I’ve been too busy of late with a few non-blog realted deadlines to give the proper coverage to the story of the 62 ABC Affilliates being ordered by their owner, the rightwing Sinclair Broadcast Group, to run an anti-Kerry propoganda documentary in the days before the election on all of their local ABC afflilliate stations.
Sinclair is the same group that ordered their affilliates not to run the Nightline broadcast in which Ted Koppel read the names of those killed in Iraq. At the time, Sinclair did so because they charged, without even seeing the broadcast in question, that the show was “motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq,” and charged that “ABC is disguising political statements as news content.”
Apparently that concern only applies to the political statements that Sinclair Broadcast Group themselves don’t wish to force their afflilliates to make.
As I say, I’ve not been able to adequately cover this story. It’s a very important one for you to follow however and help educate folks about. So I’m gonna point you towards both Josh Marshall who has some good coverage today (read the linked article, and the one below it) as well as Left Coaster who has more detail and what you can do to help put a stop to this egregious abuse of the public airwaves for political gamesmanship by the Republican Media Elite who control it!
If there’s one thing I believe we’ve all learned over these last few months (and four years); Democracy is not free. Vigilance and hard work is sometimes required to maintain the very democracy that our Government claims (often quite cynically) to be trying to defend. You (yes, you reading this) must do something on occassion to keep these cretins and cynics honest and to keep your democracy flowing.
UPDATE: The Boycott of Sinclair is on! Here is a list of Sinclair’s advertisers and contacts for them! Let them hear from you! BE CLEAR AND DIRECT, BUT BE POLITE WHEN MAKING CONTACT!
UPDATE: More from Marshall pointing out how the “documentary” in question is actually an hour-long anti-Kerry spot actually made by the SwiftBoats Vets for Bush!
Sinclair Broadcast Group Directors’ contact info:
Basil A. Thomas
info@tandllaw.com
Additional contacts at the Bar Association he belongs to:
president@msba.org
pcarlin@msba.org [Executive Director]
tmichael@msba.org [Ethics Opinions]
Lawrence E. McCanna
gma@gma-cpa.com
Martin R. Leader
mail@starscientific.com
Additional contacts at the Bar Association he belongs to:
ethics@dcbar.org
executive.office@dcbar.org
lcp@dcbar.org [Lawyer Counseling Program]
kmazzaferri@dcbar.org [Executive Director]
Robert E. Smith
gfs_info@gfs.org
David D. Smith, Frederick G. Smith, J. Duncan Smith and Robert E. Smith are also directors at “Safe Waterways in Maryland”. The Executive Director is a lawyer who may be concerned her directors are possibly violating federal election law.
http://www.swimmd.org/Contact_us.asp
Lets just say I won’t be watching this. However, I don’t care if its aired. Sort of like 60 minutes having their specials on all the anti-Bush books and the fake documents.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but its pretty amusing.
Troll
The "nice" Republican
http://rightwingtroll.blogspot.com/
I’ll presume, Troll, you’re talking about the stories they did on Richard Clarke and Paul O’Neill?
If so, I’ll remind you that 60 Minutes is a *news* organization. Two former high-ranking administration officials — one of whom was the Terrorism Czar during a supposed "War on Terror"! — speaking out against the administration they worked for publically is NEWSWORTHY no matter what side it’s on.
(You’ll note plenty of similar stories on 60 Minutes from during the Clinton days).
Comparing those items to what amounts to nothing more than a 90-minute paid political ad *forced* on affilliates is simply apples and oranges.
As a Republican, I’d think you’d have more respect for *both* the Rule of Law (of which this is likely a violation) and the abuse of the PEOPLES airwaves by the Media Elite.
You may be a Republican, but you ought to give a damn about such things, lest it be too late when *you’re* party becomes the victim of such clear abuse.
Perhaps I got 60 minutes confused, was it the today show? I was more or less talking about the Kitty Kelly book.
Apologies however Brad – lately I think I’ve been very agitated and just looking for things to find wrong even if they aren’t there.
Wow! You are the "nice" Republican.