Sinclair Broadcast Group completely cancels segment with conspiracy theorist who believes Dr Fauci created COVID-19

On Monday, CNN reported that Sinclair Broadcast Group — a pro-Trump owner of local news channels around the country — has announced it will be entirely canceling a planned segment with a conspiracy theorist who claims Dr. Anthony Fauci created coronavirus.

The segment would have featured Judy Mikovits, best known for the viral conspiracy theory video "Plandemic," telling disgraced former Fox News host Eric Bolling that Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, has "manufactured" coronaviruses over the past decade and sent them to Wuhan, China.

"Upon further review, we have decided not to air the interview with Dr. Mikovits," a spokesperson for Sinclair told CNN Business in a statement. "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 had originally planned to send the segment to its local anchors to run last weekend, but delayed the broadcast following widespread outrage. Initially they said they would be editing the segment to add more context and would air it later, but now they are pulling it altogether.

The Maryland-based local news owner has come under fire in recent years due to its controversial practice of sending "must-run" segments to their ostensibly independent local news anchors, most of which have a heavy right-wing slant.