Sinclair drops Boris Epshteyn and other political analysts

[brooklynite]

Source: NBC News

Sinclair Broadcast Group is axing one of its biggest stars, Boris Epshteyn, the network's chief political analyst and a former special assistant to President Donald Trump. The move is part of a company-wide effort to move away from political commentary in favor of investigative journalism, the network said Wednesday.

“We have to shine a light on our value proposition every quarter hour, in every newscast," the company said in a statement to its staff. "Therefore, we will be expanding our local investigative journalism footprint in our daily newscasts. We are excited to dedicate more time in our newscasts to report on critical and relevant issues.”

“To allot additional airtime for this storytelling, we will be ending the commentary segments this Friday, Dec. 13, featuring Ameshia Cross, and Boris Epshteyn,” the memo continued.

Epshteyn’s political commentary has been widely criticized. In a piece last year about immigration on the Southern border, Epshteyn used the word "invasion" to describe the influx of migrants. Sinclair was forced to post a tweet that the viewpoint did not represent the company’s views and that it is "committed to fair, unbiased journalism across our stations nationwide."

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/sinclair-drops-boris-epshteyn-other-political-analysts-n1099796?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np

[RhodeIslandOne]

1. It was state issued propaganda

Fuck Sinclair, Fuck Boris, and I expect their "investigative" team will be a pile of shit also.

[guillaumeb]

2. This sounds good, however.....

“We have to shine a light on our value proposition every quarter hour, in every newscast," the company said in a statement to its staff. "Therefore, we will be expanding our local investigative journalism footprint in our daily newscasts. We are excited to dedicate more time in our newscasts to report on critical and relevant issues.”

My translation: "We need to cut costs, so we are eliminating higher paid celebrities and we will now focus on using low paid local reporters to focus on crimes in town and traffic accidents".

And the weather and animal stpries.
".

[brooklynite]

7. IOW, local TV news as it has existed for decades...

[guillaumeb]

12. Exactly.

Sinclair is noted for one main thing. An obsession with making money at the expense of actual journalism.

[lagomorph777]

20. "To allot additional airtime for this storytelling..."

Not fact-reporting. Storytelling.

[guillaumeb]

23. Exactly.

And in Chicago, a large city, local news is mainly storytelling with minimal analysis.

Celebrity news, traffic, shootings the weather, sports, and 20 seconds of national "news' that often includes shootings and accidents from other areas.

[C_U_L8R]

3. The russian subsidies must have dried up

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. They said it: "this storytelling": propaganda dressed as investigative journalism. . . . nt

[lagomorph777]

21. +1

[CurtEastPoint]

5. Cross was just hired in Jan 19 as the 'liberal.' Have to appease their base.

[dewsgirl]

6. What exactly does their investigative journalism consist of?

Straight up propaganda?

[Gothmog]

8. I am glad that Boris is gone

[Opel_Justwax]

9. I'm sure Sinclair will have IJ that asks, "Why does the press discrimnate against Nazis?"

[durablend]

15. And the old standby

"Why do Democrats hate America?"

[Wellstone ruled]

10. Ah ha,

so those live time Twitter feedback to their on air talents must have been so negative they had to make a change.

[zaj]

11. "Investigative Journalism" Trump Propaganda By "Journalists"

Expect more stories like...

Biden/Ukraine from The Hill & John Solomon
"Clinton Cash" stories from ?Peter Schweizer
"Hillary The Movie" from Citizens United

[NotHardly]

13. Wait and see... trust but verify... look for their 'behavior/actions' rather than mere words.

[cab67]

14. Sinclair is under different market pressure.

The national networks deal with a nationwide market, but Sinclair is made up of local affiliates that rely on local advertising far more than cable news. I suspect part of this may be noise generated by affiliates about blowback from their local communities.

Not all of it, mind you, but part of it. There's a local Sinclair affiliate in my area, and every time one of their "commentators" lets loose with oral myiasis, they lose advertisers.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. I hadn't realised Epshteyn had worked directly for Trump - in the White House

Epshteyn became a special assistant in the Trump administration as it took office. He wrote Trump's controversial statement for Holocaust Remembrance Day in January 2017, which omitted any mention of the Jewish people.[13] Following criticism of the omission, press secretary Sean Spicer defended the statement as written by "an individual who is both Jewish and the descendent of Holocaust survivors."[13][14] At the end of March 2017, it was reported that unnamed sources had said Epshteyn was resigning.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Epshteyn#Trump_administration

But look at what sterling qualification he had for the Trump regime:

Two years ago, Epshteyn was charged with misdemeanour assault in Scottsdale, Arizona, following a bar fight. The charge was dropped after he agreed to undergo anger management counselling and perform community service.
...
In 2009, he became vice-president for legal affairs at a small financial firm, West America Securities, in which his wife's uncle, Charles J. Newman, held a stake. By then, the company and its chief executive, Robert B. Kay, who was a longtime associate of Newman's, had a history of run-ins with regulators, public filings show.

As a result of an episode involving Kay, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a Wall Street regulator, took the unusual step in 2013 of expelling West America, effectively shutting it down. Epshteyn and Newman were not accused of wrongdoing in the matter.
...
The company, Sigma Development Corp., alleged that Epshteyn and his partner had accepted an initial $US100,000 payment to help find it investors for a Disneyland-style theme park in Houston, and then failed to deliver on promises.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/boris-epshteyn-donald-trumps-tv-attack-dog-20161014-gs2820.html

How did the Trump operation find such a competent, upstanding man who gets into bar fights in his 30s, and has had 2 out of 3 of the firms he's worked for involved in legal problems (plus, as a bonus, working on the 2008 Palin campaign)? Why, he's a friend of Eric Trump. Did you need to ask?

[MineralMan]

17. Translation: "Our ratings have been dropping for local news broadcasts."

"That has been affecting ad revenues negatively. We are hoping that these changes will attract more ads from Bloomberg and Steyer, who are focusing heavily on local news programming."

A guy has to read between the lines, sometimes.

[Initech]

18. Womp womp!

[No Vested Interest]

19. I find Boris Epshteyn personally repugnant and immediately change the station.

So glad I won't have to see him before me anymore.

[Miguelito Loveless]

22. So...

they are moving from partisan political commentary to partisan smear campaigns, masquerading as "investigative journalism".

[Mc Mike]

24. Can't compete with OANN?

[progree]

25. "Is Hillary still deleting her emails? Why can't Bill control his woman? More at Ten"

Last edited Wed Dec 11, 2019, 07:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Sexism inspired by Boris Johnson ---
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-quotes-controversy-comments-general-election-2019-campaign-1337453

In a 1995 column, he (Boris Johnson) said that “women’s desire to be married” must be restored by “addressing the feebleness of the modern Briton, his reluctance or inability to take control of his woman and be head of a household.”

He added that there is a limited “marriageable pool” of men willing to “take control of his woman”.

The move is part of a company-wide effort to move away from political commentary in favor of investigative journalism, the network said Wednesday.

[LiberalArkie]

26. They are really afraid of being on the wrong side of history.