[Mb-hair] NYTimes.com Article: Dangerous Territory

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Dangerous Territory

October 15, 2004
 


 

The Sinclair Broadcasting Group, one of the nation's most
powerful television conglomerates, has a sad record of
using its public license to promote Republican causes.
Earlier this year, Sinclair tried to censor an installment
of "Nightline" on its 62 stations when Ted Koppel announced
plans to read out the names of soldiers killed in Iraq. Now
the company, owned by financial backers of President Bush
and other Republican politicians, plans to actively join
the re-election campaign. 

Its plan sounds like the plot of a bad political novel, or
an actual election in post-Soviet Russia. The Times and
other newspapers reported this week that Sinclair, a
Maryland-based company that reaches nearly a quarter of
American households, would broadcast a propaganda film in
the next two weeks that labels Senator John Kerry a liar, a
traitor and a "willing accomplice" of the enemy during the
Vietnam War. It claims, falsely, that his antiwar
statements inspired the North Vietnamese to step up the
torture of American prisoners, and it is filled with other
distortions about the war in Vietnam. 

Sinclair has instructed its stations, which are heavily
represented in swing states like Florida and Wisconsin, to
run the film without commercials in the evening. The
company already compels them to broadcast editorials and
commentaries favorable to Mr. Bush and his policies. But
this is a whole new arena, and little different from making
the stations give donations to the Republican campaign. 

We would be just as appalled if one of the major networks
forced its affiliates to broadcast "Fahrenheit 9/11" next
week and call it a news program. 

The movie that caught Sinclair's eye, a 45-minute diatribe
called "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," rehashes
Republican charges that are familiar to everyone from the
latest round of ads attacking Mr. Kerry's antiwar
activities: primarily that he lied to the Senate in 1971
about atrocities in Vietnam and that his testimony and the
antiwar movement in general aided the North Vietnamese and
harmed American soldiers. This line of reasoning neatly
dovetails with the Bush campaign's assertions that
criticizing Mr. Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq is
unpatriotic and harms American soldiers. 

Eighteen Democratic senators asked the Federal
Communications Commission to stop Sinclair from
broadcasting the new film, but the commission was right to
refuse. As painful as it is to defend this agency, which
has shown more interest in Janet Jackson's breast than in
really doing its job, we believe that the federal
government cannot indulge in that sort of prior restraint. 

But the F.C.C. also cannot ignore Sinclair's poor record
when it comes to meeting its obligation to act responsibly
and fairly in the public interest, a duty it assumed when
it accepted custody of a license to broadcast on the public
airwaves. Broadcasting "Stolen Honor" within two weeks of
the election would clearly violate those commitments. 

Sinclair says it is just trying to give its viewers news.
Unfortunately, this film is not news, and not journalism.
It makes no attempt at balance or fairness. Its interviews
with 17 men who were imprisoned and tortured in Hanoi are
powerful. But the narrator and producer, Carlton Sherwood,
a former journalist on leave from his job in a company that
provides "homeland security" services to the government,
exploits these brave men and their distinguished service
for a cause that he openly says is personal. 

Sinclair's First Amendment defenses lack credibility
because it denied those rights to "Nightline." At the time,
Sinclair's spokesman, Mark Hyman, who doubles as a
conservative commentator, said Mr. Koppel's program did not
deserve to be broadcast because it had "no proportionality"
and ignored other aspects of the issues. It was hard to see
how that could describe a tribute to the war dead, but it's
a perfect description of "Stolen Honor." 

Yesterday, Mr. Hyman seemed to be hedging a bit on
Sinclair's plans, saying the program was not finished and
would be balanced. But it was unnerving to hear him adhere
to his bizarre claim that the major broadcast networks who
wisely declined to run "Stolen Honor" when Mr. Sherwood
offered it to them were no different than "Holocaust
deniers." 

If the company is thinking about seriously changing course,
it should do it quickly. Sinclair is in dangerous
territory. If television companies force their local
stations to campaign blatantly, it will not be long before
the administrations that have the power to grant licenses
begin expecting such favors as a quid pro quo. And the
public will question whether it can afford to allow such
concentrations of power in the hands of huge media
corporations. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15fri1.html?ex=1098861736&ei=1&en=b24d246209faaced


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