Sinclair Broadcast’s pythonlike grip on local news stations across America became a national issue two weeks ago when our sister site Deadspin posted a video story showing dozens of anchors at Sinclair stations forced to recite Donald Trump’s talking points about “fake news.”

A Sinclair Broadcast Group host showed his whole ass—and was forced to resign—after writing a tweet in which he threatened to sodomize Parkland, Fla., student and gun-reform activist David Hogg.

Imagine if a giant media company carefully and meticulously began buying television stations all across the country, changing their programming and taking a particularly conservative, pro-Trump stance as they required all of their affiliates to run right-wing commentary segments—including commentary by former advisers…