SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
U.S. border patrol agents deployed tear gas on Sunday as a group of refugees approached the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo: AP/Rodrigo Abd)
With Sinclair's Latest "Must-Run" Segment Defending Tear Gassing of Refugees, Trump's Dream of State TV Comes True
"And Trump thinks we need another news network devoted to pushing his propaganda?"
Nov 27, 2018
Though President Donald Trump this week expressed an interest in establishing a state-run TV news network due to his dissatisfaction with the media's coverage of his historically unpopular presidency, the Sinclair Broadcast Group on Tuesday appeared to fulfill that role with another of its "must-run" pro-Trump segments, this time defending the use of tear gas on migrant children at the southern U.S. border.
In a segment all 173 Sinclair stations were ordered to air, former Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn rejected criticism of the tear gassing and said the actions taken by U.S. border patrol agents on Sunday were necessary for the nation's security.
As Tim Karr of the media advocacy group Free Press wrote on Twitter, the network is already effectively serving as the state TV station the president has alluded to.
"The fact of the matter is that this is an attempted invasion of our country. Period," Epshteyn said of the asylum-seekers who have spent the past several weeks traveling from Central America through Mexico to the border. "Our border must remain intact and secure."
The so-called "caravan" played a central role in Trump's campaign speeches ahead of the midterm elections, with the president and other Republicans claiming that the relatively small group, which includes many parents and children, consisted of violent criminals.
While medical professionals warned of the long-term health effects tear gas could have on children and Mexico's Human Rights Commission condemned the use of the chemical, Epshteyn kept up Trump's narrative in his segment. He referred to the group fleeing violence and unrest in their home countries as a "migrant crisis" and defended the use of tear gas to stop the "attack" on border patrol agents--despite the fact that the migrants were not armed.
Sinclair has ordered its stations across the country to air several "must-run" segments defending the Trump administration's policies. Earlier this year Epshteyn was featured in a segment about the president's family separation policy, which led to the forcible separation of about 2,000 children from their parents, slamming Trump's critics for acting as though "those who are tough on immigration are somehow monsters."
Other "must-run" segments have included an attack on "one-sided stories" in the news media and a defense of Trump's comments about the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 in which an attendee drove a car into a crowd of people, killing one counter-protester.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Though President Donald Trump this week expressed an interest in establishing a state-run TV news network due to his dissatisfaction with the media's coverage of his historically unpopular presidency, the Sinclair Broadcast Group on Tuesday appeared to fulfill that role with another of its "must-run" pro-Trump segments, this time defending the use of tear gas on migrant children at the southern U.S. border.
In a segment all 173 Sinclair stations were ordered to air, former Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn rejected criticism of the tear gassing and said the actions taken by U.S. border patrol agents on Sunday were necessary for the nation's security.
As Tim Karr of the media advocacy group Free Press wrote on Twitter, the network is already effectively serving as the state TV station the president has alluded to.
"The fact of the matter is that this is an attempted invasion of our country. Period," Epshteyn said of the asylum-seekers who have spent the past several weeks traveling from Central America through Mexico to the border. "Our border must remain intact and secure."
The so-called "caravan" played a central role in Trump's campaign speeches ahead of the midterm elections, with the president and other Republicans claiming that the relatively small group, which includes many parents and children, consisted of violent criminals.
While medical professionals warned of the long-term health effects tear gas could have on children and Mexico's Human Rights Commission condemned the use of the chemical, Epshteyn kept up Trump's narrative in his segment. He referred to the group fleeing violence and unrest in their home countries as a "migrant crisis" and defended the use of tear gas to stop the "attack" on border patrol agents--despite the fact that the migrants were not armed.
Sinclair has ordered its stations across the country to air several "must-run" segments defending the Trump administration's policies. Earlier this year Epshteyn was featured in a segment about the president's family separation policy, which led to the forcible separation of about 2,000 children from their parents, slamming Trump's critics for acting as though "those who are tough on immigration are somehow monsters."
Other "must-run" segments have included an attack on "one-sided stories" in the news media and a defense of Trump's comments about the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 in which an attendee drove a car into a crowd of people, killing one counter-protester.
Though President Donald Trump this week expressed an interest in establishing a state-run TV news network due to his dissatisfaction with the media's coverage of his historically unpopular presidency, the Sinclair Broadcast Group on Tuesday appeared to fulfill that role with another of its "must-run" pro-Trump segments, this time defending the use of tear gas on migrant children at the southern U.S. border.
In a segment all 173 Sinclair stations were ordered to air, former Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn rejected criticism of the tear gassing and said the actions taken by U.S. border patrol agents on Sunday were necessary for the nation's security.
As Tim Karr of the media advocacy group Free Press wrote on Twitter, the network is already effectively serving as the state TV station the president has alluded to.
"The fact of the matter is that this is an attempted invasion of our country. Period," Epshteyn said of the asylum-seekers who have spent the past several weeks traveling from Central America through Mexico to the border. "Our border must remain intact and secure."
The so-called "caravan" played a central role in Trump's campaign speeches ahead of the midterm elections, with the president and other Republicans claiming that the relatively small group, which includes many parents and children, consisted of violent criminals.
While medical professionals warned of the long-term health effects tear gas could have on children and Mexico's Human Rights Commission condemned the use of the chemical, Epshteyn kept up Trump's narrative in his segment. He referred to the group fleeing violence and unrest in their home countries as a "migrant crisis" and defended the use of tear gas to stop the "attack" on border patrol agents--despite the fact that the migrants were not armed.
Sinclair has ordered its stations across the country to air several "must-run" segments defending the Trump administration's policies. Earlier this year Epshteyn was featured in a segment about the president's family separation policy, which led to the forcible separation of about 2,000 children from their parents, slamming Trump's critics for acting as though "those who are tough on immigration are somehow monsters."
Other "must-run" segments have included an attack on "one-sided stories" in the news media and a defense of Trump's comments about the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 in which an attendee drove a car into a crowd of people, killing one counter-protester.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.