[Mb-civic] Anti-Kerry film ignites new row BBC

[Michael Butler]

 Anti-Kerry film ignites new row

 By Michael Buchanan
 BBC Washington correspondent

 
 A US television company is planning to run a film attacking Democratic
presidential nominee John Kerry just days before the election.

 Sinclair TV Group's programmes reach almost a quarter of US homes.

 Its move is highly unusual and may breach federal regulations requiring
stations to give equal time to major candidates in an election campaign.

 The 45-minute film criticises John Kerry's opposition to the Vietnam war in
the early 1970s.

 In the documentary, Stolen Honor, Wounds That Never Heal, former
prisoners-of-war say that Mr Kerry's claims that American soldiers were
committing atrocities led to their captors treating them more harshly, and
extended the length of the conflict.

 'Unfair' 

 The Sinclair TV Group, whose executives have given tens of thousands of
dollars to President George W Bush's re-election campaign, have revealed
plans to show the film later this month, followed by a panel discussion to
which they say Senator Kerry will be invited.

 The decision to air the documentary on the 62 stations that Sinclair either
owns or supplies programmes for has been criticised not only by the Kerry
campaign but also by media analysts, who say showing the one-sided film so
close to the election is unfair.

 This argument over the role of the media in the presidential race is just
the latest in this year's heated campaign.

 Michael Moore's anti-Bush film Fahrenheit 9/11 outraged conservatives, who
say it distorts the president's White House record.

 And just recently CBS News had to apologise to Mr Bush for broadcasting a
programme that was based on now-discredited documents.
 Story from BBC NEWS:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3732302.stm

 Published: 2004/10/11 07:07:31 GMT

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