Sinclair Broadcast Group: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Caption notes

In a 2017 Last Week Tonight segment, John Oliver uses Sinclair’s then-proposed purchase of Tribune Media to discuss local television stations’ editorial autonomy. The program describes segments sent by the parent company for stations to carry, alongside suggested introductions that local anchors could read. Oliver asks how viewers can tell where a story came from when a familiar anchor reads a script written elsewhere. This guide covers the historical commentary and its argument. Individual allegations and later developments in the transaction were not independently verified.