The Baltimore Sun reported on Jan. 15 that the paper had been purchased by David D. Smith, the chairman of media conglomerate Sinclair Inc. Smith also purchased several other papers in Maryland, according to the report. Although Sinclair is famous for its ownership of newspapers and television stations around the country, Smith purchased the Sun personally and not through Sinclair. The Washington Post reported that Smith had a contentious meeting with Sun employees this week after the announcement of the sale. According to the report, Smith met with about 60 of the paper’s staff members for over two hours on Tuesday, dismissing the paper’s earlier work by declaring that “full disclosure, I haven’t read the newspaper in 40 years,” and emphasizing that he will treat the new paper as a business investment. Sinclair emphasized to the Sun staff that politics would not play a role in his control of the paper. “I don’t trust any politicians under any circumstances,” Smith said. “I don’t trust government under any circumstance.” Armstrong Williams, a prominent Black conservative commentator who appears on Sinclair-owned stations, has partnered with Smith and is now a co-owner of the Sun.

Although Smith’s ownership of the Sun is separate from his leadership of Sinclair, his reputation for running conservative-focused news coverage has caused critics to worry that Smith will push a right-wing agenda, regardless of his words to the contrary. In 2018, for example, Sinclair required on-air anchors of its news stations to echo then-President Trump’s rhetoric about “fake news” from the mainstream media. In Baltimore, Sinclair owns a Fox affiliate news station that has been critical of Baltimore’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Scott. Even before the new purchase, the Sun has been critical of Baltimore officials. A series of reports by the newspaper contributed to the former mayor, Catherine Pugh, resigning in a scandal over using her position to drive up sales of her children’s book; the Sun won a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting of the scandal. Williams, meanwhile, is a conservative host appearing on Sinclair-owned stations who is close to Ben Carson and formerly supported Donald Trump, though he later broke ranks with Trump in 2022.

David Simon, creator of shows including Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire, was for years a reporter for the Sun, and he has drawn upon his journalistic career to inform characters and story lines in his shows. Most notably, the final season of The Wire heavily features the Sun in a negative light, with a fictional reporter for the paper fabricating a major story. After Simon was tagged on a report about the sale of the paper, he tweeted, “What is left to say about American newspapering?” Simon also urged followers to instead subscribe to The Baltimore Banner, a nonprofit rival to the Sun.

Follow your civic conscience. But above all, subscribe to the Baltimore Banner online. Right now. Thanks.

— David Simon (@AoDespair) January 17, 2024

In the coming months, a clearer picture will likely emerge of the impact that the new owners will have on the Sun’s coverage and ideological stance. As the intersections of news and politics become even more important in an election year, the Sun will potentially become a significant source of contention over the political role of the media.