Overview

Background

David Deniston Smith, born in 1950 or 1951, has been the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group since 1990. The original company was created in 1971 by Julian Sinclair Smith, his father, and it was not until the mid-1980s that his four sons transformed it into Sinclair Broadcast Group. David Smith became its president and CEO in 1988 and drove decades of aggressive expansion, turning a single Baltimore station into a nationwide operation. The company today reports revenue of US$3.55 billion and is still controlled by the Smith family.

As of 2018, his estimated net worth was US$325 million. He is a deeply rooted Baltimore figure, and his civic interests — including support for local government reform efforts — have extended well beyond broadcasting. He has financially backed a Baltimore City organization that pushes for accountable and transparent city government; in 2022, that group successfully passed a ballot measure requiring term limits for the city's mayor, comptroller, and City Council.

Public Role in the Second Trump Administration

Sinclair and the Trump Political Alliance

Smith's alignment with Trump is longstanding and explicit. He reportedly told Trump during the 2016 election campaign, "We are here to deliver your message." That posture shaped how Sinclair operated throughout Trump's first term and beyond. During the 2016 presidential election, Sinclair programming often portrayed Republican candidate Donald Trump more favorably than his opponent Hillary Clinton. The company hired former Trump White House staff member Boris Epshteyn as its chief political analyst, and Sinclair stations were required to carry Epshteyn's segments.

The operational model that drew the most criticism involved mandatory scripts. In a now-viral video, multiple anchors from Sinclair news stations read from the same script denouncing so-called "false news," language that closely echoed Trump's own attacks on the press. It has been reported that every news station under Sinclair's umbrella is required to syndicate commentary that comports with its owners' ideological views. Trump publicly embraced the company; he called Sinclair "far superior" to other media companies and mocked those who "criticize Sinclair for being biased."

In the second Trump term, the political alignment has continued. In 2025, Sinclair attracted national attention when it joined Nexstar Media Group in refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the host's remarks about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The company's conservative programming posture, which critics describe as an extension of Smith's personal politics, has remained stable.

FCC Regulation and the Push to Expand

Smith's most concrete policy interest has always been deregulation of broadcast ownership limits, and the Trump-era FCC has been central to that ambition. The day before Trump's first inauguration, Smith met with Ajit Pai, who was about to become Trump's FCC chairman; within days of taking office, Pai announced changes that made it easier for Sinclair to buy more TV stations.

The same dynamic is playing out in the second term. Broadcast giants are pouring millions into lobbying as they push federal regulators to loosen limits on how much of the national TV market one company can control, a change that could reshape local television across the country. While Sinclair reaches about 24 percent of TV households when the UHF discount is applied, the company still sees the national ownership cap as limiting its ability to expand. The company has been in conversations with multiple potential merger partners and launched a strategic review pointing to a desire to acquire one of its peers; discussions with E.W. Scripps, a smaller broadcast station owner, began in 2024.

The FCC has become increasingly politicized under Trump; during a congressional probe focused on censorship and free speech in December 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the agency was not independent of the administration. That posture is broadly favorable to Sinclair's expansion ambitions, though no merger has been finalized as of this writing.

The Baltimore Sun Acquisition

Smith's most visible move in the current period has been his acquisition of a major regional newspaper. Smith, along with co-owner and political commentator Armstrong Williams, bought the Baltimore Sun for an undisclosed amount in January 2024. It marked the first time in nearly 40 years the newspaper was under local ownership. Smith positioned the purchase as civic investment, but the editorial changes that followed drew significant criticism from the paper's newsroom and press freedom observers.

Soon, the Sun's editorial pages started including more conservative viewpoints, including a column from Williams. Smith's and Williams' influence spread to the news pages, when the Sun began republishing stories from the Sinclair-owned Fox45 — stories that sometimes took a conservative bent. Inside the newsroom and around a city that had long taken pride in the paper, disappointment and outrage mounted as the Sun ran harsh right-wing opinion pieces and content that raised questions about editorial independence.

The Baltimore Sun Guild, marking the first year of Smith's ownership, said he had made his agenda clear "with union-busting tactics and a disregard for journalistic integrity"; the union reported that 19 of its members had resigned, been laid off, or been fired, and that "many departing members cited frustration with the new ownership." A reporter's termination after raising questions internally about coverage prompted a formal protest to the National Labor Relations Board, according to the Guild.

Recent Developments

On the financial side, Sinclair has benefited substantially from the political advertising surge tied to the 2026 midterm election cycle. Revenue increased 7 percent from a year earlier to $840 million in the second quarter of 2026, while adjusted earnings rose 45 percent. Political advertising revenue reached $59 million in that quarter, up from $6 million a year earlier, and Sinclair increased its full-year political advertising forecast to at least $375 million. The company's debt load remains substantial, though Sinclair reduced its debt by $320 million during the second quarter.

The Sun's troubles have continued into 2025 and 2026. Staff departures have persisted, and the editorial tensions that surfaced in the paper's first year under Smith's ownership have not visibly abated. Smith's candidates in a Baltimore primary and a ballot initiative he solely funded were resoundingly defeated by voters in Baltimore — suggesting that his political influence in his home city is more contested than his media footprint might imply.

Outlook

Smith's position at the intersection of conservative media, broadcast regulation, and print ownership gives him a durable, if indirect, role in the Trump political environment. The most consequential near-term question concerns broadcast ownership rules: if the FCC under Trump moves to raise or eliminate the national audience cap, Sinclair would be positioned to pursue the kind of large-scale merger that regulators blocked during the first Trump term. Whether that happens will depend on regulatory decisions and congressional posture that remain unresolved.

At the Baltimore Sun, the central question is whether the paper can retain the staff and credibility needed to function as a serious regional news organization under its current ownership model. The answer so far has been ambiguous at best. More broadly, Smith represents a model of conservative media influence that operates not through prime-time cable punditry but through the accumulated weight of local television and print — institutions that reach audiences who may not think of themselves as consuming partisan media at all. That structural advantage, more than any single decision or controversy, is what makes him worth watching.