Former White House aide Sebastian Gorka said Saturday he will return to Breitbart News, reuniting him with longtime ally and ex-White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Gorka left his post on Friday as a national security adviser under President Donald Trump — he claimed he resigned, which the White House disputed. While Gorka said his role with Breitbart News hasn't yet been defined, he will be returning to the site where he once served as a national security editor.

“I will be working with you, with Steve, with the Breitbart crew,” Gorka said during an interview with Breitbart Washington editor Matt Boyle on SiriusXM.

Gorka said that while he had no plans to supplant the existing national security editor, he had grand visions for the vertical that included championing Trump’s national security prerogatives during the 2016 campaign. The former White House aide criticized Trump’s recent speech on his plans to increase troop deployment in Afghanistan, casting it as a failure of his current national security team.

“I realized after the president’s speech this week on Afghanistan that he wasn’t been well served,” Gorka said.

Gorka also stood by his claims that it was he who decided to part ways with the White House, not the other way around.

In a resignation letter published Friday night by The Federalist and confirmed by POLITICO, Gorka cited “forces” that do not support President Donald Trump’s “MAGA promise” as his reasoning for leaving the West Wing.

But the White House pushed back against his claims. An administration official wrote in a statement Friday: "Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House.”

On Saturday Gorka claimed to have informed Chief of Staff John Kelly of his intention to resign on Friday earlier in the week.

Even as he discussed his return to Breitbart, Gorka said he's in “negotiations” with "lots of different people" in plotting his next move.

The nation's three most storied newspapers — The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal — lowered their paywalls this weekend for coverage of Hurricane Harvey.

The rare, concurrent move by the three titles gave non-subscribers unlimited access to their on-the-ground reporting as Harvey continues to inflict damage along the Texan coastline. It also gives readers access to weather and safety coverage.

"During times when safety may be at risk, access to accurate and up-to-date information is crucial," a spokesperson for the New York Times told POLITICO.

The three newspapers join The Houston Chronicle and other local Texas news outlets in reducing barriers to entry for content in the wake of Harvey.

The Times previously lifted its paywall in response to Hurricane Sandy, which wreaked havoc on the eastern seaboard in October 2012, and during the 2015 Paris terror attacks that left 130 dead and injured hundreds more.

The Post similarly lowered its content barrier on Election Day 2016 and for the January 2016 snowstorm that buried the D.C. metro area in 20-plus inches of snow.

The Post announced Friday that the unlimited Harvey access would last 48 hours, while the Times and the Journal did not specify how long their paywalls would remain down.

The Wall Street Journal did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Breitbart News is riding high amid its reunion with executive chairman Steve Bannon.

After announcing Bannon’s return on Friday, who officially left his post as White House chief strategist hours prior, Breitbart officials say they are “fired up” about the future of the populist right-wing publication, promising an “aggressive expansion” and renewed focus on its signature bombastic reporting-style.

“I think we definitely are planning on stepping up our game,” Breitbart News Washington editor Matthew Boyle said during the outlet’s weekly SiriusXM show on Saturday.

“’[W]e’re planning a lot of aggressive expansion and much more aggressive reporting than we’ve already been doing,” he added.

Boyle, one of Bannon’s closest allies at Breitbart both prior to and during his tenure serving President Donald Trump, said that the outlet was electrified by Bannon’s return, casting the dynamic at the site during his time away as akin to that of “a pirate ship without a captain.”

“We’ve been a pirate ship without a captain for a year,” Boyle said. “We’re thrilled to have our captain back.”

Boyle’s comments echo that of Bannon’s, who told the Weekly Standard Friday he was “jacked up” to be back with Breitbart’s cast of renegade conservatives. Prior to his White House departure, friends and associates of Bannon said he felt restless with the constraints of the West Wing and that he yearned to return to his role as a political outsider. It was time for “Bannon da Barbarian,” he reportedly told them.

The new Bannon era at Breitbart is likely to feature the publication doubling-down on its attacks on centrist Republicans.

Bannon declared Friday during an interview with Bloomberg that he and Breitbart would be setting their sights on who they saw as enemies of the Trump administration going forward.

