Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc

[BFrank]

Last Trade: 6.49
Trade Time: 4:00PM ET
Change: -0.55 (-7.81%)


Sinclair stock drops on ad concerns
By Jon Friedman, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:44 PM ET Oct. 18, 2004

NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Shares of the controversial Sinclair Broadcasting Group slipped almost 8 percent Monday in the aftermath of the political firestorm that the company created last week.

Sinclair's stock (SBGI: news, chart, profile) fell 55 cents to $6.49.

The shares dropped amid fresh concerns on Wall Street, with analysts fretting over what looms as a loss of advertising revenue for Sinclair. Some securities analysts, who demanded not to be quoted on record, said that they're concerned about the potential development.

Sinclair, which owns the largest chain of TV stations in the United States, had told its stations to broadcast a documentary that accuses Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of betraying American prisoners during the Vietnam War.

The film, titled "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," is to be shown during prime-time hours before the Nov. 2 election. The stations owned by Sinclair reach approximately 24 percent of U.S. television households.

"Stolen Honor" focuses on Kerry's 1971 antiwar testimony to Congress about U.S. atrocities and suggests that it hurt Americans who were still being held in Vietnam.

[kedoane]

You think that the folks at Sinclair will learn the lesson about the airwaves belonging to the public, even those folks who disagree with the owners' views. I'm hoping that with this uproar that they will provide the Kerry campaign an equal amount of time to respond to this documentary. If they don't, then I am hoping that the Democrats will control everything so that Sinclair will be investigated for this breach.

Another thing: I am glad that I don't work at a Sinclair station since there has been bad things said about them from those whom I work with.

[Pete C]

Surely the ever-vigilant Michael Powell will investigate Sinclair.

[bluenoter]

10/18/2004, 4:29 p.m. ET
By DAVID B. CARUSO
The Associated Press

Veteran files libel suit against director of anti-Kerry film

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Vietnam veteran filed a libel lawsuit Monday claiming he was falsely portrayed as a fraud and a liar in a film criticizing Sen. John Kerry's anti-war activities.

Kenneth J. Campbell, now a professor at the University of Delaware, said in the suit that "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" combines footage of him appearing at a 1971 war protest with a voice-over that claims that many of the supposed veterans who took part in the event were later "discovered as frauds" who "never set foot on the battlefield, or left the comfort of the States, or even served in uniform."

The suit said viewers would be left with the perception that Campbell had lied about his military service and encouraged others to make up stories about war atrocities.

Campbell attached copies of his military records to the suit, showing that he received the Purple Heart medal and eight other medals, ribbons and decorations for his service as an artillery forward observer in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969.

The suit names the film's producer, Carlton Sherwood, and his company, Red White and Blue Productions, as defendants.

"I'd be darned if I'm going to sit back and let someone libel me like this," said Campbell. "It paints me as having been a fabricator, a fraud and a liar."

Campbell's lawyer also threatened legal action against the Sinclair Broadcast Group, an owner of 62 television stations that has announced that it intends to pre-empt regular programing to broadcast "Stolen Honor" before the election. The 42-minute film is critical of Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, and his anti-war activism after he returned home from Vietnam three decades ago.

Sherwood called the suit a "public relations stunt" in a statement released by a publicity firm representing his company.

"We will not be deterred or silenced by such an unfounded, groundless legal ploy done as a last-ditch effort to prevent Americans from hearing the story of America's Vietnam POWs and John Kerry's role in their prolonged captivity," he wrote.

He would not immediately speak to a reporter to answer questions about the lawsuit or the film. Phone messages left for Sinclair Broadcast Group were not immediately returned Monday.

The lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia's Court of Common Pleas.

The segment of "Stolen Honor" involving Campbell is posted on the film's Web site. It shows grainy footage of him speaking with a fellow Marine a 1971 gathering in Detroit, during which Kerry and other servicemen shared stories about horrific acts they had committed or witnessed during the war.

In the clip, Campbell asks whether the Marine recalls a particular assault on a village in Vietnam's Quang Tri province. The Marine, who served in the same unit as Campbell, says he does and offers to provide more detail. Neither man is identified by name.

Sherwood introduces the conversation by saying, "many of the horror stories seem made up on the spot," but doesn't elaborate as to why he believes that to be the case.

Veterans groups that supported the war have long argued with anti-war groups about the veracity of the alleged war crimes described during the event, dubbed the "Winter Soldier" hearings.

