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25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Discussion pertaining to the Tri-Cities, Flint, Mt. Pleasant, and Bad Axe
sinklair
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by sinklair » Sun Oct 24, 2021 4:25 am

Master: the only “extra pay” Sinclair is giving us is the overtime for trying to keep the stations on the air. Nothing else. They are working some of us around the clock, while some “managers” continue to punch out at 5 o’clock claiming there’s nothing they can do.

If you want to know the building frustration, this Vice article sums it up our ongoing living hell pretty well:
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypg4w/ ... are-attack



sinklair
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by sinklair » Sun Oct 24, 2021 1:28 pm

I actually had a 25-66 manager claim the programming disruptions were “big deal”… that viewers would return when the ransomware is resolved “any day now”.

I get it that no one is dying and that this amounts to an inconvenience for viewers. However, Sinclair’s mishandling of this incident — along with retransmission blackouts — just accelerate cord cutting by viewers who get frustrated with rising costs and the lack of reliability.

Viewers called in constantly to WEYI when we were owned by Barrington because of constant power outages that took the station down due to a lack of generator backup power. Sinclair is worse. It refuses to put in even basic procedures to prevent this type of cyber attack… it refuses to be up front with employees, advertisers and viewers… and Sinclair’s antagonistic stance toward cable, satellite and digital distribution networks make it unfit to hold on to its FCC license since it is only acting in its own interest.

https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/ ... 141407001/



JRBlitz
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by JRBlitz » Sun Oct 24, 2021 2:51 pm

Thanks to this catastrophe, WNEM is no longer the laughing stock of the market. Plus, it did take the heat off the dismissal of Frank Turner.



Martin Stett
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by Martin Stett » Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:57 pm

sinklair wrote:
Sun Oct 24, 2021 1:28 pm
I actually had a 25-66 manager claim the programming disruptions were “big deal”… that viewers would return when the ransomware is resolved “any day now”.
My last OTA channel scan came up with 53 stations in my Genesee County area. It's like back in the day when Blockbuster was sure that streaming wouldn't last.



sinklair
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by sinklair » Mon Oct 25, 2021 8:02 am

It’s not just 25-66 that are having trainwrecks of newscasts… here’s our Las Vegas station (also owned by Armstrong Willians) with a complete meltdown.

https://youtu.be/N6epFghCTfE

And when all managers and engineers have left for the weekend while you’re still expected to get newscasts on… even though most major systems still don’t work… why not make a Tic Toc video about the absurdity of the situation that Sinclair’s incompetence has left us in…

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8yt56Ws/

And it’s interesting that our local newspapers have so far ignored this story. Russian hackers take down one of the US’s largest local broadcasters through a ransomware attack. No news here… I guess M-Live and Flint Beat only report on local TV stations when they receive press releases about positive news.

Positive stories about 25-66 parent company Sinclair Broadcasting reported by local media outlets via news release:

https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/2013 ... ershi.html

https://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/201 ... movin.html

https://www.mlive.com/sports/flint/2017 ... rds_f.html

https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/2013 ... mnist.html

https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2015/0 ... aunch.html

Stories about 25-66 parent company Sinclair Broadcasting’s ransomware attack that have affected 185+ local newscasts reported by local media outlets:

(***crickets chirping***)

None of the local newspapers or TV stations even published the Associated Press article on Sinclair’s cyberattack. It’s as if there’s an unholy alliance of station and newspaper managers to ignore any negative news.

Will the last person in the real journalism industry please turn off the lights???



sinklair
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by sinklair » Fri Oct 29, 2021 3:49 am

The targeting of critical infrastructure continues by Chinese and Russian governments…

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/28/politics ... index.html

The Sinclair ransomware attack just shows how vulnerable our systems are and will likely only embolden those wanting to do damage to critical infrastructure, like we’ve seen with oil pipelines, schools, hospitals and now broadcasters. Yet there’s been zero leadership amongst broadcasting companies to protect networks from these cyber attacks.



JRBlitz
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by JRBlitz » Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:07 pm

Rumor has it that WNEM and WJRT have been approached by the Ellen syndicators of finishing out the season because they are getting fed up about the show not airing the past 2 weeks and during sweeps. They feel Sinclair is in breach of their contract.



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rugratsonline
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by rugratsonline » Sat Oct 30, 2021 8:34 pm

JRBlitz wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:07 pm
Rumor has it that WNEM and WJRT have been approached by the Ellen syndicators of finishing out the season because they are getting fed up about the show not airing the past 2 weeks and during sweeps. They feel Sinclair is in breach of their contract.
Any bets that NBC and Fox will be following suit as well?