“I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents -- on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America,” Bannon said.

Boyle expanded on the sentiment by putting “establishment Republicans” on notice Saturday, while cautioning the Trump administration that it would not be able to carry out its agenda if it strayed too far to the center.

“Trump has to work with conservatives. It’s the only way he can get major big ticket items done,” Boyle said. “What the president has to do is stick to the agenda that won him the election.”

Boyle also fired off a few warning shots to former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch, the son of Fox News chief Rupert Murdoch, both of whom have made critical remarks about Trump over the past week.

The Breitbart writer criticized James Murdoch over his open letter denouncing Trump’s response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville last weekend, saying it “read like leftist diatribe.” He also called out

Scaramucci for criticism about Trump to left-leaning publications this week.

Boyle also reiterated Breitbart’s commitment to their oppositional mantra of constant warfare – mirroring a tweet sent by editor at large James Pollak on Friday.

White House aide Omarosa Manigault's panel appearance caused an uproar at the National Association of Black Journalists annual conference in New Orleans on Friday.

Manigault, director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison and an assistant to president under Donald Trump, repeatedly received jeers and groans from the crowd from her comments, many of them attempts to sidestep questions about her role in the Trump White House, according to social media posts from numerous journalists in attendance.

The panel, titled "Black and Blue: Raising Our Sons, Protecting Our Community," featured appearances from relatives of prominent victims of police violence, including Valerie Castile, the mother of Philando Castile, and Sandra Sterling, the aunt of Alton Sterling, alongside Omarosa and others.

The discussion was frequently derailed, however, as Manigault engaged in several heated exchanges with others onstage.

At one point, Manigault was pressed on Trump's July comments that seemed to encourage police violence during arrests. At first Manigault hesitated, according to multiple reporters in attendance, before affirming she felt the comments had been out of line.

“I’m not going to stand here and defend everything about Donald Trump,” Omarosa said, adding that she has personally invited law enforcement officials to the White House to discuss the matter.

Addressing police officers in Long Island last month, Trump quipped that they shouldn't be "too nice" when dealing with "thugs."

"When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, I said, ‘Please don't be too nice," Trump told the audience of police officers.

As the debate raged on Friday in New Orleans, journalists took to Twitter to express their dismay at the chaos onstage.

"[T]his omarosa appearance is beneath NABJ," tweeted Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post.

this omarosa appearance is beneath NABJ

— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) August 11, 2017

"This Omarosa panel at #NABJ17 is a train wreck. More in the audience standing and turning their backs. Others just walking out," posted NPR host Sam Sanders.

This Omarosa panel at #NABJ17 is a train wreck. More in the audience standing and turning their backs. Others just walking out.

— Sam Sanders (@samsanders) August 11, 2017

"This is insane. Like insane," tweeted Yamiche Alcindor of The New York Times.

This is insane. Like insane.

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) August 11, 2017

Manigault's panel appearance had caused a stir even prior to Friday. According to a Page 6 report, several prominent journalists, including The New York Times' Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New Yorker's Jelani Cobb, pulled out of the panel in light of her invite. The eventual moderator Bounce TV’s Ed Gordon, had some of the fieriest exchanges with Manigault onstage.

In a statement, the NABJ told POLITICO it stood by its decision to invite Manigault to the conference, pointing to their longstanding tradition of asking White House official to appear.

"For years, the NABJ has invited the White House administration to partake in the annual convention," the organization wrote Saturday. "We appreciate that the Director of Communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison Omarosa Newman is participating this year and has come to share her perspective on issues that are critical to our members, and moreover, critical to the communities that we serve.”

Yashar Ali, a contributing freelance writer for HuffPost, is demanding Fox News host Eric Bolling drop his lawsuit over a story Ali wrote last week alleging that Bolling sent lewd text messages to his Fox colleagues.

Ali's lawyer, Patricia Glaser, sent a letter to Bolling's attorney on Friday, copying Fox News' executive vice president of legal and business affairs Dianne Brandi, calling the lawsuit "devoid of meaning."