Campbell, then 21, said at the time that he had seen American forces shell undefended villages, kill civilians, mutilate bodies and mistreat prisoners.

Sherwood has said he made "Stolen Honor" because he believed the soldiers' stories, later relayed by Kerry during testimony before Congress, were "lies" and "smear" that hurt veterans and demoralized American prisoners of war.

[BFrank]

Originally Posted by Pete C

Surely the ever-vigilant Michael Powell will investigate Sinclair.

FCC Won't Prevent Airing Of Anti-Kerry Film, Powell Says
Associated Press
October 14, 2004 2:24 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission won't intervene to stop a broadcast company's plans to air a critical documentary about John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities on dozens of TV stations, the agency's chairman said Thursday.

"Don't look to us to block the airing of a program," Michael Powell told reporters. "I don't know of any precedent in which the commission could do that."

Eighteen senators, all Democrats, wrote to Mr. Powell this week and asked him to investigate Sinclair Broadcast Group's plan to run the program, "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," two weeks before the Nov. 2 election.

Mr. Powell said there are no federal rules that would allow the agency to prevent the program. "I think that would be an absolute disservice to the First Amendment and I think it would be unconstitutional if we attempted to do so," he said. [Can you say, "spineless?"]

He said he would consider the senators' concerns but added that they may not amount to a formal complaint that would require an investigation. FCC rules require that a program air before a formal complaint can be considered.

Sinclair, based outside Baltimore, has asked its 62 television stations -- many of them in competitive states in the presidential election -- to pre-empt regular programming to run the documentary. It chronicles Mr. Kerry's 1971 testimony before Congress and links him to activist and actress Jane Fonda. It includes interviews with Vietnam prisoners of war and their wives who claim Mr. Kerry's testimony demeaned them and led their captors to hold them longer.

In the letter to Mr. Powell, the senators -- led by Dianne Feinstein of California -- asked the FCC to determine whether the airing of the anti-Kerry program is a "proper use of public airwaves" and to investigate whether it would violate rules requiring equal air time for candidates.

[kedoane]

The only thing that I can think of is that, if Sinclair doesn't give Kerry equal rights to the airwaves and if the Democrats get control of Congress, then there will be an investigation of the FCC. If not the Congress, then there will probably be lawsuits abound.

[bluenoter]

Lots of action to take against Sinclair can be found here. Follow the links and

--Boycott Sinclair advertisers: Contact the companies that advertise on Sinclair stations, both nationally and in your local market. Everyone has been advised to be polite when contacting them. There are both phone numbers and a handy tool for e-mailing all of them at once. Tell them that you're boycotting them until they pull their ads (unless Sinclair decides not to carry out its present plans). Over 50 advertisers have pulled out so far! Note: I've read elsewhere that "Stolen Honor" is to be run commercial free. The companies listed place commercials on other Sinclair Broadcast Group shows.

--Sign the petition.

--Go to the homepage and look around the site for more information and more action to take.

[Ron Thorne]

I'm old enough to remember when Sinclair was just an economy gas station. I'm feeling some gas right now.

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Sinclair Fires Washington Bureau Chief

Mon Oct 18,11:39 PM ET

By KASEY JONES, Associated Press Writer

BALTIMORE - The Washington bureau chief for Sinclair Broadcast Group said he was fired Monday after he criticized the company's plans to produce a news program based on a documentary critical of John Kerry (news - web sites)'s Vietnam-era anti-war activities.

Jon Leiberman said he was fired by Joseph DeFeo, Sinclair's vice president for news, and "escorted out of the building."


"I was told I violated company policy by divulging information from a staff meeting to The (Baltimore) Sun in this morning's edition," Leiberman said late Monday.


That staff meeting took place Sunday at Sinclair's headquarters in Hunt Valley, Leiberman said. It was announced that the news division would produce an hourlong special based on the documentary "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," he said.


The documentary features former prisoners of war accusing Kerry, a decorated veteran who took up the anti-war cause upon returning from Vietnam, of prolonging the war and worsening their plight.


Earlier this month, Sinclair ordered its 62 TV stations across the country to pre-empt regular programming to air the documentary.


"They're using the news to drive their political agenda," Leiberman said. "I don't think it served the public trust."


Leiberman, 29, criticized his employer in an interview with The Sun published Monday. "I have nothing to gain here — and really, I have a lot to lose," he said in that interview.


Sinclair in a statement late Monday said that "we are disappointed that Jon's political views caused him to violate company policy and speak to the press about company business."


