[Mb-civic] Take Our Airways Back By Howard Dean

[Michael Butler]

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  Take Our Airways Back
  By Howard Dean
  t r u t h o u t | Perspective

  Monday 18 October 2004

  Last week, communications giant Sinclair Broadcasting announced that they
would require all 62 of their television affiliates to pre-empt regularly
scheduled programs and air a film that casts Sen. John Kerry in a very
unfavorable and false light. Many of these stations, affiliates of ABC, CBS,
NBC and UPN, are in battleground states like Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa
and Michigan. This essentially becomes free advertising for the Bush-Cheney
campaign in some very important and influential states during this election
season.

  This is not the first time Sinclair Broadcasting stations were required to
do something that advanced the right-wing agenda. Last spring, Sinclair
refused to allow any of its ABC affiliates to carry a Nightline episode that
honored soldiers who had been killed in Iraq. The episode was a way to
memorialize and remember the soldiers that gave their lives fighting for our
country. But at the time, the executives at Sinclair Broadcasting
unilaterally decided that the program "appears to be motivated by a
political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in
Iraq".

  This election cycle, executives of Sinclair Broadcasting have contributed
tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions, 97 percent of which
have gone to Republican candidates. Their vice president for corporate
relations and their spokesperson, Mark Hyman, is also a conservative
commentator for Sinclair Broadcasting. Every day a one-to-two minute report
by Hyman is distributed to stations that promotes the agenda of the
Republican Party.

  Incidents like this are not good for America. Today the Democratic
candidate for president is victimized. In the future, it may be a
Republican.

  Federal Communications Commissioner Michael J. Copps recently said, "This
is an abuse of the public trust. And 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.
. . .Sinclair and the FCC are taking us down a dangerous road."

  Kowtowing to large corporations, like Sinclair Broadcasting, is President
Bush's specialty. And, behavior like this will only continue to grow by
other media conglomerates if President Bush is re-elected. He is clearly
more interested in doing the bidding of big corporations than he is in jobs
and health care for ordinary Americans.

  The media needs to be re-regulated and corporate ownership of media
outlets needs to be limited in favor of independent and local family
ownerships. But, we can make a difference today. If you live in a city with
a Sinclair Broadcasting station, I encourage you to consider calling
companies that advertise on that station. This is already working in some
cities, like Madison, Wis. - a restaurant that was advertising on the local
Sinclair Broadcasting station received numerous complaints and decided to
pull their advertising.

  Since the public owns the airways, Sinclair Broadcasting and other big
corporations ought to be required to act in a way which supports democracy,
not attacks it. Sinclair Broadcasting has violated the fundamental
responsibilities they are accountable for in a democratic society. If the
president will not do his job to rein in corporate power, we will have to
stand up for American democracy ourselves.

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  Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, is the founder of Democracy for
America, a grassroots organization that supports socially progressive and
fiscally responsible political candidates.

  Email Howard Dean.

 

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