Ali reported on Friday that several years ago Bolling sent lewd text messages that included photographs of male genitalia to two female colleagues at Fox. The next day Bolling was suspended and Fox launched an investigation by the same law firm that handled probes into the conduct of former host Bill O'Reilly and former Fox chairman Roger Ailes.

After the initial report, Bolling said, via his lawyer, that he "recalls no such inappropriate communications, does not believe he sent any such communications, and will vigorously pursue his legal remedies for any false and defamatory accusations that are made.” On Wednesday, Bolling filed a "summons with notice" in New York State Supreme Court, notifying Ali that he would sue him for $50 million in damages.

Glaser wrote in the letter sent on Friday that the "summons with notice" is "purposefully sparse on allegations, and does not identify which purportedly 'false and misleading' statements could possibly support a $50 million damages reward." The letter states that it is "false" that Ali published defamatory statements and that there is "no evidence of actual malice."

"We welcome the opportunity to depose Mr. Bolling and review his message history, as we presume that you have instructed him to preserve communications. We are also confident that Paul Weiss's internal Fox investigation will corroborate Mr. Ali's article," Glaser wrote.

The letter also notes that Bolling is only suing Ali, not HuffPost, which Glaser claims is a "calculated effort to harass and intimidate Mr. Ali personally." HuffPost has said that they support Ali and are willing to help him financially handle the legal case. If Bolling chooses not to dismiss the action, Glaser said they intend to "move for costs" and sanctions.

Conservative media figures ripped CNN’s decision to fire pro-Trump analyst Jeffrey Lord on Thursday over his use of a Nazi salute during a heated Twitter exchange with the president of a liberal media watchdog group.

The ousted pundit became ensnared in controversy upon tweeting the “Sieg Heil!” slogan at Media Matters president Angelo Carusone on Thursday. Lord's explosive bouts with commentators during the 2016 election and afterward drew both widespread attention online and sharp criticism from left-leaning organizations. But conservatives have defended him.

Responding to an opinion piece by Lord in the conservative American Spectator on Wednesday in which he slammed the “Media Matters Fascists” as “anti-free speech bigot,” Carusone criticized Lord for misspelling his name, asking the author directly, “Why do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you don't take yourself seriously.”

Lord then replied, “Sieg Heil!,” a message he has since said was intended to cast Carusone and Media Matters as fascists.

Despite his swift dismissal by CNN, Lord and other prominent members of the right-wing media refused to back down from critics, casting the firing as another attempt by the left to silence conservative pundits.

“Media smears Jeffrey Lord for making ‘Nazi gesture’ when he was clearly satirizing the left,” tweeted right-wing blogger and personality Mike Cernovich, a leading voice of the so-called “alt-right” movement.

Fox News host Sean Hannity, whose battle with Media Matters over an advertising boycott of his show was at the center of Lord’s Thursday tussle with Carusone, also appeared to address the controversy in defense of the former CNN analyst online Thursday.

“How sad in America that only conservatives get investigated, fired, boycotted and attacked. Double standard, & liberal silence is repulsive!” Hannity tweeted a few hours after news of Lord’s dismissal broke.

Hannity, a fervent supporter of President Donald Trump in his own right, has frequently clashed with Media Matters, which he’s also called fascist on air.

The liberal watchdog group began openly urging Hannity’s advertisers to drop him, as they have done with Fox News hosts Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck before him, a move that Lord was sharply critical of online.

Yet despite the support of Hannity, one of the network’s top anchors, a spokesperson for Fox News said the network would not be seeking to pick up Lord now that he was released by CNN.

“We have no plans to hire him,” the spokesperson said of Lord on Thursday.

Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump who leads his own conservative media platform, also lambasted the outlet over the firing.

“There is something wrong in a world in which CNN fires Jeffrey Lord but retains diva @ananavarro who is literally dumber than dog s****,” Stone said, deriding CNN political commentator Ana Navarro, whom he frequently berates online. He went on to say Lord looked like “Albert Enstein” when compared to Navarro.

For his part, Lord responded to news of the dismissal with a seemingly light-hearted tweet.

