Sinclair’s Boss Responds to Criticism: ‘You Can’t Be Serious!’

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Supported by Media Sinclair’s Boss Responds to Criticism: ‘You Can’t Be Serious!’ Photo David D. Smith, the chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, in 2011. This week, he defended a script that news anchors at his company’s stations were told to read. “Do you understand,” he wrote, “that as a practical matter every word that comes out of the mouths of network news people is scripted and approved by someone?” Credit Nicholas Griner/Baltimore Business Journal David D. Smith, the chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, says the media is getting his company all wrong.
His remark, in a lengthy email exchange with The New York Times, came in response to renewed scrutiny of Sinclair after a video spread rapidly showing anchors at dozens of its stations across the country reciting the same speech about media bias.
Mr. Smith defended the anchors’ segments, known as “must-runs,” and likened them to the late-night shows that networks air on their local affiliates.
“Not that you would print it, b..

Is Amazon Bad for the Postal Service? Or Its Savior?

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Supported by Technology Is Amazon Bad for the Postal Service? Or Its Savior? Photo Credit Illustration by The New York Times; Doug Mills/The New York Times, left, Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse SEATTLE — Five times in the last week, President Trump has pointed his Twitter arrows at Amazon over what he insists is a bad deal for the United States Postal Service.
Mr. Trump wrote on Tuesday that the agreement, which sets what Amazon pays the Postal Service for many orders, costs American taxpayers billions of dollars. “I am right about Amazon costing the United States Post Office massive amounts of money for being their Delivery Boy,” he wrote.
The details about the deal are not public — they are considered commercially sensitive information — but some of the available evidence suggests the opposite: that Amazon has been a boon to the Postal Service.
The Postal Service has experienced a steady decline in the amount of mail it ships as more of its customers turn away from postcard..

Massive United States-Saudi Infrastructure Fund Struggles to Get Going

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Supported by Business Day Massive United States-Saudi Infrastructure Fund Struggles to Get Going Photo Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the United Nations in New York City last month. Credit Amir Levy/Reuters Last May, the private equity firm Blackstone announced that it was creating a $40 billion fund that would invest in infrastructure projects in the United States. The fund’s largest backer was the government of Saudi Arabia, which agreed to kick in half the cash.
Ten months later, the highly anticipated fund has yet to complete an initial round of fund-raising, much less start investing in infrastructure.
Although the Saudis promised to contribute up to $20 billion, Blackstone is required to raise a dollar from other investors for every dollar the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund puts in. So far, only two other investors have publicly committed to the fund, with their contributions totaling $575 million, according to data provider Preqin, which tracks such in..

Plastic-backed fridges must be 'urgently' removed from sale, says Which?

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Which? said its own, more stringent, tests found that no plastic backing sample was able to withstand a flame for 30 seconds
A watchdog has called for plastic-backed fridges to be “urgently” removed from sale after finding they pose a fire risk and could even hasten the spread of a blaze.
Which? said an industry-wide investigation of more than 500 of the most popular refrigeration appliances on the market found that backing material on 45 per cent of them was made of unsafe plastic which posed a potential fire risk.
The research also found that a number of models backed with plastic which manufacturers previously claimed was flame-retardant could speed up the spread of a fire, the consumer group said.
Read more Plastic-free events show how sport can cut out ‘huge amounts of waste' All plastic-backed fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers on the market pass existing safety standards but Which? said the tests were “inadequate, not fit for purpose and do not come close to repli..