NCS’s most recognizable fact-checker has all however disappeared from the community’s airwaves, fueling questions concerning the sudden absence of one among its extra acquainted on-air personalities.
Daniel Dale, a Canadian journo who constructed a nationwide profile as fact-checker of President Trump and different politicians, has not appeared on NCS tv in additional than three months regardless of persevering with to publish common fact-checks for the community’s digital platforms.
Dale’s absence from the airwaves, which was first noticed by journalist Tommy Christopher and cited by the Status newsletter, got here after the announcement for the merger between NCS’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount Skydance, which is run by Trump ally David Ellison.
The timeline has sparked hypothesis that Dale was sidelined by company management at NCS’s dad or mum firm as a method to placate Trump, whose administration should give ultimate regulatory approval for Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion acquisition of WBD.
NCS strongly denied such hypothesis from observers like Christopher.
“There is no truth to this. Daniel is a multiplatform reporter whose regular fact checks of the President are an important part of NCS’s political coverage. Like all NCS reporters, his on-air appearances are determined by the news of the day — any suggestion otherwise is false,” a NCS spokesperson advised The Post.
The spokesperson added that Dale continues to usually produce fact-checks for NCS.com in addition to video content material on different platforms.
Dale appeared on NCS broadcasts a couple of dozen occasions a month throughout Trump’s first time period, the 2024 marketing campaign and the opening weeks of Trump’s second administration, usually popping up instantly after rallies, debates, speeches and main political occasions to judge the accuracy of the president’s claims in actual time.
His final main on-air fact-check got here on Feb. 25 following Trump’s State of the Union handle, when Dale catalogued greater than 20 false or deceptive claims made by the president.
The Paramount-WBD merger was introduced on Feb. 27.
Aside from a short March look discussing AI-generated movies, Dale has largely been absent from NCS’s tv programming.
The Post has sought remark from Dale, WBD and the White House.