“LOL!” he tweeted at 5:55 p.m., soon after the firing was publicly announced.

Fox News host Eric Bolling has initiated a lawsuit against the reporter behind the report that led to his suspension.

Yashar Ali, a contributing writer for HuffPost, reported on Friday that several years ago Bolling sent lewd text messages that included photographs of male genitalia to two female colleagues at Fox. The next day Bolling was suspended and Fox launched an investigation by the same law firm that handled probes into the conduct of former host Bill O'Reilly and former Fox chairman Roger Ailes.

After the initial report, Bolling said, via his lawyer, that he "recalls no such inappropriate communications, does not believe he sent any such communications, and will vigorously pursue his legal remedies for any false and defamatory accusations that are made.”

On Wednesday, Bolling filed a "summons with notice" in New York State Supreme Court against Ali, seeking $50 million in damages for defamation. Ali must respond within 20 days, demanding that Bolling file a complaint, after which Bolling will have 20 days to file his response before the suit goes forward.

"The nature of this action is for damages and injunctive relief based on defamation arising from the defendant’s efforts to injure the plaintiff’s reputation through the intentional and/or highly reckless publication of actionable false and misleading statements about the plaintiff’s conduct and character. As a result of the defendant’s actions, the plaintiff has been substantially harmed," the summons states.

Bolling is represented by Michael Bowe from the same law firm as Marc Kasowitz, who was President Donald Trump's personal attorney until last month.

"This anonymously sourced and uncorroborated story is false, defamatory, and obviously intended to destroy this good man's career and family. We will defend Eric aggressively in court, where actual facts, based on evidence, testimony, and cross-examination, will belie these anonymous accusations," Bowe said.

Ali told POLITICO he plans to fight the case.

“I stand by my reporting and will protect my sources, especially the victims, at all costs," Ali said in a statement.

HuffPost, which called Ali "a careful and meticulous reporter" and said they stood stood by his reporting in a statement released Wednesday, also pledged to support him financially in the lawsuit.

"Yashar Ali is a paid freelancer under contract with HuffPost," editor in chief Lydia Polgreen tweeted Wednesday night. "We have no hesitation about standing by him financially in this case."

Asked for comment, a Fox News spokesperson confirmed the investigation is still ongoing.

Cristiano Lima contributed to this report.

Fox News has suspended anchor Eric Bolling, a spokesperson confirmed Saturday, after allegations surfaced that he sent unsolicited lewd text messages to female co-workers.

"Eric Bolling has been suspended pending the results of an investigation, which is currently underway," a spokesperson for Fox News said in a statement.

HuffPost reported Friday that Bolling had sent pictures of male genitalia to two co-workers at Fox Business Network and one at Fox News Channel, citing a dozen anonymous sources. For months, reporters at several news organizations were chasing down allegations of Bolling's behavior, particularly the lewd texts, prior to Friday's explosive report.

According to the network, "Cashin' In," a financial management show Bolling hosts on Saturdays, was taped Friday morning but shelved after news of the allegations spread. Rotating guest hosts will substitute for Bolling this week on "The Specialists," Fox News' late-afternoon political-discussion panel program, a spokesperson said.

Three hours after Fox announced the suspension, new sexual-harassment allegations against Bolling and other network employees emerged. Caroline Heldman, a frequent Fox contributor from 2008 to 2011, said Bolling and two other employees of Fox News and Fox Business had subjected her to sexual harassment, HuffPost reported.

"We are investigating this matter, and all claims will be taken into account," a Fox News spokesperson told POLITICO of the Heldman allegations.

Fox News has been repeatedly rocked by allegations of sexual impropriety in recent years, including in April of this year, when a wave of sexual harassment allegations forced the network's top anchor, Bill O'Reilly, to leave his prime-time hosting gig.

According to the Fox News spokesperson, the Bolling investigation will be carried out by the Paul Weiss law firm, the same group that spearheaded reviews of O'Reilly and former network chief Roger Ailes, who also left the company following a spree of claims of sexual impropriety.

Hadas Gold contributed to this report.

