The new owners of The Sun summoned the paper’s staff for an all-hands assembly on Monday that produced few fireworks and a few blended messages.
Owners David D. Smith, the chief chairman of Hunt Valley-based broadcasting big Sinclair Inc., and conservative commentator Armstrong Williams used the midday assembly to bolster the kinds of protection they imagine is widespread.
But there have been no bulletins about staff or different modifications, in response to these current.
Stories about faculties, crime and corruption, Smith instructed the Sun’s journalists, are what readers are searching for. And staff shouldn’t depend on feedback or interviews from authorities officers for his or her tales, he mentioned. Instead they need to be submitting frequent Freedom of Information Act requests — a standard device of journalists.
Some who attended mentioned they discovered the remarks condescending.
During one alternate, Smith downplayed the position that lead poisoning could also be enjoying in cognitive talents of some metropolis faculty youngsters, indicating that research that present the consequences weren’t reliable.
But whereas Smith instructed the issues he wished to see completely different protection priorities, Williams countered with a special message: The Sun’s journalists are doing effectively, he mentioned, and issues already appeared to be heading in a superb course.
The dueling messages left some scratching their heads.
Williams’ commentaries have been showing repeatedly on The Sun’s op ed pages since he and Smith introduced they’d bought the storied paper from hedge fund Alden Global Capital in mid-January. During an NPR phase on The Sun that aired for the primary time on Monday, former Sun reporter David Folkenflik requested Williams what his position could be on the paper going ahead. His reply: “Any position that I need, that’s the position it is going to be.”
Smith’s Sinclair stations have obtained intense scrutiny for his or her promotion of conservative causes and candidates, and Smith and his household have been important contributors to Republican politicians and teams.
Smith first met with the Sun staff shortly after the acquisition announcement, and the assembly was recorded and leaked to competing information retailers. Sun writer Trif Alatzas warned his reporters firstly of Monday’s assembly that non-consensual recording was unlawful in Maryland, and the gathering was a non-public enterprise assembly, not a public occasion.
