NEW YORK — A video with dozens of news anchors reading a script about “fake stories” put in stark visual terms what for weeks had largely been an academic debate about media consolidation and the Sinclair Broadcast Group’s efforts to promote a consistent message across its stations.

The 98-second video, posted on Deadspin on Saturday, has already been viewed by millions of people and provoked a tweet by President Donald Trump supporting the corporation on Monday.

Sinclair owns nearly 200 local stations and had ordered its anchors to read a statement expressing concern about “the troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing the country.” Some outlets publish these “fake stories” without checking facts first and some people in the media push their own biases, the statement said.

The anchors give no specific examples. Sinclair, whose corporate leadership leans right, uses terminology familiar to Trump and his criticisms of “fake news.” In the message, the anchors say they “work very hard to seek the truth and strive to be fair, balanced and factual.”

Timothy Burke, a video editor at Deadspin, said he read a CNN story last month about the script being sent to local stations.

The video’s repetition illustrates Sinclair’s reach in a way mere numbers can’t, said Jeff Jarvis, a journalism professor at the City University of New York.

“That’s what makes the video so powerful,” he said. “It illustrates a story that in some cases can read like a conspiracy theory. You can see by the video that it’s not.”

Trump congratulates el-Sissi after election decried as sham

President Donald Trump congratulated Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on his landslide re-election victory, the White House said Monday — an election critics derided as a sham that all but guaranteed el-Sissi a second term in office.

The statement is another signal of the Trump administration’s stated goal to improve relations with Egypt after predecessor President Barack Obama declined to invite el-Sissi to the White House because of concerns about his human rights record.

“The two leaders affirmed the strategic partnership between the United States and Egypt,” the White House said Monday in a statement.

In his bid for a second four-year term, El-Sissi won with more than 97 percent of the vote in an election that drew about 41 percent turnout.

Justice Department imposes quotas on immigration judges

SAN DIEGO — The Trump administration has introduced production quotas for immigration judges in an effort to reduce enormous court backlogs, raising concern among judges and attorneys that decisions may be unfairly rushed.

The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review said judges must complete 700 cases a year to earn a satisfactory grade. The standards, which take effect Oct. 1, include six other measures indicating how much time judges should spend on different types of cases and court motions.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who oversees immigration courts, has sought major changes as a sharp increase in deportation arrests under President Donald Trump has pushed the backlog above 650,000 cases.

Trump urges ‘nuclear option’ by Congress to pass border bill

WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials said Monday they’re crafting a new legislative package aimed at closing immigration “loopholes,” hours after the president called on Republicans in Congress to immediately pass a border bill using the “Nuclear Option if necessary” to muscle it through.

“Border Patrol Agents (and ICE) are GREAT, but the weak Dem laws don’t allow them to do their job. Act now Congress, our country is being stolen!” President Donald Trump wrote in a series of tweets, fired off after returning from a weekend in Florida with several immigration hardliners.

Trump has been seething over immigration since realizing the major spending bill he signed last month barely funds the border wall he has promised his supporters.

Trump seeks arbitration in Stormy Daniels case

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump asked a federal judge on Monday to order private arbitration in a case brought by a porn actress who claimed she had an affair with him.

Trump and his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, filed papers in federal court in Los Angeles asking a judge to rule that Stormy Daniels’ case involving a non-disclosure agreement must be heard by an arbitrator instead of a jury.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, has been seeking to invalidate the agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election.

Also on Monday, the publisher of the National Enquirer asked a California court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a former Playboy centerfold who says she had an affair with Trump, arguing that the deal it struck with Karen McDougal is protected by the First Amendment.

Dems raise concerns on Trump legal defense fund

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats raised ethics questions on Monday about the framework of a defense fund set up to help pay legal costs for White House, Trump campaign and transition officials caught up in investigations into Russian meddling in the election.

Eighteen House Democrats claim that because of the way it’s set up, the fund could receive donations from lobbyists or others with interests before the Trump administration, the Democrats warned in a letter to David Apol, the acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

In January, Apol told lawyers who set up the fund that a draft agreement of its structure appeared to be “in compliance.” The ethics office, however, has not officially approved or disapproved of the structure of the fund.

A legal defense fund for fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe will no longer accept donations after raising more than $500,000 in four days. The fund is to defray costs for McCabe, who was fired after FBI officials and the Justice Department concluded he hadn’t been candid during an inspector general probe.

Ethan Couch, who as a 16-year-old driver drunkenly struck and killed four pedestrians in 2013 but dodged prison after suggesting at trial that his irresponsibility was a result of his entitled upbringing, walked free Monday after serving almost two years in a Texas county jail on a probation violation.