MSNBC correspondent Kasie Hunt is likely to get her own show on Sunday evenings, two sources with knowledge of the situation tell POLITICO.

The deal is not done yet and the show does not have its own name, but the two sources say it’s more or less a done deal. One source suggested it would be a two-hour show on Sundays.

NBC declined to comment. Hunt did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Hunt is one of the best-known MSNBC reporters on Capitol Hill who made a name for herself doggedly chasing after members of Congress. She joins a stable of young female correspondents who have received their own shows on the network, including Katy Tur and Hallie Jackson. She previously worked at AP, National Journal and POLITICO.

The New York Times on Sunday took the unusual step of requesting an apology from a competitor, asking "Fox & Friends" to retract a report that the Times was to blame for the 2015 escape of an ISIS leader. Fox subsequently updated the story on its website with the NYT letter.

"I am writing on behalf of The New York Times to request an on-air apology and tweet from Fox & Friends in regards to a malicious and inaccurate segment 'NY Times leak allowed ISIS leader to slip away,'” wrote Danielle Rhoades Ha, vice president of communications for the Times.

The "Fox & Friends" report, which aired Saturday, apparently spurred a tweet by President Donald Trump: “The Failing New York Times foiled U.S. attempt to kill the single most wanted terrorist, al-Baghdadi,” the president wrote later Saturday. “Their sick agenda over National Security.” The "Fox & Friends" hosts had said the Times was "failing in its credibility. It’s failing our country."

In her request, Rhoades Ha added: "Neither the staff at Fox & Friends, nor the writers of a related story on Foxnews.com, appeared to make any attempt to confirm relevant facts, nor did they reach out to The New York Times for comment."

Later Sunday, Fox attached the New York Times letter to its original story and issued this statement: "The FoxNews.com story was already updated online and Fox & Friends will also provide an updated story to viewers tomorrow morning based on the FoxNews.com report. For all of their concern about accuracy, the New York Times didn't reach out to anyone at Fox News until Sunday afternoon for a story that ran Friday night."

A U.S. raid in May 2015 led to the death of Abu Sayyaf — a close associate of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — as well as the capture of his wife, Umm Sayyaf, and a trove of documents and laptops.

The raid in eastern Syria was disclosed the next day by Defense Secretary Ash Carter. “This is very useful, very important intelligence that we were able to collect,” a Defense official told POLITICO at the time.

Rhoades Ha pointed out that Fox News' Catherine Herridge reported on the raid on May 17, 2015.

Additional details were reported in a New York Times article in June 2015.

Fox's claim that the Times sabotaged U.S. efforts with its reporting originated with a statement from Gen. Tony Thomas, who told Fox that the published report caused a lead to the ISIS leader's whereabouts to go dry. "That was a very good lead. Unfortunately, it was leaked in a prominent national newspaper about a week later and that lead went dead,” said Thomas, who leads the U.S. Special Operations Command.

A Fox News spokesperson said "There is absolutely no comparison between Herridge's brief report on Fox News Sunday" and the Times "reported much more compromising details than Herridge did, in revealing revealing specific details about how Baghdadi communicated and who played a role delivering those communications. Also, [the Times] reported the terrorist's wife was cooperating and how an informant led to the target."

The Times claims the pertinent material was actually disclosed by Carter in his public statement and stated that the Pentagon did not object to its more detailed June article.

Speaking on background, a Fox News executive slammed Rhoades Ha for seeking the apology only on Sunday afternoon and for alerting reporters at the same time.

"NYT PR VP Danielle Rhoades Ha did not contact Fox News until Sunday afternoon — a day and a half AFTER the FoxNews.com story was published. She sent a letter to the reporter on the story — Catherine Herridge — at 3:30 pm on Sunday while being too cute by half and sending it to the press simultaneously — likely bcc’ing reporters," the executive said. (The Times directly emailed POLITICO a copy of the letter that was sent to the "Fox & Friends" weekend executive producer on Sunday at 3:33 p.m.) "Herridge interviewed General Thomas at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday and did a wrap-up story on the panel for FoxNews.com, which was published on Friday night. Seems like an awfully long time to wait to correct something if they were so concerned about accuracy. And Ha did not reach out to Fox & Friends until 2 p.m. on Sunday for a story that aired Saturday morning. ... Why did it take them so long to reach out?"

