith is an American businessman who is the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBGI) since January 2017, having been its president and CEO from September 1990 to January 2017.[2] In 2024, he acquired majority ownership of The Baltimore Sun and its affiliated newspapers.

    Prior to Ajit Pai’s appointment as chairman of the FCC, Smith had met with Pai to discuss deregulation of the FCC’s media ownership rules. This meeting, plus Sinclair having been granted additional access to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, resulted in accusations that Sinclair was currying favor with the Trump administration in exchange for deregulation of the industry. David Smith met with Donald Trump during the 2016 election year, in which he told Mr. Trump, “We are here to deliver your message.”

    ◾ Board of Directors

    • Chairman is David D Smith
    • Frederick G Smith
    • J Duncan Smith
    • Robert E Smith
    • Laurie R. Beyer-Ms. Beyer has served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Union Hospital of Cecil County (currently ChristianaCare, Union Hospital), and an auditor with Arthur Andersen LLP.
    • Dr. Benjamin Carson, Sr.-Yes, that Ben Carson. He has prior experience serving on the Board of Directors of Costco Wholesale Corporation and Kellogg Company.
    • Howard E. Friedman-He is the founding Partner of Lanx Management LLC, a hedge “fund of funds” as well as having been the Co-Founder, Publisher & CEO of Watermark Press, Inc and has served as President and then Chairman of the Board of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). In 2007 and in 2009, Washington Life Magazine listed Mr. Friedman as one of the 100 most powerful people in Washington D.C.
    • Daniel C. Keith- He is the President and Founder of the Cavanaugh Group, Inc., a Baltimore-based investment advisory firm founded in October 1995.
    • Hon. Benson Everett Legg-He has served as a Director since January 2019. Judge Legg clerked for the honorable Frank A. Kaufman of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. Judge Legg served as Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland from 2003 to 2010.

    Source