Realist
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Location: Northern Michigan

Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by Realist » Sat Oct 30, 2021 9:18 pm

rugratsonline wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 8:34 pm
JRBlitz wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:07 pm
Rumor has it that WNEM and WJRT have been approached by the Ellen syndicators of finishing out the season because they are getting fed up about the show not airing the past 2 weeks and during sweeps. They feel Sinclair is in breach of their contract.
Any bets that NBC and Fox will be following suit as well?
The network programs are airing with no issues. It’s just the syndicated programs that are not airing. It’s becoming a joke.



JRBlitz
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by JRBlitz » Tue Nov 02, 2021 1:23 pm

It's never a good sign when syndicators are being told that there is no timetable on when programs will return to the airwaves. It gets even more embarrassing by the day.



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rugratsonline
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by rugratsonline » Tue Nov 02, 2021 10:50 pm

Realist wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 9:18 pm
rugratsonline wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 8:34 pm
JRBlitz wrote:
Sat Oct 30, 2021 4:07 pm
Rumor has it that WNEM and WJRT have been approached by the Ellen syndicators of finishing out the season because they are getting fed up about the show not airing the past 2 weeks and during sweeps. They feel Sinclair is in breach of their contract.
Any bets that NBC and Fox will be following suit as well?
The network programs are airing with no issues. It’s just the syndicated programs that are not airing. It’s becoming a joke.
Even though they were able to clear network programming, without a decent cache of syndicated programs or a way to show local commercials, the industry will begin to look elsewhere to sell their wares. And these days, stations pay to affiliate with the networks, not like in the past where they got the networks for free. And I imagine an affiliation with a big leaguer such as NBC or Fox is not cheap.



sinklair
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Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by sinklair » Wed Nov 03, 2021 4:51 am

I’d hate to be Sinclair CEO Chris the Ripper on a good day. Today won’t be a good day. Who wants to bet that 99% of questions on today’s quarterly earnings call for Wall Street investors focuses solely on Sinclair’s ransomware attack and its lingering effects, including its inability to resume normal operations like airing commercials, syndicated programming, and error-free newscasts. Two weeks into this issue, it’s still a sh*tshow.

https://sbgi.net/wp-content/uploads/202 ... Q-2021.pdf

Three words of advice… sell, sell, sell.



sinklair
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Joined: Sun Dec 08, 2019 11:59 am

Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by sinklair » Thu Nov 04, 2021 7:00 am

Here’s a bit of creative writing by the corporate Death Star…

https://sbgi.net/pr-news/sinclair-repor ... l-results/

Apparently there’s nothing to see here. Everything’s great. There’s no financial impact from the pandemic, ransomware attack, loss of car dealership advertising from the automotive chip shortage, shuttering of Ring of Honor Wrestling, loss of “brain drain” from veteran talent leaving the industry, the still unresolved lack of retransmission agreement for Sinclair stations with satellite-cable-digital providers, or the mounting losses from its Diamond Sports subsidiary that still doesn’t have agreements with Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and other professional leagues to build out a proposed direct to consumer streaming service.

So here’s another view of the financial troubles facing Sinclair…

https://wrestlingnews.co/roh-news/roh-p ... h-of-debt/

Sinclair was able to eek out a small dividend for David Smith and the Smith family, largely on the backs of its employees who continue not to receive pay raises… but wildly underperformed investor expectations due to the aforementioned issues.

However, the band keeps playing on the Titanic’s main deck…



MasterB
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Location: Kalamazoo

Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by MasterB » Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:07 am

25-66 & CW46 still can't get the syndies on the air in Flint Sinklair? WWMT & CW7 is back to normal airing the syndies I haven't any problems other than L3's still not on the air.


Go Pistons, Let's Go Redwings.

Realist
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Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:36 pm
Location: Northern Michigan

Re: 25-66 impacted by Sinclair ransomware attack

Post by Realist » Fri Nov 05, 2021 3:55 pm

It’s been 3 weeks today since this ransomware attack has happened. While I enjoy watching CHiP’s reruns now on NBC25 weekday afternoons, it’s supposed to be on one of their digital sub channels. At what point does the Flint cluster get this fixed? Is there no sense of urgency? Is there no embarrassment or shame on what going out over the air? God people, FIX THIS!



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