Sinclair Broadcast Group is ditching its star political analysts, including former Trump aide Boris Epshteyn, in favor of investigative journalism.
Sounds like the bottom line beat Trumpism. Sinclair needs to do a better job locally so it is spending more money and time on local stories. They will probably be right leaning stories and will focus a lot on bad things young black men do, but they will be local. Never forget the Action News model, coverage of black on black violence sells in the white community. Racism pays.
They’re thinking that at this time there shouldn’t be someone named Boris shilling for tRump on their stations.
Boris doesn’t have to worry. OAN will pick him up.
A lot of the local stations were running the requisite propaganda at odd times; I’m guessing that’s why they are dropping the commentary and going after local stories they can distort to fit the fascist narrative. Sinclair and Fox are pure proganada and should not be allowed to operate. They exemplify the paradox of tolerance, as defined by Karl Popper.
Less well known is the paradox of tolerance : Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.
(laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh)
Boris didn;t even make it a year.
Sinclair realized they could never be taken seriously as a news organization with Mini-Goebbels like Epshteyn on their payroll.
I doubt that Sinclair means “investigative journalism” the way most journalists do, but if this gives the local stations more leeway to do their own stories then that is a good thing. Some of those stations have been fighting back against Sinclair and its attempts at propaganda, and those stations will likely pursue investigations that are good journalism. The ones that will pursue Republican talking points are already doing so, nothing will change there.
What we really need is a Congress that passes laws that force news organizations to report fairly and accurately, and give both sides a proper airing…good journalists already do so, but places like Fox, Sinclair, and OAN are now just Republican propaganda mills. Getting real facts into those places will hamper their ability to spout nonsense without risking their licenses. Yes, journalists should be free to pursue stories, but as things stand now we need some kind of bulwark against the rotten propaganda that has infected our system ever since Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine.
A source told NBC on Wednesday that although he will no longer serve as a political commentator, “Boris will be moving into a sales-focused role with the company.”
Um, bit of an unusual career path, moving from political analysis to sales?
This simply means they’re going to follow Rudy’s lead and conduct “proper” investigations for conspiracies that real news organizations won’t touch. Make no mistake, we’ll be seeing the fruits of these investigations coming from Nunes, Jordan, et al.
This is just the fog machine shifting into high gear.,
Meh, Epshteyn Schmepstyn. Buh-bye, Boris Badenov.
“We have to shine a light on our value proposition every quarter hour, in every newscast,” the company said in a statement obtained by NBC. “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.”
A couple of things here in this statement.
First and foremost Boris Epshteyn is not a critical and relevant employee with critical and relevant opinions.
Second I guess the local affiliates were screaming about losing market share because they weren’t covering local news.
Is it too much to hope for to.guess that people were clicking off when he came on?
His new job will just be drumming up “investigative Journalist” business sold to the highest bidder for CA$H.
Want your political opponent trashed and dragged through the mud? Contact Boris at Sinclair and tell us what kind of scandal you want created; Financial? Sexual? Ethical? Religious? (we specialize in those) Espionage?, all of the above? We can create, on demand, whatever you want (for a price.) Or, you can just sign a yearly retainer and we will produce, on whatever regular basis you want, whatever political shit-storm you desire for one yearly fee (to be re-negotiated yearly, with massive discounts available for Republicans.)
See? It’s the first in a whole new paradigm of outsourcing your Propaganda on contract!
“Sales focused role”.
That’s awesome. Next transition will be to another place who is willing to pay 
for heaping doses of his brand of nonsense.
I don’t know. Sales … marketing … bullshitting people. Pretty much the same as his “analysis.”
But even funnier is the idea that Sinclair is going to investigate anything using journalistic standards - which is what “investigative journalism” would imply. Nah. Just call it “propaganda” because that’s what it will be.
ETA: I think they just took him off the air because his name is too much like the dead sex-trafficking pedophile friend of Trump and employee of Barr’s father.
This will free up resources to investigate concerning developments in local transit and housing programs.
“Boris will be moving into a sales-focused role with the company.”
Boris is just waiting for the call to the bull pen back to the trump campaign team.
Did you bullshit last week? Did you try to bullshit last week?
Meh. Sinclair is just switching from overt propaganda to propaganda disguised as “investigative journalism.” Besides, they won’t have to pay the local newsroom “investigators” as much as they did their celebrity commentators. Folks in Sinclair markets can look forward to: “We have documented evidence that there are children in this town who cross the street alone! And it’s all Obama’s fault!”
We need to reinstitute the FCC regulations that prohibited a company from owning more than 6 radio or television stations total, or owning a radio or television station in any market where they owned a newspaper.
I think you are right, someone determined that running un-adulterated propaganda was turning off some viewers, and not attracting new viewers.
That said for Sinclair, “investigative journalism” might mean they are paying Guilliani’s travel costs and do wall to wall coverage of what he “finds”, or perhaps “getting to the bottom” of why Hillary destroyed her e-mails and the connection between them and Seth Rich.
Is he a war criminal?