Jimmy Kimmel condemns Sinclair ‘fake stories’ warning as ‘extremely dangerous’

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel on Sunday slammed Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s move to have its anchors warn of alleged bias in other media outlets.

“[T]his is extremely dangerous to our democracy,” Kimmel wrote on Twitter.

this is extremely dangerous to our democracy https://t.co/D1T8Z7J2Wn

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) April 1, 2018

{mosads}The tweet quoted a story from Deadspin, titled “How America’s Largest Local TV Owner Turned Its News Anchors Into Soldiers In Trump’s War On The Media.”

That story followed a report early last month from CNN that said the right-leaning Sinclair is mandating its local affiliates read aloud a promotional campaign that condemns other news outlets for pushing “fake stories.”

The promo includes the phrase “this is extremely dangerous to our democracy.”

“The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media,” the script reportedly read. “More alarming, national media outlets are publishing these same fake stories without checking facts first.” 

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Friday reported that KOMO, the nearby Sinclair affiliate, began airing the promotional scripts.

“But we’re concerned about the troubling trend of irresponsible, one sided news stories plaguing our country. The sharing of biased and false news has become all too common on social media,” the KOMO script reads, as reported by the newspaper.

Updated 1:05 p.m.