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Sinclair Orders TV Stations to Broadcast Anti-Kerry Film
NEWS ANALYSISBy Andrea WoodYOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Imagine this. The CBS network orders the TV stations it owns to broadcast in prime time, two weeks before the presidential election, Michael Moore's "Farrenheit 9/11." The network labels the program "news" and and invites President George W. Bush to defend himself from the documentary's charges. Evidence of a liberal agenda in mainstream media?Think it won't happen?It is happening, only it's the Sinclair Broadcast Group and the documentary is "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal", a one sided attack on John Kerry when he was a leader, 30 years ago, of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Today the Democratic National Committee will file a formal complaint with the Federal Elections Commission accusing Sinclair Broadcast Group of willfully violating campaign finance laws.Sinclair owns 62 stations across the country, including two in Columbus, two in Dayton, one in Cincinnati, one in Pittsburgh (WPGH) and two in Charleston, W.Va. The company came under fire in April for ordering its ABC affliates not to broadcast a "Nightline" program when the names of soldiers killed in Iraq were read aloud. Sinclair executives have given more than $200,000 to the Republican Party and the Bush-Cheney campaign, and one of its vice presidents, Mark Hyman, appears every night on its stations' newscasts and delivers far-right commentaries that frequently attack Kerry and the Democratic Party.The documentary that Sinclair Broadcast Group has ordered its stations to broadcast in the last 12 days before the election accuses Kerry of prolonging the war -- and intensifying the torture that American prisoners of war were forced to endure. The company says "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" will be broadcast as part of a special news program and it has invited Kerry to rebut the charges after the film is aired.But the distinction -- describing the program as "news," which would exempt it from campaign finance laws -- won't wash, argued the Democratic National Committee's legal counsel in a conference call Monday with reporters."Federal campaign finance laws make it illegal for a corporation to contribute anything of value to a federal campaign," said attorney Joe Sandler. "In these circumstances," he explained, "Sinclair is not acting as a press entity but really is using its corporate resources simply as a donor to the Bush-Cheney campaign in this blatant effort to influence the election for Bush-Cheney."The complaint is the first time the party has challenged a news organization, and although the FEC is unlikely to act before the election, the point needs to be made, said Sandler.Added Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, "This raises serious legal questions...Sinclair's owners aren't interested in news. They're interested in pro-Bush propaganda."In a statement posted on its Web site late Monday, Sinclair said, "The exact format of this unscripted event has not been finalized. Characterizations regarding the content are premature and are based on ill-informed sources," the company added. The documentary was produced by Carlton Sherwood, a decorated war veteran and former reporter for "The Washington Times" who headed Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Media Services under then-Gov, Tom Ridge, the secretary of Homeland Security. On his Web site, www.stolenhonor.com, Sherwood says the film's production initially was underwritten by a group of Pennsylvania veterans, but he has since received funds from unnamed individuals and entities.Asked by a reporter if the Democratic National Committee would file a protest with the FCC if a broadcast company was ordering its stations to air "Fahrenheit 9/11", the party's legal counsel said it would depend on the circumstances. That film's producer, Michael Moore, is "an established documentary filmmaker," Sandler explained. If a company paid for the film's rights, and sold commercials to defray the costs, "I don't think we would take the same position...But if the company's executives were major campaign donors and participants in the political process, we may have the same view."A Democratic member of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael J. Copps, issued a statement calling Sinclair's intention to broadcast "Stolen Honor" an "abuse of the public trust."Said Copps: "It is proof positive of media consolidation run amok when one owner can use the public airwaves to blanket the country with its political ideology -- whether liberal or conservative...It is a sad fact that the explicit public interest protections we once had to ensure balance continue to be weakened by the Federal Communications Commission while it allows media conglomerates to get even bigger.Sinclair, and the FCC, are taking us down a dangerous road." Read Democratic National Committee's dosier on Sinclair Visit Sinclair Broadcast Group at www.sbgi.netVisit Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal at www.stolenhonor.com"