"We have no further comment on the actions of a disgruntled employee or an ongoing personnel matter," the statement said. "Viewers can grade Leiberman's opinion versus the reality when the finished product is aired."


The reporter, who was tapped by Sinclair last year to start the company's four-person Washington bureau, said he had a contract that ran through next August. Sinclair told him that he was fired for cause and would receive no severance and his benefits ended immediately, Leiberman said.


He added that Sinclair would not waive his noncompete agreement, which means he cannot work for a broadcast outlet in any market that has a Sinclair station.


Leiberman started with Sinclair in 2000 as a reporter for WBFF-TV in Baltimore, Sinclair's flagship station. He said late Monday, "I don't like not knowing where my next move will be and how I'm going to take care of my family."


He added: "I really feel like I can sleep at night and I can be OK with my decision" to criticize Sinclair publicly. ... I know I stood up for the principles of objectivity. In journalism, all we have is credibility and objectivity."


Also Monday, a Vietnam veteran filed a libel lawsuit claiming he was falsely portrayed as a fraud and a liar in "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal."


Copyright © 2004 The Associated Press.

[Gentle Giant]

I'm sure Sinclair has benefited from new rules passed by the Bush Admin lossening restrictions on broadcast station ownership.

[Chris D]

Their station's advertisers here are being hit with a flood of boycott calls.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by Chris D

Their station's advertisers here are being hit with a flood of boycott calls.

Y'all please see #7 for a link to Sinclair advertisers' contact information, and join in on the boycott calls (and e-mails)!

[Ron Thorne]

Action is necessary to send a message to these scumbags, one that will hit 'em where it hurts ... their wallet. The FCC doesn't see fit to intercede, and we can't count on any other government agency to take action, so it's up to us.

Sinclair's Continued Charade
10/18/2004 @ 12:22am


Despite the outcry from consumers, Congressional lawmakers, advertisers, press experts and media watchdog groups, Sinclair Broadcasting refuses to back down from its plans to air the anti-Kerry attackumentary Stolen Honor a week before the November 2 election. (Click here to read the backstory to this controversy.)

Sinclair--whose 62 stations reach 25 percent of the US television audience--is receiving much-needed support from its GOP friends. Last week FCC Chairman Michael Powell, a Bush-appointee who supports radical media deregulation, defended Sinclair's decision. "Don't look to us to block the airing of a program," Powell told the press. "I don't know of any precedent in which the commission could do that...I think it would do an absolute disservice to the First Amendment and I think it would be unconstitutional if we attempted to do so."

But Sinclair can hardly hide behind the First Amendment after preventing its seven ABC affiliates from running a Nightline special last April dedicated to recognizing US troops killed in Iraq.

And, as former FCC chairman Reed Hundt (1993-1997) noted in a letter to blogger Josh Marshall: "No broadcast group in the history of America has ever committed an hour to smearing a presidential candidate, and no FCC chairman before this one would have reacted with equanimity to this radical step-down in broadcasting ethics."

Moreover, a recent precedent does indeed exist in federal election law for taking action against Sinclair's plans. Last month the FEC blocked an attempt by the conservative 527 group Citizens United to run an anti-Kerry documentary on the airwaves under the guise of "news content." The federal election law cited prohibits public corporations and labor unions from airing "electioneering communication" sixty days before an election. The Swift Boat- aligned Sinclair film should be subject to the same scrutiny, at least by the FEC, if not Powell's FCC.

Further, broadcast networks are still mandated to offer candidates equal time during a campaign. Kerry campaign attorney Marc Elias wrote to Sinclair President David Smith last week requesting just that, though it seems unlikely that Sinclair will comply given its partisan Republican ties. Sinclair has previously rejected proposals to broadcast pro-Kerry films by George Butler (Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry) and Paul Alexander (Brothers in Arms) as potential counter-balances to Stolen Honor . Michael Moore has even offered the company a chance to air Fahrenheit 9/11 for free. Don't expect them to take up his offer.

A deserved backlash is brewing against Sinclair. Nonpartisan advertisers are pulling ads in local markets. The respected financial website The Street included Sinclair on its list of "The five dumbest things on Wall Street this week." Most damaging, Sinclair's stock fell to its lowest level since 1995 as the investment analysts Lehmann Brothers warned of further financial and political damage.

Readers should keep the pressure on Sinclair. Click here to sign the "Stop Sinclair" petition and boycott the media company's advertisers. Bad politics can also mean bad business.

