Pressure of Truth
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Outlet profile

WITN

U.S. local news, center / mostly non-ideological (corporate owner with right-leaning leadership)

Owned byGray Media (formerly Gray Television), a publicly traded Atlanta-based broadcaster. Gray has owned WITN since 1997.
FundingMainly local and national television advertising, political ads, and retransmission-consent fees paid by cable and satellite providers. The NBC affiliation also supplies network programming.
On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

WITN signed on September 28, 1955, from a tower site in Chocowinity, near Washington, N.C. Its original owner was North Carolina Television, Inc., a group of radio station owners from eastern North Carolina towns. In 1985 the station was sold to AFLAC, the insurance company, which later decided to sell its television group. Gray Television bought WITN in 1997 and has held it since. Gray's 2019 merger with Raycom Media made it one of the largest U.S. local-station owners, and it has kept expanding through acquisitions in 2026. WITN's studios are in Greenville, with an additional studio in New Bern, and it serves a largely rural region of eastern North Carolina. Its content is mainly local newscasts, severe-weather and hurricane coverage, and NBC network programming. Gray's CEO, Hilton Howell Jr., has donated to Republican candidates and praised Trump on social media. Gray executives have also said they expect deregulation under Trump, such as looser ownership limits, to help the company. I found no evidence that this has produced a clear partisan slant in WITN's own local coverage, but the ownership's regulatory interests are relevant context.

Sources

  1. WITN History: A Look At How We Began In 1955
  2. WITN-TV (Wikipedia)
  3. Atlanta broadcasting giant sees deregulation under Trump administration (AJC)
  4. Who Owns Gray Media (Free Press)
  5. Gray Media closes acquisition of Block Communications stations (The Desk)

Profile compiled 2026-10-12; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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