Former Trump aide Epshteyn joins Sinclair

[herding cats]

Source: Politico

Boris Epshteyn, a White House aide who oversaw President Donald Trump's television surrogate operation, has joined Sinclair Broadcast Group as chief political analyst, the company said Monday.

As a special assistant to the president, Epshteyn managed the TV appearances of White House officials and appeared as an on-air spokesman himself. But the combative talking head was rumored last month to be leaving the administration.


POLITICO reported in March that Epshteyn threatened to pull all West Wing officials from appearing on Fox News earlier this year after getting into a yelling match with a TV booker.

Sinclair, which owns more than 170 TV stations across the country, said Epshteyn will provide analysis on major political stories.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/boris-epshte

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Ex-Trump spokesperson joins Sinclair Broadcasting

Sinclair announced Monday that it had named Epshteyn "chief political analyst." In that role he will be appearing across the 173 television stations Sinclair owns, operates or provides services for across the country.

"Over a year ago, we made a commitment to provide additional political content that goes beyond the podium to provide a true point of difference with additional context," Scott Livingston, Sinclair's vice president of news, said in a statement. "We understand the frustration with government and traditional institutions. Mr. Epshteyn brings a unique perspective to the political conversation and will play a pivotal role in our mission to dissect the stories in the headlines and to better inform and empower our viewers."

In 2016, Sinclair struck a deal with Trump's presidential campaign to offer better coverage in exchange for more access to the candidate, according to a report from Politico. As part of the deal, Sinclair agreed to broadcast their Trump interviews without commentary. Livingston defended the decision at the time, saying that other outlets had made similar deals with other candidates in the past and that the company's promise "was to give all candidates an opportunity to voice their position and share their position with our viewers."

Epshteyn served as a spokesperson on Trump's campaign and then as an official in his White House press office, where he was tasked with booking surrogates for media appearances. Epshteyn, who frequently appeared on cable news himself, was also known for contentious exchanges with network producers.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/17/media/boris-epshteyn-sinclair/

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Sinclair is the outfit that

did not air the episode of Nightline in which the names of military personnel killed in Iraq were read.

Sinclair Broadcast Group

Political programming

Sinclair has been known for making several politically motivated programming decisions across its stations, some of which have proven controversial.

In April 2004, Sinclair's ABC affiliates refused to air an episode of Nightline that featured a reading of the names of soldiers killed in the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. In response, Sinclair argued that the broadcast "[appeared] to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." ABC responded, saying that the program was meant to be "an expression of respect which seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country." Afterward, the company's political slant was scrutinized by critics when it was publicized that nearly all of Sinclair's recent campaign contributions were to the Republican Party. In particular, the Center for Public Integrity showed concern that the Republican slant of Sinclair's news programming, along with Mark Hyman's past history of government lobbying (particularly calling on the FCC to loosen rules regarding concentration of media ownership), made its stations provide "anything but fair and balanced news programming." Hyman disputed these allegations by stating that its newscasts were "pretty balanced" and that "the reason why some on the left have characterized us as conservative is that we run stories that others in the media spike."

[Eyeball_Kid]

2. The odds are good that Sinclair will have egg on its collective face.

Their boy Epshteyn will likely be identified as a covert Russian agent, perhaps before the week is out. But maybe Sinclair wants a covert Russian agent on its team.

[NewRedDawn]

4. Yes. Rumor has it.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

10. That is what occurred to me...

... so why the bleep are they hiring him?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Epshteyn maybe was a Russian mole, if Carter audio message fr tRump campaign to Putin is right

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028938634

intelligence sources say that Page, Manafort and Epshteyn, possibly also with Trump, are on tape discussing how Page should carry a recording of Donald Trump to Moscow, offering his bona fides in exchange for Russia’s help hacking the election; and that the said tape of Trump was played by Page to Russian intelligence, possibly including Mr. Diveykin, the Russian official in charge of hacking the election; and that multiple foreign intelligence services, among them the UK, Germany and Ukraine, have a tape of this; and that finally, in October, the FBI was able to listen to that tape

[Kathy M]

5. The article you are reffering to is this one ......

https://patribotics.blog/

May I ask who wrote this and where did it / info come from since at the bottom of page it says blog at wordpress ?

Apologize this is my first post in a while , I burst out laughing when I read link ..... who knows where it came from ..... is it fake left news ?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Louise Mensch, well connected to Intell Community, but gets mixed reception here

I've never noticed her post anything later disproven and she has been the first with some information. She tends to be careful to mark rumour as such and only mark something as "confirmed" if she is very sure.

You posted a link to the blog and not the article (a quibble of mine, since blogs change and it may be effectively impossible to find an article "linked" that way). The article is this one: https://patribotics.blog/2017/04/16/carter-page-went-to-moscow-with-a-tape-of-donald-trump-offering-treason-for-hacking/ from the DU post I linked.

I would never characterize Mensch's reporting as "fake left".

[Kathy M]

7. Thanks , will keep that in mind .

Still not finding any names of who wrote article ..... oh well that is okay it is on me ............

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Louise Mensch

https://twitter.com/louisemensch Has the patribotics link there as her link and it is widely known as her blog.

But you are right, her name is not listed on her blog or signed to her articles there.

However, there is no question it is her article.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Mensch

[Kathy M]

9. Thanks for the article , from your article I was able to go to another

" Both McLatchy and BBC alleged the existence of an October FISA warrant, as did Mesch. However, these accounts differed substantially from Mensch's story with respect to the scope and purpose of the warrant. They alleged that the October warrant authorized to monitor financial transactions related to Russia — not communications.[4]

Unlike the derivative accounts in National Review and Breitbart,[15][4] Mensch's original article did not use the term "wiretap" (implying voice telephone calls), but only made claims about e-mail exchanged with SVB Bank and the Russian Alfa-Bank.[4] While Mensch did claim the e-mail server was located in Trump Tower, it was likely located in Philadelphia, as Trump outsourced e-mail to Listrak, which operates out of a data center there. Furthermore, The New York Times reported on Oct 31 that FBI had concluded that that the sever traffic could have been explained by marketing emails or spam. Contrary to The Times, Mensch claimed that the server's activity remained suspicious enough to lead the FBI to request the FISA warrant.[4][18] "

I Apologize ........ for being sceptical always have been and always will be especially reading a persons article or blog that is a fictitious writer . Whether she is right or not time and investigations will tell

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Skepticism is good. It's a brake on runaway reporting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeptical_movement#Notable_skeptical_media