**********


Additional links:

Stop Sinclair: http://www.stopsinclair.org/
Sinclair Watch: http://www.sinclairwatch.org/

[Gordon B]

Sinclair hit a new low today, 6.33. The stock is down over 57% this year. Sinclair Broadcasting

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by Gordon B

Sinclair hit a new low today, 6.33. The stock is down over 57% this year. Sinclair Broadcasting

Not low enough, Gordon. They'll only be low enough when they completely tank, as far as I'm concerned. This is some scary shit comin' down.

[Darryl G. Thomas]

Most of you probably know this, but these are the same cats who ordered their ABC affiliates NOT to broadcast the Nightline show that ran the pictures of the GIs who died in Iraq.

Has anything been heard from all the conservatives who managed to get the Reagan bio-pic off of CBS?

Good thing we've got an all-powerful liberal elite controlling the airwaves.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by Darryl G. Thomas

Good thing we've got an all-powerful liberal elite controlling the airwaves.

Oh, yeah.

Sinclair--whose 62 stations reach 25 percent of the US television audience . . .

Sinclair, which owns the largest chain of TV stations in the United States,
. . .

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by Darryl G. Thomas

Good thing we've got an all-powerful liberal elite controlling the airwaves.

Yeah, isn't that the truth, Darryl. Poor Dubya and his cronies just can't get their message out, huh?

If any of you live in AL, FL, MD, NC, SC, VA or WV, you can challenge the license renewal of your local Sinclair station here.

If you don't live in one of the above states you can still take action. Click here.

[Chris D]

Originally Posted by bluenoter

Y'all please see #7 for a link to Sinclair advertisers' contact information, and join in on the boycott calls (and e-mails)!

Having worked at a TV station, I can say it won't mean a thing if protests are from outside the viewing area.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by Ron Thorne

Yeah, isn't that the truth, Darryl. Poor Dubya and his cronies just can't get their message out, huh?

If any of you live in AL, FL, MD, NC, SC, VA or WV, you can challenge the license renewal of your local Sinclair station here.

If you don't live in one of the above states you can still take action. Click here.

That effort is separate from, and, IMO, weaker than the boycott calls and e-mails to Sinclair's advertisers, to which both Ron and I have already linked--it's here. No matter where you live, I urge you to visit that site--Boycott Sinclair Advertisers (also see the homepage and follow the links to the petition to sign and other action to take).

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by Chris D

Having worked at a TV station, I can say it won't mean a thing if protests are from outside the viewing area.

The boycott notifications are directed to the advertisers, not the stations. The site identifies advertisers in both local and national markets. If I won't buy your product and your product is sold in my area, it doesn't matter whether a Sinclair station is in my area, right?

As of yesterday, more than 50 advertisers had pulled out already.

[lynn]

I sent a few emails this morning. Hit the national advertisers if there is no Sinclair in your market. These guys do notice.

I hit Mattel, Iams, Taco Bell, and a bunch more that I normally frequent or have a services account with (Insurance).

How many emails do you think it will take before they notice? I don't think that many.

[Ron Thorne]

Bluenoter, I'm not suggesting that one link is better or worse than another. I'm simply trying to offer a multi-pronged attack, which in my opinion should include tv station licenses not being automatically renewed with no public input or scrutiny.

Of course, signing the petition (which I've done) and boycotting advertisers is very potent. The additional links I provided in post #18 provide additional ways in which to combat this broadcasting pariah. It's a multi-tasking world. I'm confident that folks can assign and deal with priorities appropriately.

According to my rough count, if we can encourage slightly over 100 additional advertisers to pull their ads from Sinclair, they will definitely feel the pain, baby. That would leave them with zero clients.

[bluenoter]

Ron--

I didn't want latecomers to the thread to overlook the previously linked (by both you and me) Sinclair advertisers boycott site. I mentioned that I found the license renewal site a weaker effort because I do, for several reasons. But sure, folks can prioritize for themselves, and they can certainly hit both sites.

[lynn]

Just as an observation, I have seen as little as one complaint hold up a renewal of a broadcast license.But since stations come up for renewal at different times, the boycott is good now, licensing complaints great after the election. They deserve to be revoked.

[bluenoter]

Sinclair is either blinking or pretending to blink in the hope of taking the heat off. I'll bet it's the latter, those slimeballs. Meantime, some of its large shareholders are making things even hotter.

