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Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

Sinclair Broadcast Group drops Boris Epshteyn's “must-run” segments

Written by Pam Vogel

Published 12/11/19 2:46 PM EST

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Sinclair Broadcast Group is dropping former Donald Trump aide Boris Epshteyn as a commentator, NBC News reported Wednesday.

For over two years, Epshteyn’s “must-run” commentaries propagandizing for the Trump administration aired on Sinclair local news stations around the country. He will now purportedly be “moving into a sales-focused role with the company,” a source told NBC.

After serving as a Trump aide, Epshteyn was hired by Sinclair as its chief political analyst. He predictably used the platform to defend administration policies, deflect from offensive comments by the president, and air softball interviews with Trump administration officials and other Republicans. While local news stations were forced to air Epshteyn’s segments, there was no natural audience for his commentary; a Media Matters review of his Sinclair commentary clips posted to YouTube found they typically received less than 50 views.

Since 2017, Media Matters has watched Epshteyn’s “must run” segments and called out his worst moments, regularly prompting media coverage of the propaganda Sinclair was airing around the country. Those segments include:

  • After a deadly Neo-Nazi attack took place during the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Epshteyn defended Trump’s claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the rally, which featured white supremacists and Neo-Nazis as well as anti-racist protesters.

  • In perhaps Epshteyn’s most widely condemned commentary segment, he defended the Trump administration’s tear-gassing of migrant children and warned of an “attempted invasion” at the southern border. Sinclair issued a tepid statement on the segment distancing the outlet from Epshteyn’s commentary, but then continued to air his commentary segments attacking immigrants.

  • Epshteyn broadcast a segment in October that aired on at least 47 stations that pushed the smear that “illegal immigrants” are frequently raping children, relying on the reporting of a Sinclair colleague at WJLA in Washington, D.C., who had “selectively highlighted arrests of people with Hispanic last names and accused of sexual assault” in his reports.

  • In an August segment reacting to deadly mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, Epshteyn purported to discuss solutions for gun violence, but never discussed guns. A follow-up segment broadcast later that month drew a false link between video games and gun violence.

  • Epshteyn used a commentary segment to attempt to defend President Donald Trump’s racist Twitter attacks against Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), llhan Omar (D-MN), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), in which the president told the American members of Congress to “go back” to where they came from. The segment aired on at least 50 local news stations.

  • A June commentary segment broadcast by Epshteyn was essentially a Trump campaign ad. The segment praised crowd sizes at Trump’s rallies and “unprecedented social media engagement” from Trump supporters and encouraged the president’s campaign to “ride the wind of his accomplishments to reelection.”

  • Epshteyn suggested Trump’s face as a future addition to Mount Rushmore during a February commentary segment.

  • Epshteyn dismissed Trump’s racist comments about Haiti and countries in Africa being “shitholes” as merely “salty language.”

  • Epshteyn often used his commentary platform to spin obviously bad news for Trump and the Republicans -- such as election losses -- in a positive light and broadcast numerous softball interviews with senior Trump administration officials.

According to NBC, Sinclair will also stop airing commentary segments from Ameshia Cross, the liberal commentator who was hired earlier this year.

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In This Article

  • Boris Epshteyn

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  • Sinclair Broadcast Group

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  • Local News

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