By Adam Pagnucco.
News that Sinclair Broadcasting Group Executive Chairman David D. Smith has bought the Baltimore Sun has shocked Maryland’s political world. While the Sun is a feeble shadow of its former self due to cuts and layoffs, it still has the largest print circulation in Maryland of any newspaper aside from possibly the Washington Post.
Sinclair Broadcasting is known for its conservative orientation. A 2018 study by two Emory University professors found, “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.” However, the Sun reported that Smith personally bought the newspaper without involvement from Sinclair.
What should we make of David D. Smith? Here are a few things to know about the new Sun King.
David D. Smith. Photo credit: Baltimore Sun.
GQ has reported that Smith got his start selling porn videos.
Smith is not a self-made man. His father founded Sinclair and Smith and three brothers took it over decades later. A 2005 GQ article details how Smith “launched his career selling pornographic videos in Baltimore’s redlight district during the 1970s.” There are a few other stories in that article that will go unprinted here.
The Guardian reported that Smith once told Donald Trump, “We are here to deliver your message.”
In 2018, the Guardian published an article detailing Smith’s meetings with Trump before and after the latter was elected president. According to the article:
The chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group met Donald Trump at the White House during a visit to pitch a potentially lucrative new product to administration officials, the Guardian has learned.
David D Smith, whose company has been criticised for making its anchors read a script echoing Trump’s attacks on the media, said he briefed officials last year on a system that would enable authorities to broadcast direct to any American’s phone.
“I just wanted them to be aware of the technology,” Smith said in an interview. He also recalled an earlier meeting with Trump during the 2016 election campaign, where he told the future president: “We are here to deliver your message.”
The commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB) has accused Smith of threatening to bankrupt one of his own companies to strongarm the league into giving it streaming rights.
Sinclair is embroiled in a wild lawsuit filed by one of its own affiliates, Diamond Sports Group, which is alleging that Sinclair was “fraudulently withdrawing as much as $1.5 billion from the regional sports business.” As part of that suit, the Sun reported on the following comments made at a court hearing by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred:
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in court that Sinclair’s executive chairman threatened to force its Diamond Sports Group regional sports networks into bankruptcy, potentially hurting the league, if MLB refused to give it baseball game streaming rights…
Manfred said during the hearing that Smith had met with him in New York to pursue getting streaming rights for all of Diamond’s MLB teams, The Athletic reported. The broadcaster has been going after streaming rights while it was taking losses on the sports networks it bought in 2019 for $10.6 billion from The Walt Disney Co.
Manfred said in court that when he told Smith that Sinclair would not get streaming rights, Smith replied, “‘I put $2 billion into the purchase of these RSNs … so what I’m going to do is I’m going to keep this going long enough until I get my $2 billion out, OK? And then I’m going to start squeezing your clubs to take their rights fees down, OK, in order to make sure that I stay profitable in the RSN business. And if they don’t agree to that, I’m going to put the entity into bankruptcy, and then I’m going to selectively reject contracts,’” according to The Athletic.
Smith believes in investigative journalism.
Fox 45 in Baltimore, a Sinclair affiliate, established an investigative unit named Project Baltimore in 2017. The unit specializes in exposing problems in Baltimore City’s school system and has won four awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors, a nonprofit “dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting.”
Smith is largely responsible for the passage of term limits in Baltimore City.
Smith personally contributed $900,000 to the People for Elected Accountability and Civic Engagement committee, which financed the successful 2022 ballot question on term limits in Baltimore City. (Other contributions to the committee totaled $2,575.) And yes, he did that while Fox 45, which is owned by Sinclair, covered the campaign.
Smith has given money to Democrats.
While Smith is a political conservative, he has made campaign contributions to some Democrats. Among them are the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ($95,400), former Comptroller Peter Franchot ($10,000), Senator Ben Cardin ($5,400), Senator Chuck Schumer ($5,000), former Baltimore Mayor Cathy Pugh ($4,000), former Senator Barbara Mikulski ($3,600), former Baltimore County Council Member Cathy Bevins ($2,500), former Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz ($2,000), former Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith ($2,000) and former Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby ($1,000).
Smith is widely anticipated to shift the viewpoint of the Sun’s editorial page to the right. Fair enough: newspaper editorial boards commonly reflect the views of newspaper owners. The real question is how the paper’s news coverage will be affected. Under its new Sun King, will the Sun be a hard-charging investigative outlet akin to Fox 45’s Project Baltimore? Many residents – and not just in Baltimore – would welcome more investigative reporting by the mainstream media. Or will the Sun become more like the Washington Times, an openly conservative outlet that is much more nationally oriented than locally focused? The outcome will be of intense interest to Maryland’s political community, especially the parts of it that are in or near the City of Baltimore.
Update: Sun employees leaked accounts of Smith’s first meeting with the paper’s staff to the Baltimore Banner and Baltimore Brew. Apparently, the meeting did not go well.