Oct 19, 6:53 PM (ET)

Sinclair Says Won't Show Entire Anti-Kerry Film

By Martha Graybow

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., the nation's largest owner of TV stations, said on Tuesday it would only air part of a documentary critical of Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam war record, as critics demanded it cancel the broadcast altogether or face legal action.

Sinclair has drawn fire over its plans to air the 42-minute documentary "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," about the Democratic presidential candidate on its more than 60 TV stations on Friday, less than two weeks before the Nov. 2 election.

Furious Democrats have charged that the documentary was a blatant political statement disguised as news and have demanded equal air time from Sinclair, whose top executives have been major contributors to President Bush and Republicans in recent years.

Sinclair said it would not show the entire Kerry documentary, which accuses the senator of betraying fellow Vietnam veterans by testifying to Congress in 1971 against the war and about atrocities he said were committed by U.S. forces.

Sinclair said it would air a special program on Friday called "A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media" that includes a discussion of the allegations surrounding Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities.

"The experience of preparing to air this news special has been trying for many of those involved," the Baltimore, Maryland-based broadcaster said. "The company and many of its executives have endured personal attacks of the vilest nature, as well as calls on our advertisers and our viewers to boycott our stations and on our shareholders to sell their stock."

Sinclair operates in 39 markets that include battleground states Florida and Ohio.

KERRY CONTROVERSY

Sinclair's shares have fallen amid the Kerry controversy and uncertain advertising revenues. Its stock has fallen almost 17 percent since its plans to air the show were first reported more than a week ago. The shares are down 58 percent in the year to date, and were off 3.5 percent to $6.26 on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a powerful shareholder lawyer with strong ties to the Democratic party, San Diego-based William Lerach, accused three top Sinclair executives of insider trading and threatened to sue the company if its board of directors does not take legal action itself against the executives.

Lerach, a Democratic Party fundraiser, said the accusations were not politically motivated and were spurred by requests from shareholder clients, including the pension fund for 1199 SEIU Greater New York, a health care workers union, to investigate Sinclair's recent stock declines.

"We are equal opportunity suers," he said.

Lerach accused Sinclair vice presidents Frederick G. Smith and J. Duncan Smith, and board member Robert E. Smith of selling thousands of shares of Sinclair in late 2003 and early 2004, just before shares began to fall.

He said the accusations were based on studying publicly available documents of stock sales.

"We have discovered that senior executives and a director of Sinclair appear to have taken advantage of their inside knowledge of the company's business and prospects to sell over $18.5 million worth of Sinclair stock," Lerach said in a letter to the board.

The company's statement did not address the Lerach's accusations and a company representative was not immediately available for comment.

Meanwhile, a group called Media Matters for America said it was underwriting costs for a Sinclair shareholder, the investment firm Glickenhaus & Co., to demand the broadcaster provide an opportunity for a response to the "Stolen Honor" show. Glickenhaus holds about 6,100 Sinclair shares, according to Media Matters.

Sinclair reportedly fired its Washington bureau chief on Monday after he accused the company of "indefensible" conduct for planning to air the anti-Kerry film. The company issued a statement calling the journalist, Jon Lieberman, a "disgruntled employee," according to The Washington Post.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington and Arthur Spiegelman in Los Angeles)

[Gordon B]

The New York Times reviewed "Stolen Honor" today.

October 21, 2004
TV REVIEW | 'STOLEN HONOR'
An Outpouring of Pain, Channeled via Politics
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

"Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," the highly contested anti-Kerry documentary, should not be shown by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. It should be shown in its entirety on all the networks, cable stations and on public television.

This histrionic, often specious and deeply sad film does not do much more damage to Senator John Kerry's reputation than have the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's negative ads, which have flooded television markets in almost every swing state. But it does help viewers better understand the rage fueling the unhappy band of brothers who oppose Mr. Kerry's candidacy and his claim to heroism.

Sinclair, the nation's largest television station group, reaching about a quarter of United States television households, backed down this week and announced that it would use only excerpts from the 42-minute film as part of an hourlong news program about political use of the media, "A P.O.W. Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media.'' That's too bad: what is most enlightening about this film is not the depiction of Mr. Kerry as a traitor; it is the testimony of the former P.O.W.'s describing the torture they endured in captivity and the shock they felt when celebrities like Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden visited their prisons in North Vietnam and sided with the enemy.

