Posted on 10/12/2004 9:28:42 PM PDT by Former Dodger
Sinclair Broadcasting program will focus on John Kerry's protest of government's Vietnam-era policies.
For the first time in our history, a major television company is openly trying to tip a presidential election. No, not CBS.
Sure, that "60 Minutes" segment on President Bush and his National Guard record was sloppy and partisan reporting. But Dan Rather and CBS News President Andy Heyward at least pay lip service to some basic standards of journalism. They eventually admitted their mistake.
Not so with David Deniston Smith, CEO of Sinclair Broadcasting, or Mark Hyman, the company's vice president for corporate relations.
Sinclair owns or manages 62 television stations. That's more than CBS or any other media company in the nation. But since Sinclair's stations are mostly affiliates of the Fox, WB, NBC, ABC or CBS networks, the company itself is barely known outside media circles.
That is all about to change.
This week, Sinclair executives announced that before the Nov. 2 election, all its stations will preempt regular prime-time network programs to broadcast a documentary film highly critical of Sen. John Kerry's efforts against the Vietnam War 30 years ago.
Among those interviewed in the film, which Sinclair will show commercial-free, are two former Vietnam POWs who appeared prominently in earlier political advertisements by the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
"This is an issue that is certainly topical," Hyman told The Los Angeles Times.
What Hyman meant to say is: Twenty-one of our stations are in battleground states like Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and we are determined that Bush will win.
If you have any doubt, you should know that between 1996 and mid-2004, Sinclair and its executives doled out $2.3 million in political contributions - 89% of it to Republicans, according to the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity.
You also should know that when he's not handling press relations, Hyman doubles as Sinclair's version of the rabid right-wing screecher.
In a segment called "The Point," which is broadcast on all Sinclair's local news shows, Hyman refers to peace activists as "wack-jobs" and the "loony left" and to the so-called liberal media as the "Axis of Drivel."
In other words, Smith's Sinclair makes Rupert Murdoch's Fox News look like Barney and Friends.
On May 1, Sinclair opted for its own version of a preemptive strike, when it knocked ABC's "Nightline" off the air at eight ABC affiliates the company owns.
That was the night Ted Koppel chose to read the names of all the American soldiers killed in Iraq.
Sinclair CEO Smith accused Koppel and ABC of being "motivated by a political agenda."
When it comes to balanced news coverage, the Sinclair company could teach "Nightline" a few tricks. Sinclair pioneered low-budget "local" news shows that are produced in a central newsroom, then broadcast to a half-dozen different stations hundreds of miles apart.
Smith's idea of improving news is buying every station in town, then firing all the reporters the company can.
Under Bush and his FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Sinclair and the other big media companies dream of getting even bigger and more powerful. But to realize those dreams, they need four more years for Bush.
Tomorrow night is the last presidential debate. Bob Schieffer of CBS, one of the few real reporters left on television, will be in charge.
Will Schieffer dare ask Bush and Kerry about an issue that has spread like wildfire across our nation the past two years - even without much press coverage?
Will he ask both candidates what government policy should be when it comes to the awesome power of big media companies like Sinclair and Schieffer's own Viacom-owned CBS?
As Sinclair's Hyman put it, that's "certainly topical."
jgonzalez@ edit.nydailynews.com
"When I was studying at Columbia," he told me, "one of the great halls was named after one of the big sugar barons who owned South Puerto Rico Sugar Company."
A founding member of the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican activist group, Gonzalez later served as president of the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights. Along with his daily newspaper column, he writes regularly for the magazine In These Times. And for the past four years, he has been a twice-weekly co-host on Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now. ( http://palante.org/AboutYoungLords.htm )
There is nothing like an unbiased writer to write about bias. Amazing how "FREE SPEECH" only counts to some people when it is speech they agree with...,/p>
"Hey JUAN -"
The difference is that everything in the Sinclair piece is TRUE, certified by tape, audio, video, and thousands of eye-witnesses.
CBS chose to use papers which they knew to be bogus. Go stuff it, then shove it, then &8^%$&(%^@G&*)(......
Yeah, right. How insulting these morons are. I guess they haven't figured out that the jig is up.
At least Sinclair isn't lying about who and what they are.
The difference is that everything in the Sinclair piece is TRUE, certified by tape, audio, video, and thousands of eye-witnesses...
Yes. That's something that seems to escape the MSM. It's pathetic.
Home videos of The Choice 2004 are available through ShopPBS in DVD and VHS format.This is the Frontline episode, just aired, which is essentially an ad for the Kerry Campaign. No Swift Vets, here. Just Sandusky, spinning his tales. Bush never volunteered for combat - he simply wished to avoid it. Kerry never wished to avoid combat but just - happened - to wind up in Sea Lords and it didn't phase him, except that he grew sour on the war; he wasn't before, you see, before he even enlisted. And the VVAW were all telling the truth, and what a great day for America was the Winter Soldier investigation. Bad Bush. Good Kerry. Vote Kerry.Educational videotapes of The Choice 2004 are available for purchase by schools, libraries, and other educational institutions through Shop PBS for Teachers in DVD and VHS format, or through PBS Video by calling 1-877-PBS-SHOP, by faxing your order to 703-739-8131 (include item title and number and credit card information), or by mailing your order to:
PBS Video PO Box 609 Melbourne, FL 32902-0609 (include check, money order, or credit card information with your order)
Transcripts
You can download and print out a transcript of The Choice 2004 from this page of the site. (It generally takes about a week following the initial broadcast for the transcript to be edited and formatted.) This is the only place where you can access a transcript of this report. It is not available anywhere else.
So, when they bitch about bias - you point them to PBS, and Frontline, and the Choice. Makes me wonder if PBS is registered as a 527? Maybe as public tv - supposedly - someone should make THEM play Farenhype or Stolen Honor, as well. I think their 'public' needs to see it.
Could someone please help me find new words to describe the left? I am running out of them. Despicable, reprehensible, scum, etc. are not quite down and dirty enough. Surely there are others?
I paid for the PBS program at least yous is not funded by taxpayers.
Hey Juan Valdez, your points of persuasion are about as strong as a popcorn fart in a hurricane.
Hey Juan, whaaaaaaa! Like 5 minutes is any match to a program that runs 60 minutes. You are just upset because people will be hearing the truth and truth for a liberal is anything they believe whether it is true or not. You need to go back and play baseball. Oh, that's right. That's the other Juan Gonzalez.
Bull! They admitted that they had used documents that were likely fakes. They did NOT admit that they had tried to tip the election nor did they ever express remorse for that.
SOCIALIST just like juan gonzalez
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