[13] In 1967, Smith, as Chesapeake Engineering Placement Service, partly owned by the name-shortened Commercial Radio Inc., applied for and was granted, a construction permit for a new UHF television station in Baltimore, expected to be operating by September 1968 on channel 45, no call sign yet assigned.

Chesapeake's first foray into local news came in the early 1980s when it launched a newscast on WPTT, a rarity at this time for stations not affiliated with the then-major networks (ABC, CBS and NBC).

This opening segment, featuring then-anchorman Kevin Evans, appeared briefly, and was audible, in the movie Flashdance during a scene where Jennifer Beals' character returns home and turns on the television.

SPX had intended to close down all of Dielectric's operations by the end of July, in turn threatening a FCC-proposed incentive auction and subsequent repacking of television broadcast spectrum.

[77] On August 20, 2014, Sinclair announced that it would swap WTTA in Tampa and KXRM-TV and KXTU-LD in Colorado Springs to Media General in exchange for WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, WLUK-TV and WCWF in Green Bay and WTGS in Savannah, Georgia.

On June 1, 2017, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals issued a seven-day administrative stay to the UHF discount rulemaking, in order to allow review of an emergency stay motion filed by The Institute for Public Representation (a coalition of public interest groups comprising Free Press, the United Church of Christ, Media Mobilizing Project, the Prometheus Radio Project, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Common Cause) on May 15.

[146] In March 2023, it was reported that Sinclair had laid off news employees and reduced the number of newscasts in four markets: KAEF-TV in Eureka, California; WGXA in Macon, Georgia; WEYI-TV/WSMH in Saginaw/Flint, Michigan; and WACH in Columbia, South Carolina.

[149][150] In late April 2023, Sinclair announced that starting May 15, it would end all local news broadcasts on stations in five markets: WGFL in Gainesville, Florida; KPTH in Sioux City, Iowa; KPTM in Omaha, Nebraska; WNWO-TV in Toledo, Ohio; and KTVL in Medford, Oregon.

[160] In January 2025, upon expectations that the FCC will push for deregulation of local television stations under the Trump administration including eliminating the national ownership cap, Sinclair restructured its debt and liquidity in order to prepare for more acquisitions.

Mark Hyman, a high-ranking executive at Sinclair, also created "The Point", a series of conservative editorial segments that were broadcast on stations operated by the group that maintain news departments.

[179][170][180] Sinclair has faced criticism over business practices that circumvent concentration of media ownership regulations, particularly the use of local marketing agreements, accusations that the company had been currying favor with the Trump administration in order to loosen these rules[181] and about its management lacking diversity and being totally controlled by a single family.

[182] Critics, including former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather, have described Sinclair's practices as being "an assault on our democracy" by disseminating what they perceive to be Orwellian-like propaganda to its local stations.

The company produces long-form programs airing weekends on its stations, including Armstrong Williams's weekly talk show The Right Side, and the political/investigative journalism series Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.

In 1996, after CEO David Smith was arrested in a prostitution sting, he ordered Sinclair's Baltimore station WBFF to produce reports on a local drug counseling program as part of his community service sentence.

One employee admitted they had tried to reduce their prominence by deliberately scheduling them during lesser-viewed portions of newscasts, such as around commercial breaks, in an act of malicious compliance with Sinclair's must-run rules.

[188][179][189] However, in March 2018, KOMO aired a must-run segment during prime time about some Americans' belief in the existence of a deep state in the federal government, a concept Trump has blamed for undermining his presidency.

[192] In July 2017, the HBO news satire program Last Week Tonight devoted a segment to discussing Sinclair's editorial practices, in which host John Oliver presented clips of various anchors from stations run by the company, using an identical script describing the FBI as having a "personal vendetta" against Michael Flynn, clips of Mark Hyman editorials, in which he compared multiculturalism and political correctness to a cancer epidemic, and stated that marriage was a solution to domestic abuse, and joked that the "Terrorism Alert Desk" segments defined terrorism as "anything a Muslim does".

[193] Oliver pointed out, as an example, the fact that Sinclair's Terrorism Alert Desk reported in 2016 that Islamic State militia in Iraq had killed nine youth by slashing them in half with chainsaws.

[194] On December 11, 2019, it was reported that Sinclair had dropped Epshteyn's commentary segments, with plans to encourage stations to prioritize local investigative journalism and coverage of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

The story related to a recent Wall Street Journal article that called into question the mental acuity of Democratic president and reelection candidate Joe Biden.

[196] In April 2004, ABC broadcast a special episode of Nightline where host Ted Koppel listed the names of soldiers killed in the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

The infomercial aired at various times during the weekend of October 30, 2010, on Sinclair-owned stations in Madison, Cape Girardeau, Lexington, Pittsburgh, Des Moines, and Winston-Salem – all in swing states vital to the 2010 elections.

[211][212][213][214][107] In March 2018, CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter obtained an internal memorandum sent by Sinclair, which dictated that its stations must produce and broadcast an "anchor-delivered journalistic responsibility message" using a mandated script.

[219][220] Sinclair maintains that its "must-runs" are standard procedure, often covering a wide variety of issues such as news updates regarding terrorism and other public matters on which the company has an opinion while remaining "committed to reporting the facts".

[215][222][221] The instructions for the mandated promos tell an anchor to state:[215] I'm extremely proud of the quality, balanced journalism that [proper news brand name of local station] produces.

Our commitment to factual reporting is the foundation of our credibility, now more than ever.On April 2, 2018, Sinclair Broadcast Group released a statement on their website in response to what it called "unfounded media criticism".

[229][230][231] In July 2020, Sinclair Broadcast Group scheduled to air an interview of Plandemic creator Judy Mikovits and her lawyer Larry Klayman, conducted by Eric Bolling on the America This Week show.

[238] This led to a protracted media battle and smear campaign between the two companies, and Sinclair pulled the two stations off of Charter's systems in the neighboring Beckley, West Virginia market.

[264] On August 25, 2015, ten days after the 2012 retransmission agreement had expired, Dish customers lost access to 129 Sinclair stations, resulting in the largest local television blackout in history.

[267] On March 7, 2023, the Walt Disney Company began notifying subscribers of its Hulu with Live TV service that it would drop several ABC affiliate stations after failing to reach an agreement with the owner of those broadcast outlets.