The executive added: "If we notified the press every time the N.Y. Times had to update an online story or correct something, your inbox would crash."

In response, Rhoades Ha said she initially emailed the "Fox & Friends" weekend executive producer at 12:53 on Sunday, asking for a response by 3 p.m. Rhoades Ha also said she "sent a separate request to Catherine Herridge and her co-author to update their story, which I would have done with or without the Fox & Friends segment. I did not ask Catherine for an apology. She responded and updated her story."

Rhoades Ha said she has yet to receive a response from the "Fox & Friends" weekend executive producer.

"We asked them for an apology because the entire premise of their segment is false," Rhoades Ha said. "I find it curious they are focusing on the timing of my emails instead of whether or not their reporting if false."

On Saturday, the Times sought clarification from the White House after Trump's tweet:

"We have asked the White House to clarify the tweet. If the President is referring to this 2015 story, the Pentagon raised no objections with the Times before publishing the story in 2015 and no senior American official ever complained publicly about it until now, as noted in Peter Baker's story this morning."

UPDATE July 24, 2017:
“Fox & Friends” addressed the Times’ concerns in a segment Monday morning but did not apologize, saying, “The Times described its 2015 reporting to the Pentagon before publication and they had no objections, and no senior American officials have ever complained publicly – until now.” The show then directed viewers to read the full statement online.

In response, The Times said the updated segment "wasn't an apology, nor did it begin to address the larger issues with the Fox & Friends Weekend segment, one of which was sheer hypocrisy. The host railed against The New York Times for covering a raid stating that the U.S. government 'would have had al-Baghdadi based on the intelligence that we had except someone leaked' to The New York Times when Fox News had covered the same raid three weeks earlier in a segment in which their correspondent said, 'The newly recovered intelligence may bring U.S. closer to Baghdadi's kill or capture,'" a Times spokesperson said. "According to the curious logic of the Fox & Friends host, Fox News itself was unpatriotic."

In an updated statement on Monday afternoon, Fox said that "Neither Fox News’ report nor the subsequent on-air coverage was inaccurate." The network then links to a recent piece the Times wrote, explaining why it decided to name a CIA operative in one of its recent stories as something the Times is trying to distract people from by seeking an apology from Fox. "We find it beyond disappointing that the New York Times, in an attempt to distract from their recent debacle, decided to blame Fox News for comments made publicly by General Thomas during a widely viewed panel at the Aspen Security Forum. It might behoove the Times to actually check in with their reporter Eric Schmitt to see whether Gen. Thomas’ comments have merit and whether Schmitt’s reporting in 2015 revealed intelligence that allowed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to slip away.”

The New York Times has rejected a retraction request from former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Manafort demanded The New York Times retract an article published Wednesday, which reported he had been in debt to pro-Russia interests by as much as $17 million before he joined Trump's presidential campaign in March 2016.

In the article, Mike McIntire reports based off of audited financial statements filed with government authorities in Cyprus, that the money was owed by shell companies connected to Manafort’s consulting business with a pro-Russia Party of Regions in the Ukraine.

"The Cyprus documents obtained by The New York Times include audited financial statements for the companies, which were part of a complex web of more than a dozen entities that transferred millions of dollars among them in the form of loans, payments and fees,” McIntire wrote.

Jason Maloni, a spokesperson for Manafort, said in an email to the Times that “despite the implications and innuendo, The New York Times offered no evidence that these transactions represent current obligations” and that “the documents you provided are LLC docs that do not show these are personal or current obligations.” (The Times piece includes Maloni saying the Cyprus records are “stale”). Maloni also claims the Times wrote the piece as though Manafort personally kept bank accounts in Cyprus and that “times substituted unproven allegations from a counter party in litigation as actual evidence of a debt.”

But the Times isn’t budging.

"We have carefully reviewed the request from Manafort's representatives and see no basis for a correction,” a spokesperson for the paper said.

