Sinclair, Newsmax in Online Partnership

Sinclair Broadcast Group and Newsmax, the self-proclaimed “#1 conservative news agency online,” are working together in the form of Newsmax headlines on the home pages of several Sinclair station sites.

I see the Newsmax box on the home pages of WLOS in Asheville, NC, WBFF Baltimore, KUTV Salt Lake City and KFDM Beaumont, and assume it’s on many more.

Sinclair has of course been gobbling up stations, spending some $1.5 billion on acquisitions since September 2011.

I have calls in to both Sinclair and Newsmax to see about the arrangement between them.

It seems like a logical pairing philosophically. On Election Day eve, Sinclair aired a special in key battleground markets that “featured some of the most partisan criticisms of President Barack Obama, and spent relatively little time examining Republican nominee Mitt Romney,” said the popular (and left leaning) TalkingPointsMemo.

Sinclair of course made national news before the 2004 election, when it mandated its stations run a special questioning candidate John Kerry’s patriotism.

For its part, Newsmax calls its magazine “the one publication in America breaking news that the liberal media gatekeepers can’t censor.”

Here are the sample headlines given in a promo for the Newsmax Feed Network:

Obama Caves to Putin on Missile Shield
Boehner: I’ll Always Oppose Gay Marriage
Israelis Distrust Obama on Iran Nukes, Syria Weapons
Ben Carson: Defund Obamacare Now
Dick Morris Starts New Radio Show

Today’s headlines–including “Arena Football: We Want Tim Tebow”–appear more down the middle.