Following weeks of Sinclair Broadcast Group's national segments ignoring the public hearings from the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, Sinclair national correspondent Scott Thuman covered the July 12 hearing in a prerecorded segment which aired across the country on newscasts from Sinclair-owned or -operated television stations.

Previously, Media Matters reviewed these prerecorded segments from Sinclair’s national correspondents and found that none of them covered the January 6 committee’s hearings on June 21, 23, and 28. The damning testimony and evidence presented in those three hearings detailed the extent to which former President Donald Trump and his allies were involved in efforts to illegally change the election results. On June 28, the committee presented witness testimony from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson detailing Trump’s erratic and dangerous behavior on the day of the insurrection, including his insistence that armed supporters be allowed in his presence and to be able to march to the Capitol.

Although Thuman’s July 12 report did cover some of the themes from that day’s hearing, it failed to include additional new evidence that Trump and his co-conspirators planned in advance to encourage his supporters to march on the Capitol. Thuman also included part of a misleading statement from Trump attacking the committee’s members.