Who Owns Sinclair

Sinclair, Inc. 🐔🐔🐔🐔

Capitulation Rank:  Obeying
Category: Broadcasting & Entertainment
Market Cap: $961.5 million

David Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, is a longtime Republican donor who has used his vast empire of local-television stations to promote Donald Trump’s reactionary ideology. Sinclair has forced its hundreds of local-television stations to run commentary favorable to the Trump administration. This has included a 2018 segment where anchors mimicked Donald Trump’s outlandish claims about “fake news.”

The conglomerate is now poised for further growth and hopeful that a Trump FCC will loosen longstanding media-ownership limits so that it can acquire even more stations. In 2024, Smith purchased The Baltimore Sun and soon thereafter the newspaper began publishing stories with Sinclair’s trademark right-wing bent.

Sinclair has also brought on board previous Trump administration operatives, including Kaelan Dorr and Boris Epshteyn. In yet another spin of the revolving door, Epshteyn has returned to service in the White House. In return for Smith’s loyalty, Trump has indicated that he’d likely bless future company efforts to take over local stations, complaining that the FCC’s 2018 denial of Sinclair’s attempt to take over Tribune Company — which was rejected after Sinclair misled FCC officials — was “sad and unfair.”

Sept. 2025 update: Sinclair continues to muzzle Jimmy Kimmel despite widespread protests

In the wake of the September murder of Charlie Kirk, many on the right took to social media to weaponize anything involving Kirk that didn’t paint him as a great American crusader for free speech (which is highly questionable). They seized on Kimmel’s somewhat innocuous comments about the political motivations of Kirk’s alleged shooter.

FCC Chairman Carr picked up on the chatter and issued a threat to media companies that either produced or aired Kimmel’s program. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said to the companies, explicitly indicating that the FCC would take up action against the likes of Disney and Nexstar for continuing to produce and air Kimmel’s show.

And like clockwork, Nexstar soon announced it would preempt Kimmel’s program. Soon after, Disney — which owns ABC —  decided to suspend Kimmel’s program. Mega-broadcaster Sinclair jumped on the big-media bandwagon, pulling the program from its ABC affiliates.

Following a forceful public outcry, Disney reversed its decision and allowed the program to resume, but both Nexstar and Sinclair are still refusing to air the show. Sinclair’s persistent Trump-friendly stance has earned it a four-chicken obedient (🐔🐔🐔🐔) rating. Its ongoing decision to muzzle Kimmel — out of the belief that it will win the company favors at the Trump FCC — has Sinclair’s rating sliding toward five-chicken propaganda (🐔🐔🐔🐔🐔).

DEI Doublespeak:

Sinclair’s Diversity and Inclusion Statement states that the company “value[s] and support[s] diversity and inclusion at all levels.” However, its EEO policy echoes President Trump’s and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s redefinition of DEI. It states “employment decisions will be based on such factors as merit, qualifications, competence, and the needs of the Company… [and] will not be influenced or affected by virtue of any protected status.”

What It Owns:

Sinclair owns licenses to 126 broadcast-TV stations in 85 markets (and operates an additional 59 stations under shared-services agreements). Its broadcast- and cable-television holdings include Charge!, Comet, Marquee Sports Network, The Nest, TBD and the Tennis Channel. Other Sinclair businesses include Acrodyne Technical Services (broadcasting-equipment servicing); Compulse, LLC; DataSphere Technologies; Dielectric (broadcasting-equipment manufacturer); Sinclair Investment Group (property investment); Sterling Venture Partners (private equity), Tennis Magazine and Timeline Labs. 

Money & Influence Game:

Sinclair paid lobbyists $1,130,000 in 2024, and its employees made $167,118 in contributions to political candidates (2024 cycle). Ten of its 12 lobbyists in 2024 previously held government jobs. (SOURCE: Center for Responsive Politics)