Monday, March 13, 2006

A Conservative News Outlet Bites the Dust

Apparently the market has spoken:

DCRTV has run rumors for the past few months that Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group will shutter its Hunt Valley-based News Central. Now, News Blues confirms that the national news operation, which feeds dozens of Sinclair-owned and operated TV stations, will close at the end of March. The employment status of news anchors like former Fox 5er Morris Jones (left), Jennifer Gladstone, and Alison Kosik, and weather forecasters Kristin Emery, Scott Padgett, Tony Pagnotti, Vytas Reid, Susan Schrack, Lisa Teachman, and James Wieland remains unclear. Sinclair launched its $50 million News Central in 2002. Says NB: "Designed to cut costs by eliminating or greatly reducing the size of existing news departments at Sinclair stations, News Central became the focus of much criticism because it shifted control of news content away from the individual stations and into the hands of Baltimore news managers." However, News Central newscasts produced low ratings and have been dropped by many Sinclair stations. NB adds that Sinclair is "scrambling" to maintain local news broadcasts on its major network-affiliated stations like Baltimore's Fox 45, WBFF, which produces a morning and a 10 PM newscast.....


Oh, and Limbaugh got canned in Baltimore too.