#Sinclair kills controversial interview pushing Fauci conspiracy theory

Sinclair Broadcasting Group on Monday said it killed a news segment promoting a conspiracy theory that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, was responsible for the creation of the coronavirus.

The segment, originally scheduled to air over the past weekend on Sinclair’s weekly hour-long news show “America This Week,” featured an interview with discredited medical researcher Judy Mikovits, who has claimed that Fauci helped manufacture the deadly disease and spread it to China.

Leading up to the show’s airing, Sinclair said it would postpone and “rework” the segment. But by Monday, the broadcaster said it would be scrapping the interview altogether.

“Upon further review, we have decided not to air the interview with Mikovits,” a Sinclair spokesman said. “Although the segment did include an expert to dispute Mikovits, given the nature of the theories she presented we believe it is not appropriate to air the interview.”

Sinclair, one of the largest broadcaster TV station owners in the US, faced backlash over the Mikovits interview after it was aired by at least one local station in Charleston, West Virginia. That caught the attention of left-leaning media website Media Matters, which posted a clip of the segment on its website.

The segment shows Mikovits repeating unsubstantiated claims made in the documentary “Plandemic,” which was earlier pulled from social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook.

Media Matters said the interview had since been scrubbed from Sinclair station’s websites “without a correction or note.”

Sinclair confirmed that the segment was removed, but did not comment further.

Mikovits could not be reached for comment.

Eric Bolling, the host of “America This Week,” didn’t immediately return a request for comment but said via Twitter over the weekend that he “always welcomed all points of view on my show and have consistently stood for free speech.” He said he was “caught off guard by some of Mikovits’ claims. At no point do I agree with her.”

He added that he has invited Fauci to appear on his program and that he has immense respect for him.