El Paso TV: Sinclair Stations Dropping Most Local News

El Paso’s CBS affiliate is eliminating most and perhaps all of its local newscasts, the latest erosion of local news in the nation’s 23rd largest city.

“Beginning August 5, we will be making changes to the way we produce news in El Paso and refocusing our resources across our two stations in the market, CBS4 and KFOX14,” said Jessica Bellucci, a spokesperson for Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns El Paso’s FOX and CBS affiliates.

“In the short-term, CBS4 will continue to air its 10 p.m. newscast, adding a simulcast of KFOX14’s newscasts in other dayparts. A reconceptualized newscast will debut on CBS4 later this year,” she said.

El Paso Matters reports station employees were told Thursday that a number of positions would be eliminated, several sources told El Paso Matters, asking not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the changes. Bellucci didn’t address that in her statement to El Paso Matters.

The continuing decline of local news in El Paso will have far-reaching effects, said Richard Pineda, chair of the Department of Communications at the University of Texas at El Paso.

“The news ecosystem in El Paso is nowhere as rich as it should be, given its size, location on the U.S.-Mexico border, or its status as a microcosm of the cultural changes going on across the United States,” Pineda said. 

“Limiting daily news, whether print or television, means denying information to the community and potentially has the long-term effect of creating a ‘news desert,’ undermining community engagement and democratic discourse. And there is a pernicious ripple effect possible as well; lack of locally reported stories means wire services and TV affiliates do not have sources to pull from when they cover El Paso/border stories at the regional or national level leading to uninformed and possibly biased coverage,” he said.

CBS4 – whose call sign is KDBC – currently produces local newscasts at 5 and 6 a.m., at noon, and at 5:30 and 10 p.m. The statement from Sinclair said only the 10 p.m. newscast will continue after Aug. 5, and even that was said to be a “short-term” decision.

Bellucci didn’t provide more information on the “reconceptualized newscast” planned for later in the year. But several Sinclair stations in recent months have added a morning program called ARC.