SOURCE: Fox News Baltimore Launches Slanted "Robo Push Poll" on Gov. Martin O'Malley, Dream Act & Marriage Equality

UPDATE: Tonight, The Baltimore Sun published a response from Fox Baltimore and Gov. O'Malley's spokesperson about the strange robo push poll (excerpt below):

BALTIMORE SUN: As if robocalls didn't have a bad enough reputation in the world of Baltimore media and politics thanks to consultant Julius Henson's activity in the last gubernatorial election, along comes WBFF (Channel 45) Monday night with its own questionable computer-generated calls into hundreds of thousands on Maryland homes.

And the calls continued Tuesday. I received one at my home in Baltimore City both days. Racquel Guillory, director of communications for Gov. Martin O'Malley, also received one at home in Howard County Monday night around dinnertime....

The questions were about the Dream Act, The Civil Marriage Protection Act, Maryland income taxes being raised, O'Malley's "legislative agenda" and whether the governor backed the Civil Marriage Protection Act and the Dream Act to "further his political career"? In the call, Barnd describes the The Civil Marriage Protection Act as the "focus of his (O'Malley's) legislative agenda...."

WBFF general manager Bill Fanshawe said he and Scott Livingston, the VP of news operations for Sinclair, hired an "outside advertising company" to conduct the poll. He declined to name the firm or say where it was headquartered, but the phone number that respondents were asked to call Monday night was the 202 Washington exchange....

He said the calls were made to "hundreds of thousands" of Maryland homes, and that the station has received 60,000 responses....

Guillory, who said she was speaking from her "perspective as the communications director who received a phone call, rather than for the governor's office," has a very different take on the calls....

In Guillory's professional opinion, "The average person could have clearly been swayed by the way the questions were worded. Being in the thick of it here, I'm know what's going on, but the average person could have clearly been swayed by the questions...."

When pressed for an explanation of that, she added, "I'm not surpised because of where the call came from...."

A reliable Maryland Juice source who is a resident of Baltimore City reports that yesterday Fox News Baltimore (WBFF 45) conducted what they call a "robo push poll." If their description is accurate, this smells an awful lot like rightwing news activism against Gov. O'Malley and some of his legislative priorities. See their report below:

ANONYMOUS SOURCE: The call was a recorded message, and was read by Jeff Barnes (who is one of their evening news anchors).  The call stated that it was being offered by FOX45 News in Baltimore.

After talking about an evening news story on ticks and Lyme disease in MD, the call went on to explain that FOX45 will be covering topics of interest to MD'ers during the upcoming election season and will be doing phone surveys on those issue. Then it asked if I wished to participate (and I said yes).

In addition to q's below it asked, Will you vote in November election ? (y/n)

Explains that the MD legislature passed the DREAM Act last year, and that it HAS been petitioned to referendum and will be on the ballot in Nov.  Will you vote to keep the DREAM Act (y/n)

Explains that MD legislature has passed the Civil Marriage Protection Act, and that it MAY be petitioned to referendum -- will you vote to keep the law ? (y/n)

Do you think that Gov O'Malley promoted these two issues to further his own political career (y/n)

That's about all I can remember.

PATTERN OF RIGHTWING NEWS ACTIVISM: You may recall that last February, Maryland Juice reported that the very same FOX television station put links on their website to try and steer readers to petitions against marriage equality and a proposed gas tax. A link labeled "same-sex marriage petition" steered people directly to the petition to ban marriage equality in Maryland. Notably, both the marriage and gas tax proposals were priorities for Gov. O'Malley in this year's legislative session. After numerous complaints, FOX 45 eventually created a more "fair and balanced" landing page that had links to both a pro and con side. See the original screencap below (ie: before they fixed the problem):

QUICK NOTE OF CAUTION: Now I know some folks will say that this isn't a story because it is FOX News and we should expect bias. But let's be clear here -- the local FOX affiliates are not the same as the national FOX news (ie: the one on cable with idiots like Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, etc.). In the D.C. metro area, I would be surprised to see FOX 5 engaging in such blatant political advocacy. Notably, Baltimore's FOX 45 is owned by the rightwing Sinclair Broadcast Group - a Maryland based corporation.

Fair & Balanced Now? // Baltimore's Fox 45 Reverses Course & Adds Pro-LGBT Link to Website with Anti-Marriage Petition

BACKGROUND: Last week, Maryland Juice complained that Fox's Baltimore affiliate WBFF 45 was.breaching journalistic ethics by engaging in blatant political advocacy. The television station's website posted activist links directing readers to take action on two of the Maryland GOP's favorite issues: 1) a petition to overturn same-sex marriage in Maryland, and 2) a "Stop the Gas Tax" website from the rightwing group Americans for Prosperity. There was no context for the links, nor was there any explanation provided. Instead users who clicked on the Fox News links were immediately steered to political action sites. Not very fair and balanced, eh?

After complaining to a few of Fox Baltimore's advertisers, we followed up our article with a report from the Washington Blade. They noted that WBFF's rightwing owners, Sinclair Broadcast Group, appeared to have foisted the activism onto the local news station. In digging further, we also noticed that Fox Baltimore's employment non-discrimination notice had curiously omitted any discussion of sexual orientation -- even though that is a protected class in Maryland.

A Response from Fox 45: We asked representatives from Fox and Sinclair to shed some light on their motives -- and after a day or so, Maryland Juice received a perfectly polite email from WBFF's manager. He defended the links and suggested they were there to simply note the existence of the movements against the gas-tax and same-sex marriage. He also asked for a call to discuss the matter. But before I could even get around to it, a Maryland Juice reader sent word that Fox 45 had taken steps to address to controversy. First, they changed the website header to include more neutral language than previously used - (ie: "Stop the Gas Tax" is now "Maryland Gas Tax," while "Same-Sex Marriage Petition" is now simply "Same-Sex Marriage). More importantly, the Fox 45 website no longer directs readers to rightwing political action sites. Instead, readers are directed to landing pages that provide a little more context on the issues.

See screencaps of the "Before and After" below:

FOX 45 WEBSITE BEFORE:

FOX 45 WEBSITE AFTER:

Owners of WBFF Fox 45 Force Rightwing Activism on Station // Plus, Their Non-Discrimination Policy Excludes LGBT Language

UPDATE: A Facebook user has provided Maryland Juice with a link to a petition that they have started to oppose WBFF's commingling of news and anti-LGBT activism.  
 
Last Friday, Maryland Juice highlighted how WBFF Fox 45 (Baltimore's local Fox affiliate) had turned from journalism to activism by advocating for rightwing policies on their website. Their site banner currently provides direct links to anti-gas tax propaganda and an anti-marriage equality petition. All signs are pointing to these decisions being foisted on the news producers by their corporate masters at Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG). SBG became famous in 2004 during the Bush-Kerry battle. A wiki entry on SBG notes:

For example, in April 2004, the company refused to broadcast a special "Nightline" broadcast, produced by the ABC television network, that was devoted to reading the names of soldiers who had died in Operation Iraqi Freedom....

Sinclair gained further notoriety by ordering its 62 local stations to preempt prime time programming to broadcast an anti-Kerry film just before the November 2, 2004 general election.

The Washington Blade also recently reported on who was responsible for the anti-marriage equality link:

Maryland’s marriage equality law hasn’t even been signed yet, but Baltimore Fox News affiliate WBFF-45 has endorsed a referendum effort to repeal the measure.

Fox News Baltimore Promotes Anti-Marriage Equality Petition, Washington Times Promotes Anti-Immigrant Cause

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