Posted on 10/15/2004 1:30:46 PM PDT by Cableguy
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's campaign Friday morning formally requested equal time to respond to Sinclair stations' planned airings of "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," a documentary critical of Sen. Kerry's Vietnam-era antiwar activities, before the Nov. 2 election.
Industry sources said Sinclair has directed all of its 62 TV stations in 39 markets to pre-empt regular programming to air the documentary over several days beginning Oct. 21. Despite intense protest by Democrats, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell told reporters Thursday that the agency doesn't have the authority to block the broadcasts.
But in an Oct. 15 letter to Sinclair President and CEO David Smith, Sen. Kerry's campaign charged that the FCC's equal time obligations require Sinclair to give Kerry campaign supporters air time to respond to the documentary.
"Please consider this a request that each Sinclair station that airs the documentary provide supporters of the Kerry-Edwards campaign with a similar amount of time on that station before the election at a time where an audience of similar size can be expected to be viewing the station," said Marc Elias, general counsel for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, in the letter.
Bona fide news shows are generally exempt from FCC equal time obligations. But the Kerry campaign argued that the documentary does not meet the requirements for an exemption.
"The content of the program will not be controlled by Sinclair or an independent journalistic organization," the campaign said. "The program instead is intended to be an attack on Senator Kerry and thus is not the result of decisions made on the basis of newsworthiness."
In a statement on the company's Web site, Sinclair characterized the presentation as a "special news event" and said it has already offered Sen. Kerry equal time to respond.
Also on Friday, Equity Broadcasting announced that its independent station WPXS-TV in St. Louis will carry the ABC programming that Sinclair pre-empts for the documentary. Sinclair owns ABC affiliate KDNL-TV in St. Louis. Equity officials said Sinclair plans to air the Kerry documentary on KDNL between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Oct. 22.
No time until 180 signed!!
Cool, I live in Saint Louis..
Like i've been saying, run an hour of some wacked out protestors to give them "equal time".
heh heh. dems sound like nervous nellies.
Amazing that they can disparage the film without even seeing it.
They must know what’s in it: THE TRUTH!
So claim equal time for the Faranheit911 cr*p
Yea no time until he signs a 180... and we need the media hyped up on this becasue his reasons for anti-war protesting will not pass muster... He is going to go for the great hypnosis spin... pay no attention to my words from 30 years ago.. blah blah blah...
He can have an hour to respond if he wants, but he must answer the questions put forward by the film, not have time to run his own propaganda.
Kerry wants "response time"???? BWAAAHAA! Looks like Sen. Kerry is getting desperate! How about signing the Form 180??? Kerry is a pathetic loser and needs to be defeated!
Good. Bush should demand "equal time" from ABC; CBS; NBC; CNN; CNN Headline News; CNBC; and MSNBC. Fair is fair.
Does Bush get equal time from Sundance or ABC
wpxs is about to buy itself a world of trouble in the courtroom...
Kerry probably has a legal arguement. The question is, is Kerry stupid enough to make this a fight and give this movie a ton of publicity. I hope he presses it, because even if he wins people will then want to see the movie via other means.
I think John O'Neal should provide the interview following the show.
Okay, as long as there side is willing to live by this rule too, and not hide behind phony "news" labels. That would mean Bush gets a certain number of minutes on or around CBS Evening News with Dan Rather every single night of the week. Etc.
Do you guys know each other? ;)
Kerry is going down. No way will he sign a 180.
Is Kerry himself going to respond or one of his *band of brothers*....Im betting the latter...Kerry hasn't the guts.
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