More crime and conservatism: How new owners are changing 'The Baltimore Sun'
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What does David D. Smith intend to do as the new owner of a venerable newspaper? Smith is the executive chairman of Sinclair, which is a chain of TV stations noted for expressing political views on the air. When Smith bought The Baltimore Sun, some journalists expressed outrage. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik reported for The Sun for a decade and returned to Baltimore to ask questions.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: I caught up with a half dozen retired Sun colleagues the other day at their weekly coffee klatch - among them Kathy Lally and Jon Morgan.
What do you guys do here on Thursdays?
KATHY LALLY: We get together and we talk about The Baltimore Sun. We talk about politics. We talk about everything you can possibly imagine.
FOLKENFLIK: Today, you brought something with you that you wanted to put on the table for discussion.
JON MORGAN: Well, it's the op-ed page for The Baltimore Sun from yesterday's paper, and it kind of confirms some of our worst fears.
FOLKENFLIK: The Sun first published in 1837. For much of its history, it was one of the nation's most prestigious dailies. Kathy Lally had been posted to Moscow. John Morgan edited state politics. The Sun now has no foreign bureaus and a dwindling number of reporters. There are about 60 journalists now, down from more than 300 in my day, all due to changes in the way people consume and convey news and the rapacious pursuit of profits by a series of out-of-state owners. Jon Morgan says The Sun's newest owner, a local, might prove to be the worst of all.
MORGAN: It's fallen into the hands of someone who, by all indications - and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he's out to set an agenda, use a newspaper to do that.
FOLKENFLIK: That someone is David D. Smith. Former Sun reporters point to Smith's record. They say his flagship Baltimore station relentlessly reports on how dangerous Baltimore is, investigating corruption to the exclusion of bigger forces. Nationally, Smith's Sinclair Broadcast Group has taken on a pro-Republican and pro-Donald Trump tilt. A few years back, Sinclair drew notoriety for ordering its stations throughout the country to run an editorial echoing then-President Trump's attacks on the rest of the press, narrated by their local anchors as though it reflected the thoughts of each.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR #1: Unfortunately, some members of the media...
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR #2: ...Use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda...
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR #3: ...To control exactly what people think.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR #4: And this is extremely dangerous to our democracy.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR #5: This is extremely dangerous to our democracy.
FOLKENFLIK: Smith declined to speak for this story through Armstrong Williams, his partner in acquiring The Sun. Williams says The Sun will focus more on stories that readers care about.
ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS: You're seeing more about crime. You're seeing more about the mayor and City Hall.
FOLKENFLIK: And Williams says they intend to put more funds into the paper.
WILLIAMS: We're not there to gut the operation. We're there to enhance it and grow it.
FOLKENFLIK: Sinclair carries Williams' syndicated talk show on 170 stations. Williams is a conservative commentator and longtime associate of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. In the short time since the acquisition, Williams has become an avatar for The Sun. His column now frequently graces the opinion pages. The Sun's articles draw upon his TV interviews. A lengthy guest editorial hailed Williams with a big picture right above Williams' own column. I asked Williams, what's his role in The Sun's newsroom?
WILLIAMS: Any role that I want, that's the role it will be. I'm honest.
FOLKENFLIK: Smith has pointed to investigations on Sinclair and its local station, Fox 45, as a model. Former Fox 45 weather anchor Kirk Clyatt says one memory there stands out for him.
KIRK CLYATT: We were talking in the afternoon meeting, and I said, I'm looking for 2 to 4 overnight.
FOLKENFLIK: Meaning inches of snow. Clyatt says the station's then-news director wanted more.
CLYATT: And he goes, Kirk, let's make it 3 to 5, and just in that statement gives you kind of an idea of the way the mentality was. You take a story, crime, problems with the school, and instead of going from 2 to 4 inches, you go from 3 to 5. You amplify the negativity.
FOLKENFLIK: Sinclair's Fox 45 reported intently on lawsuits that Smith secretly financed against a past mayoral candidate and the city's schools, a fact disclosed by a rival, the nonprofit Baltimore Banner. What does all that portend for The Sun? Life has gotten a lot more complicated. When a lawsuit against a restaurant owned by Smith's nephew, Alex, was dismissed, it was front-page news. David Smith is a key investor.
Former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon makes headlines with a comeback. Records show Smith, his relatives and companies contributed $130,000 toward her campaign and a parallel political action committee. The Sun drove Dixon from office by exposing her criminal behavior. Its reporters later won a Pulitzer Prize for revealing the corruption of a subsequent mayor. Even so, at his first staff meeting, Smith said The Sun needs to do more to investigate local corruption of current officials. He's called another staff meeting for today.
David Folkenflik, NPR News, Baltimore.
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