Maryland’s largest information retailers, owned by a rich conservative and vocal supporter of President Donald Trump is being accused of politically and racially concentrating on Governor Wes Moore and Baltimore Metropolis Mayor Brandon Scott, each of whom are Black.
The information retailers, owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, headquartered in Baltimore, have noticeably focused Moore and Scott, from scrutinizing Governor Moore’s navy and collegiate basketball information to Mayor Scott’s buy of a brand new safety fleet, and accusing the younger mayor of hiring a gang member.
Whereas among the protection from the native station WBFF/Fox 45 and The Baltimore Solar, a historic newspaper acquired by Sinclair in 2024, might seem truthful sport for journalism, each Moore and Scott see one thing extra sinister at play.
“It’s truly a really unhappy day, as a result of The Baltimore Solar was our paper of document. It’s now changing into a paper for the right-wing,” Moore stated Tuesday on MS Now whereas discussing the newspaper now run by David D. Smith of the Sinclair Smith household, the manager chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, the biggest proprietor of native TV stations reaching 72% of American households.
Maryland’s first Black governor lamented the “decline” of The Baltimore Solar beneath its new management. Moore scoffed at Smith for “currying favor” with Trump and taking “what was a prized paper” and turning it into “right-wing tribble.”
Smith, a MAGA-aligned millionaire whose household is price billions, advised Trump in 2016 when he first ran for president, “We’re right here to ship your message.” The Sinclair govt has used his retailers to platform right-wing points, together with parroting Trump’s “pretend information” moniker for the media. He additionally doled out tens of millions to fund poll initiatives that his critics say had been designed to undermine Baltimore metropolis’s management by pushing time period limits and recall elections.
“Once you attempt to scale back the scale of the Metropolis Council in a Black metropolis with elected officers who’re overwhelmingly Black, once you put time period limits on the poll in a metropolis that’s overwhelmingly Black, once you assault the insurance policies of issues like CVI (Neighborhood Violence Interventions)…it’s very clear that they don’t need to see free or liberated Black political energy,” Mayor Brandon Scott tells theGrio.
Scott has publicly clashed with reporters working for Sinclair’s WBFF/Fox 45.
In September 2025, the 42-year-old Baltimore mayor—who has been insulted by conservatives as a “DEI mayor“—known as out Fox 45 reporter Gary Collins for asking the mayor’s workplace if a employee with the town’s “Secure Streets” program was a member of the Crips as a result of he wore a blue cap, the colour related to the road gang. Like his boss, Collins has direct ties to the Republican Get together, having served as an officer for the Maryland GOP, a member of the Baltimore Metropolis Republican Get together, and a 2020 delegate for the Republican Nationwide Conference.
Throughout a press convention in January, Scott known as out one other Fox 45 reporter, Tessa Bentulan, for questioning the price of his newly up to date safety fleet of SUVs, calling her line of questioning a “racist slant.”
Scott says Bentulan and her station omitted key particulars of their reporting of a 2025 Black Jeep Wagoneer, which they stated value $163,000, telling theGrio, “What they don’t let you know is that we had two automobiles changed.”
The favored two-term mayor additionally defined that whereas the Baltimore mayor’s workplace usually replaces automobiles each 4 years on common, his workplace waited 10 years earlier than upgrading its fleet. He additionally identified that the information station by no means questioned the safety car upgrades for white Maryland leaders, reminiscent of former Governor Larry Hogan.
“This isn’t a information group, it’s a propaganda machine,” stated Scott, who advised theGrio, “Anyone who doesn’t kowtow to [them]…they’re going to sprinkle racism on high of it.”
The mayor shared with theGrio that he met with Smith and different TV station executives when he first ran for workplace in 2020. The Sinclair proprietor requested that the then 36-year-old candidate flip over unredacted paperwork for an exterior audit. Scott stated he refused to due to private data. “He checked out me and stated, ‘Effectively, you don’t consider in transparency, and we’re going to return after you on daily basis,’” the mayor recalled.
Reecie Colbert, a political commentator, radio host and Maryland resident, says Mayor Scott and Governor Moore are “completely” being politically and racially focused by Sinclair and David Smith.
