Liberal media concern-mongers about conservative businessman's acquisition of the Baltimore Sun

David D. Smith, executive chairman of the media conglomerate Sinclair Broadcast Group, has purchased the Baltimore Sun from the investment firm Alden Global Capital for an undisclosed sum. While the acquisition may greatly benefit Maryland's biggest newspaper, given the Republican owner's business acumen and his pledge to invest in it, liberals are nevertheless miffed because Smith is not a fellow traveler.

Fresh off characterizing scalping as white colonist practice and leftist plagiarism as a "conservative weapon," the Associated Press concern-mongered about Smith's "very specific political background" and "what the 187-year-old publication could become" now that the Sun is back in the hands of a local owner for the first time in nearly four decades.

Among the reasons the AP provided to fear the direction the Sun might take under Smith was his foundation's past donations to Project Veritas, "which is best known for making hidden camera stings on media and liberal figures."

The AP indicated further that the Sun might dare to criticize Democrats, noting that a Sinclair-owned Fox Station in Baltimore "frequently airs coverage blaming the city's Democratic mayor, Brandon Scott, for gun violence and failing schools."

Smith has also had the audacity to help finance a successful effort to impose term limits on Baltimore officials, reported the AP.

"As a lifelong Baltimorean and reader of the Sun, I believe that a free and fair — unbiased — press is critically important," Jim Shea, a failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate, told the liberal publication. "I hope that The Sun will not be controlled by those who want to spread their own partisan views."

The AP wasn't the only liberal outfit hyping concern about the acquisition.

NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik similarly raised the alarm about the purchase, intimating that just as Sinclair-owned television stations have supposedly been "pulled in a conservative direction" under Smith's direction, the Sun will also.

"I don't think that was any accident," said Folkenflik, a former Sun writer. "David Smith has given a lot of money to Republican candidates over the years and also to very conservative causes, including right-wing outlets like Project Veritas of those gotcha videos and Turning Point USA, which is really a far-right advocacy group."

The Baltimore Banner, the nonprofit Stewart Bainum launched following his failed bid to acquire the Sun in 2021, ran an article this week entitled, "Meet The Baltimore Sun's New owner: the conservative TV mogul who embraces controversy and profit."

In an ostensibly accusatory framing, the article alleged that in a meeting with his new employees, Smith doubled down on his 2018 suggestion to New York Magazine that print media has become "so left wing as to be meaningless dribble which accounts for why the industry is and will fade away."

The Washington Post joined in the pearl-clutching, playing up Smith's admission that he hasn't bothered to read the Sun in 40 years and making sure to platform former Sun executive editor Tim Franklin's concern over "whether [Smith] will use the Sun to advance his ideological agenda."

To flesh out what his agenda might be, Jeff Bezos' newspaper referenced the David D. Smith Family Foundation's donation of $121,000 in 2018 to the parental rights group Moms for America" as well as the two donations it made to Project Veritas prior to James O'Keefe's departure, which amounted to a combined $536,000.

The Post also claimed that whereas the local news industry "has usually aspired to strike a nonpartisan tone," Smith's "Sinclair has drawn criticism for integrating conservative and right-wing commentary, frequently on hot-button national topics."

Franklin prophesied that if the paper adopts "a rigid, ideological, conservative direction," the paper could suffer in the heavily blue region.

The New Republic suggested the acquisition might have consequences for black Democrats.

"Smith's takeover could mean the paper will soon be forced to mime changes at Sinclair-bought local stations, focusing on negative coverage of the state's Black leadership, including Governor Wes Moore," said the leftist blog.

David Simon, creator of the HBO series "The Wire," which depicted a fictionalized version of the Sun, joined other leftists in bemoaning the acquisition online, claiming that those who elected not to subscribe to the Sun's middling far-left competitor "are simply complicit."

According to the Sun, Smith bought the paper along with the Capital Gazette Papers in Annapolis, Carroll County Times, Towson Times, and other weeklies and magazines in the area because of their focus on local news.

Sinclair made clear in a statement obtained by Axios that it "has no involvement with the transaction."

"I'm in the news business because I believe ... we have an absolute responsibility to serve the public interest," said Smith. "I think the paper can be hugely profitable and successful and serve a greater public interest over time."

"We have one job," added Smith. "To tell the truth, present facts, period. That's our job."

Smith has been critical of the "mainstream media" in town for neglecting issues that actually "affect everybody," especially corruption in government.

Trif Alatzas, the paper's publisher and editor in chief, suggested holding the region's politicians and elites to account has "been part of Baltimore Sun Media's DNA for generations. We look forward to working together to make our organization even stronger."

Smith reportedly indicated he will be joined in the Sun venture by conservative commentator and nationally syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams.

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