The former prisoners - now old and graying - are not just talking about their sense of betrayal by fellow Americans. They also seize the Kerry candidacy as a chance to recall their experiences: the kinds of torture they endured and the ruses they invented like tap-code communication between cells to boost morale. Illustrated with black-and-white film clips of prisoners in the "Hanoi Hilton" and sepia-toned re-enactments of starving men being led through dank, dark prison corridors, those recollections resemble the slow-paced, detailed documentaries that fill the History Channel.

But the History Channel tends to focus on the heroic moments of World Wars I and II. The Vietnam War is almost always revisited through its moral and strategic ambiguities and its effect on American society in the 1960's and 70's.

This film is payback time, a chance to punish one of the most famous antiwar activists, Mr. Kerry, the one who got credit for serving with distinction in combat, then, through the eyes of the veterans in this film, went home to discredit the men left behind. The film begins with dirgelike music and a scary black-and-white montage of stark images of soldiers and prisoners as a deep voice sorrowfully intones, "In other wars, when captured soldiers were subjected to the hell of enemy prisons, they were considered heroes." The narrator adds, "In Vietnam they were betrayed."

The imagery is crude, but powerful: each mention of Mr. Kerry's early 1970's meeting with North Vietnamese government officials in Paris is illustrated with an old black-and-white still shot of the Arc de Triomphe, an image that to many viewers evokes the Nazi occupation of Paris. The Eiffel Tower would have been more neutral, but the film is not: it insists that Mr. Kerry "met secretly in an undisclosed location with a top enemy diplomat." Actually, Mr. Kerry, a leading antiwar activist at the time, mentioned it in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971.

The film's producer, Carlton Sherwood, a former investigative reporter and a Vietnam veteran, gives his own testimony, explaining that even though he has uncovered all kinds of misdeeds in his career, the history of Mr. Kerry's antiwar activism is "a lot more personal.'' He recalls listening to Mr. Kerry's testimony in 1971, saying, "I felt an inner hurt no surgeon's scalpel could remove.''

That pain is the main theme of the documentary, which can be seen in its entirety on the Internet for $4.99. One former P.O.W., John Warner, lashes out at Mr. Kerry for having coaxed Mr. Warner's mother to testify at the Winter Soldier Investigation, where disgruntled veterans testified to war crimes they committed. Calling it a "contemptible act," Mr. Warner, who spent more than five years as a prisoner, tells the camera that Mr. Kerry was the kind of man who preyed on a mother's grief "purely for the promotion of your own political agenda."

The documentary shows Mr. Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony, in which he famously reported that fellow soldiers had "cut off ears," among other atrocities. But the filmmakers were not able to dig up more indicting material from homemade movies or news clips from the era. The picture from an antiwar demonstration, where Mr. Kerry stood a few rows behind Ms. Fonda, is blown up portentously, but there are no shots of them together. The only candid shot of Mr. Kerry gathering material for the Winter Soldier hearings shows him solicitously asking a veteran why he felt the need to speak.

Instead, the film shows lesser-known young, long-haired antiwar activists preparing witnesses to testify to war crimes. In the film these men seem to be prompting a fellow veteran to describe a massacre he did not witness. But one of the veterans, Kenneth J. Campbell, a decorated marine who is now a professor at the University of Delaware, recently sued the filmmakers, claiming the film was edited to take out clips in which Mr. Campbell made clear that only soldiers who witnessed the atrocities firsthand would be allowed to testify.

Those kinds of distortions are intended to hurt Mr. Kerry at the polls. Instead, they mainly distract viewers from the real subject of the film: the veterans' unheeded feelings of betrayal and neglect.

Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal

Excerpts from this program will be shown on various stations, but not in the New York metropolitan area; elsewhere check local listings. The entire program can be seen on the Internet on a pay-for-view basis and its audio can be downloaded online, both at www.stolenhonor.com.

Carlton Sherwood, producer. A Red White and Blue Productions Inc.

[kedoane]

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

I'm sure Sinclair has benefited from new rules passed by the Bush Admin lossening restrictions on broadcast station ownership.

Oh yes they did since they were the ones pressing for loosening the restrictions on ownership. I am very glad that the courts got involved with the ownership rules when the FCC tried to loosen the rules earlier this year. I saw what happened to radio when the rules were loosen and I am very afraid that if it happens to TV, then the stations that serve their local markets won't serve their markets at all, or at least in the bare minimum.

[Dr Dave]

As a little PS to this thread: I live in Asheville, NC where the only TV outlet is owned by Sinclair. It has been a real eye-opener to see how difficult it is for Democratic candidates to get any coverage at all on the station.