“MAGA clearly doesn’t need Democrats in management, however they particularly don’t need Black leaders in management. And what they see is that Governor Moore and Mayor Scott have delivered outcomes that no one thought that they might be capable to ship,” Colbert tells theGrio.
Moore and Scott, who’ve developed a detailed relationship as Maryland’s high elected officers, have taken delight within the historic drop in crime charges in Baltimore and throughout the state. The leaders have credited the crime discount to their insurance policies, like focused investments in group violence intervention applications.
Colbert believes Sinclair Broadcast is very attempting to “kneecap” Governor Moore’s rumored presidential prospects in 2028, including, “although he stated he’s not going to run.” Moore has additionally notably clashed a number of occasions with President Trump over the previous yr.
“That is what MAGA does. They play the lengthy sport. They’re relentless at ensuring that they form the narrative. And sadly, we see that fairly often it’s fairly profitable,” she tells theGrio.
Since a 2024 New York Instances article uncovered that Moore’s declare to have obtained a Bronze Star for his U.S. Military service in Afghanistan was inaccurate–one thing Moore repeatedly defined as “an sincere mistake”—The Baltimore Solar has continued to analyze the Maryland governor’s navy background. Based on a latest report by Semafor, David Smith has been maintaining shut tabs on the work of the Baltimore Solar’s crew of investigative reporters. The outlet reported that correspondence with Moore’s workplace looking for paperwork and data was “laden with contempt, and at factors immediately threatened Moore with navy disciplinary motion.”
Throughout his interview with MS Now, Governor Moore stated he was “deeply pleased with my navy service,” including, “The USA Military doesn’t query my integrity. The troopers I serve with don’t query my integrity.”
Moore accused Smith of “utilizing his wealth” to “manipulate” native media, and warned, “I do suppose it’s an essential warning shot for the remainder of the nation as nicely.”
A senior advisor for Wes Moore stated in an announcement offered to theGrio, “What we’re seeing in Maryland is a part of the identical broader story taking part in out throughout the nation: a smaller and smaller variety of ultra-wealthy, right-wing media homeowners utilizing their platforms to place their fingers on the size and shield their energy whereas hiding behind the credibility of legacy establishments.”
The advisor added, “This proper wing propaganda machine is coming for anybody who’s a menace to their energy. Fox Information does it on daily basis on the nationwide degree. David Smith exams it in Maryland and weaponizes the identical mannequin by means of his broader footprint throughout the nation. That is dangerous and it’s one of many many hurdles public officers and political campaigns must confront when speaking with the general public.”
Although his firm has made nice efforts to scrutinize Democrats, whether or not pretty or not, Smith has fairly the previous himself and used his media energy to skirt accountability. Based on a report from—paradoxically—The Baltimore Solar a long time earlier than its Sinclair takeover, David Smith was arrested in 1996 for soliciting a prostitute, who, in response to police, carried out “an unnatural and perverted intercourse act on him.” Smith was charged with a misdemeanor intercourse offense, however minimize an uncommon deal; as an alternative of doing group service, he ordered Sinclair to broadcast studies publicizing native drug applications.
The outsized affect of Smith’s media conglomerate says loads in regards to the state of politics and who’s driving affect. And after years of conservatives complaining that the media was biased and largely influenced by highly effective liberals, that narrative has since been turned on its head as Democrats now fret over the conservative takeover of conventional media like CBS and The Washington Put up.
“It’s known as discovering an answer, which is what Democrats have to do,” stated Colbert, the political commentator, who’s the host of Sirius XM’s “The Reecie Colbert Present.”
“Should you really feel the media is biased in opposition to you, go purchase the media. That’s what Republicans do. They’ve invested in an data infrastructure—it simply so occurs to be disinformation—in a means that Democrats haven’t,” she defined. “Democrats are nonetheless counting on natural media, and so they suppose that their grand resolution is to domesticate a handful of influencers.”
Colbert added, “The fact is that so long as Democrats don’t take steps to have their very own infrastructure that rivals Republicans, they’re all the time going to be on protection and so they’re not going to be wherever close to profitable at getting their data out.”
