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US TV giant under siege over Trump-related 'fake news' message

There has been no immediate comment from Sinclair.

Timothy Burke, a video editor at Deadspin, said he read a CNN story last month about the script being sent to local stations and contacted a media monitoring service to collect examples of the statement being read on the air. After receiving more than 50, he fashioned them into a video that shows anchors reading different portions of the text, either simultaneously or one after the other.

He posted a "teaser" with a small portion of the video on Friday night and it quickly attracted attention when tweeted by a Wisconsin journalism professor. Not wanting to see his work appropriated by someone else, Burke said he rushed to get the full video posted Saturday afternoon.

It spread quickly, particularly when tweeted by celebrities like Judd Apatow and Jimmy Kimmel.

The video's repetition illustrates Sinclair's reach in a way mere numbers can't, said Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at the City University of New York.

"That's what makes the video so powerful," he said. "It illustrates a story that in some cases can read like a conspiracy theory. You can see by the video that it's not."

Meanwhile, CNN's Jim Acosta was criticised by some conservative media outlets on Monday for shouting questions about immigration to Trump while the president and first lady were attending an Easter event on the grounds of the White House.

MSNBC's "Morning Joe" did a lengthy segment on Burke's Deadspin video on Monday, showing the words being repeated by several anchors. Co-host Mika Brzezinski said she was surprised some of the local anchors didn't refuse to read it.

"This looks like something we would mock the Russians for doing during the days of Pravda," said co-host Joe Scarborough.

Dan Rather's website said that it was "sickening" to watch local journalists being forced to read something that trashes their own profession.

Deadspin received a hat tip from HBO's John Oliver, whose "Last Week Tonight" did a lengthy story on Sinclair last season. "Nothing says 'we value independent media' like dozens of reporters forced to repeat the same message over and over again, like members of a brainwashed cult," Oliver said.

Burke said he's received a number of emails from people who work at Sinclair stations but he's been too busy at his regular job posting sports videos to look into them.

"I'm glad it received a large audience," he said.