Sinclair Broadcast Group will not be airing a segment from Eric Bolling’s show in which a guest pushed a conspiracy theory about Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The company announced Monday that “upon further review, we have decided not to air the interview with Dr. Mikovits.”
In an interview for Bolling’s program, America this Week, that was posted online over the weekend, controversial virologist Dr. Judy Mikovits said that she believes Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House coronavirus task force, “paid for,” “manufactured,” and “shipped” the cell lines of the novel coronavirus to Wuhan, China.
She added that she believes those cell lines were shipped from a military base in Frederick, Maryland, a claim that has been echoed by Chinese state-run newspapers. Mikovits and Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch (a conservative watchdog group with which he has since cut ties) and Freedom Watch, plan to take legal action against Fauci on this basis.
After the segment, Bolling brought on Dr. Nicole Saphier, a radiologist and commentator for Fox News, to respond to Mikovits’s claims. Saphier said they would be good fodder for “conspiracy theorists.”
Quickly after posting the interview online, the segment received a large amount of backlash and was removed. Many felt that Bolling did not do a good enough job questioning the doctor’s claims.
The segment was originally set to air across Sinclair’s local stations over the weekend, but it was decided that the episode would be delayed. Bolling told the Washington Examiner on Saturday that the segment would be “reworked to provide better context.”
Sinclair has since reversed course, however, deciding to pull the segment altogether. The media company stated on Twitter: “Although the segment did include an expert to dispute Dr. Mikovits, given the nature of the theories she presented we believe it is not appropriate to air the interview.”
Upon further review, we have decided not to air the interview with Dr. Mikovits. Although the segment did include an expert to dispute Dr. Mikovits, given the nature of the theories she presented we believe it is not appropriate to air the interview.
— Sinclair Broadcast Group (@WeAreSinclair) July 27, 2020
When the decision to pull the segment was announced, the Washington Examiner reached out to Bolling for comment but did not immediately hear back.