Maloni said they are “disappointed” by the response and that they would “expect more from The New York Times.” He would not comment on further action, except to say, “We will examine all options available to us.”

An executive at local broadcast TV giant Sinclair defended the company and lashed out against what he called "biased" news organizations that have "an agenda to destroy our reputation" in an internal memo obtained by POLITICO.

The memo, written by Sinclair's Vice President of News Scott Livingston and sent to Sinclair station news directors, said he wants to “dispel some of the myths” being reported about the organization.

In the memo, Livingston lists several storylines that have emerged around the Maryland-based television company and provides what he said are facts proving them false. They range from reports about its “must run” segments to morale at its Washington station WJLA.

John Oliver, host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight," also made Sinclair and its "must run" segments the focus of a 19-minute segment earlier this month.

“[M]uch of the reporting about Sinclair in recent months has been irresponsible and much of it is just plain false,” Livingston wrote in the memo. News directors were asked to discuss the issues outlined in the memo with staffers.

Sinclair has come under fire over the past year as it has drastically increased its national footprint while pushing a more right-leaning point of view through segments it requires all of its stations to air. Those segments include commentary from former Trump White House official Boris Epshteyn as well as a "terrorism alert desk." Sinclair is also in the process of getting even bigger, as it pursues an acquisition of the local TV stations owned by Tribune Media. The family that owns the network, the Smiths, have long been supporters of Republican candidates.

Livingston argues in the memo that while it’s true Sinclair issues “must run” content, media reports which say they are of “poor quality” and “politically tilted” are not true, and that “must runs” amount to less than one hour per week, on average, of Sinclair stations' coverage, compared with more than 35 hours of local news. Plus, he argued that such commentary provides a viewpoint not usually found in the national media.

"While it is true that Sinclair offers commentary segments from Mark Hyman and Boris Epshteyn, this content is clearly identified as commentary and constitutes a tiny percentage of the station’s weekly broadcast content,” Livingston wrote. "Mark and Boris’ commentaries provide a viewpoint that often gets lost in the typical national broadcast media dialogue. Boris Epshteyn worked in the Trump White House, a fact that Sinclair makes no effort to hide, and provides a unique insight that viewers can’t find anywhere else. The presence of former administrative personnel serving as news commentators is a well accepted practice in journalism."

Livingston also specifically called out The Washington Post for reporting on falling morale at WJLA in Washington, writing that the Post “largely ignor[ed]” information about investments, awards and ratings growth at the station while assembling “fear-mongering reports.” WJLA was sold to Sinclair in 2014 by the Allbritton family, which owns POLITICO.

"It’s important to remember that the Post is a Sinclair media competitor,” Livingston wrote. "As such, any discerning reader of their newspaper should view the Post’s reports about our company with a healthy sense of skepticism.”

A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment.

Livingston goes on to defend reporters from the Sinclair-owned website Circa from being called “conservative commentators” after appearing on Fox News, questioning why reporters from The Washington Post and New York Times aren’t labeled as commentators on MSNBC.

In the closing paragraphs, Livingston alleges that reporters from major media outlets are biased, and calls on them to “openly disclose their political tendencies,” adding that doing so would help consumers "understand the agenda of the reporters and editors providing the content."

"What we find most troubling in the reporting about our company, by major media outlets (like the New York Times and Washington Post), is the omission of key facts in their stories,” Livingston wrote. "Such omissions suggest the existence of either journalistic incompetency or editorial bias. We do not believe these journalists are incompetent, so we are left to conclude that they are biased.

"We are proud to offer a range of perspectives, both conservative and liberal — to our consumers — on our Sinclair broadcast stations each day. It is unfortunate that so many of our competitors do not provide the same marketplace of ideas,” he continued. "Our commitment is to tracking the truth, providing context and perspective in our reporting and serving our communities with valuable and, at times, life-saving information. We value our viewers and our journalists who work hard each day to serve the communities in which they live — all across this great country. It’s concerning and troubling that so many once trusted news organizations continue to push false narratives with an agenda to destroy our reputation and discredit the great journalism across our company.”

A Sinclair spokesperson declined to comment further.