Just as the heartwarming glow of Christmas cheer was beginning to fade, we came across this morning’s edition of TVNewscheck.com, which featured a collection of their “columnists” with their end-of-year predictions. We get it, the “year in review” wrap-up is a staple of publishing, in both the printed and electronic kind. The idea of summing up what happened before the calendar rolls over into a new year is irresistible.

Plus, you can add in a few bold predictions for the next twelve months might hold--even if they will surely be forgotten in the next twelve days, at most.

Among the offerings from the industry pundits writing for TVNewscheck was this intriguing headline: “The Most Crucial Thing Newsrooms Can Write in 2026?"

This briefly stirred our interest until we read on and got this answer to that question: “A Mission Statement."

(Frankly, this was as immediately disappointing as not finding a Red Ryder BB gun under the Christmas tree for about the 50th consecutive year.)

We have learned over the years not to judge a story by its headline, so we clicked on to read what wisdom awaited us from the 1980s when mission statements were all the rage, along with Pac-Man, Cabbage Patch Dolls, and Rubik’s Cubes.

Here’s the article’s opening paragraph: "2026 is going to be a year of change. Newsrooms are going to be sold and merged at a record pace, and local newsrooms cannot afford to just sit back and wait for broadcasting groups to outline the new path. Some groundwork must be laid now.” (We were now looking up the contact info in our iPhone for Captain Obvious.)

Now? You mean like not waiting for whoever will be your new corporate overlords to close on your station and tell you what they want? Well, sure, because under the new owners, you are going to have way more freedom to do what you want if you have spent the time and trouble to write out an entire mission statement.

The new folks are going to take one look and go, Whoa. A mission statement! This station knows what it should be doing, and we’ll just leave them alone to keep pursuing “Truth, Justice and the American Way."

Unless, of course, your new owners have other thoughts about how they want the news to be done.

Take the folks at Sinclair Broadcast Group. The ones who own about 185 local television stations across the country right now and would like to grow to nearly 250 stations, should they ultimately acquire or merge with Scripps, as they have announced they would like to do. (Even if Scripps isn’t a fan of the idea.)

Last Friday, FTVLive’s Scott Jones published what he claimed was an internal email from Sinclair’s Senior VP of News, Scott Livingston. The undated email outlined how all Sinclair stations were to proceed when reporting any story concerning the “Epstein Files” (the email’s quotation marks). The email states: "The gravity of the allegations, combined with the lack of meaningful verification, makes these documents insufficient for responsible reporting."

Livingston’s email goes on to state the company’s position thusly, "If there is a legitimate, verified development tied to this topic and confirmed through reliable sourcing and supported by facts, we will pursue.” The email concludes with the direction that "Moving forward, any story on this topic must be vetted by a corporate news leader and/or legal."

Given that this email broke on Jones’ FTVLive.com website on the day after Christmas, and it appeared behind a Patreon paywall, we assume many people may not have seen it. But reading it gave us chills that rival the sub-freezing temps outside our window now.

Whatever your political point of view might be, the idea that a corporate TV news leader would order the newsrooms of the 185 local stations under his direction to hold off on reporting one of the largest political stories of the year, and only carry “approved” coverage that meets some “litmus test” of the company—well that really shouldn’t come as a surprise. This is the same company that, back in 2018, forced all of its local news anchors to read on the air a corporate-mandated script on the issue of “fake news."

At least what constituted it in the company’s view.

There was no option for journalists at local stations to determine whether the sentiments applied to their communities or even themselves. Just read the words as written and sound as sincere as possible. The move garnered a fair amount of press attention from the likes of The New York Times and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."

But no worries if you happen to be in any local station’s news operation that Sinclair might acquire in the coming year! In her TVNewscheck column, Beth Johnson has given you the advice that will save your independence. Better get to writing that “mission statement” right away.

We don’t know Ms. Johnson personally. We do know from her LinkedIn page that she worked for about 8 years as a producer and executive producer up until 2006. A half-dozen years later, she began working as a career coach, talent agent, and workflow analyst for individual employees, emerging leaders, and newsrooms. She co-founded the company “TopNewsTalent” in late 2021.

Given that it's been nearly 20 years since she worked at a local TV station, she may be unaware that the local TV business has changed just a tiny bit. Maybe she never received a corporate mandate for how, or even whether, a news story might be presented.

The reality in 2026 is that a smaller number of large companies will likely own more local TV stations than ever before. And those companies will continue to operate those stations under a single, corporately mandated playbook. Industry talking heads like Nexstar’s Perry Sook and Sinclair’s Chris Ripley will pontificate in the press about the survival of local media in a world dominated by “evil” tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Netflix. The only way forward (in their view) will require more local stations to band together under corporate ownership, so they can continue to bring you the local news that “you have come to rely upon."

It is unlikely that they will mention how much of that local news will be ultimately controlled by—and, in some cases, dictated by—people who work in the headquarters of the company names that flash by for a few seconds at the very end of each local newscast. Because no matter what “mission statement” has been written at the local station, it is the senior executives in the offices in places like Hunt Valley (MD), Irving (TX), Cincinnati (OH), Tysons (VA), and others, who will likely be writing the rules governing the news you will be seeing. 

That was going to be where we ended today’s edition. However, we have just noticed that another writer in TVNewscheck’s 2026 Predictions feature has suggested that this year will be when “Newsrooms will finally let employees be creators on the side."

Because what could possibly go wrong with the idea of allowing local stations' on-air people to have an online content business on the side? Perhaps they could do that over on OnlyFans?

Our prediction for 2026? Nobody has a real clue as to what’s going to happen in the next twelve months. But to quote an infamous tweet from 12/19/2020:

“Be there, will be wild!"

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