Author |
Message |
mosc
Site Admin
Joined: Jan 31, 2003 Posts: 18195 Location: Durham, NC
Audio files: 211
G2 patch files: 60
|
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 1:04 pm Post subject:
Call for action against Sinclair Broadcast Group |
|
|
Sorry to bother our members who don't live in the USA, but this seems to be important to me.
We have a media emergency. Sinclair Broadcast Group is now instructing their 62 local stations, many in battleground states, to pre-empt regular programming to air a Kerry smear piece two weeks before the election. This unprecedented move would be direct electioneering by a corporate media giant -- and against federal election law.
Sinclair is apparently willing to take this risk to their business because this is an election that hangs in the balance. It's our job to make them understand exactly the risk they face, if they choose to pursue partisanship rather than a broadcaster's duty to the public or even their own business interests.
One of the key things we can do today is put pressure on each of the local stations, which have a responsibility by law to serve their community interests. Can you make a call, right now, to your local station? You can look up your local station at:
http://www.sinclairwatch.org/act?z=18103
SinclairWatch.org is a new site maintained by our friends at Free Press. Free Press is also encouraging citizens to pledge to fight Sinclair stations' license renewals, if Sinclair follows through with using their stations for electioneering. Real local opposition to license renewal will be taken very seriously. If you don't have a station in your area, the site makes it easy for you to file a complaint with the FCC and contact Sinclair's headquarters. Just click the link above to get started.
Please let us know you called, at:
http://www.moveon.org/sinclair2.html?id=4314-454756-37e8dzSwhIv9expCTHJPwQ
Besides the complaints that will surely be filed through the FEC and FCC, Sinclair will certainly hear from advertisers who face being implicated in this scheme and stockholders who face losing value in their investments in Sinclair.
I've attached an excerpt from an article in the Washington Post below, which gives the details of this story.
Thanks for everything you do.
Sincerely,
--Noah T. Winer
MoveOn.org
Tuesday, October 12th, 2004
Sinclair Stations to Air Anti-Kerry Documentary
By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 11, 2004; Page A07
Sinclair Broadcast Group of Maryland, owner of the largest chain of television stations in the nation, plans to preempt regular programming two weeks before the Nov. 2 election to air a documentary that accuses Sen. John F. Kerry of betraying American prisoners during the Vietnam War.
Sinclair has ordered its 62 stations, some of which are in the critical swing states of Ohio, Florida, Iowa and Wisconsin, to air "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" during prime-time hours next week. The Sinclair station group collectively reaches 24 percent of U.S. television households.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22788-2004Oct10.html _________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
elektro80
Site Admin
Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
|
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 1:30 pm Post subject:
Re: Call for acton against Cinclair Broadcast Group |
|
|
mosc wrote: | Sinclair Broadcast Group of Maryland, owner of the largest chain of television stations in the nation, plans to preempt regular programming two weeks before the Nov. 2 election to air a documentary that accuses Sen. John F. Kerry of betraying American prisoners during the Vietnam War.l |
OK.. so some Sinclair boss thinks that whatever Kerry did during the Vietnam War is far worse than starting the damned war, sending young americans to their death and administering area bombing on civilian targets? A war that even Robert S. McNamara today considers a grave and tragic mistake? Is this guy for real? _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
MySpace
SoundCloud
Flickr |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
mosc
Site Admin
Joined: Jan 31, 2003 Posts: 18195 Location: Durham, NC
Audio files: 211
G2 patch files: 60
|
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 2:11 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
Europeans have problems understanding Americans these days. Well, it's like the media is worse than Pravda was in the CCCP days. Fox, Sinclair, Clear Channel and others are more or less the party aparatus. _________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Mohoyoho
Joined: Dec 03, 2003 Posts: 1632 Location: Tennessee
Audio files: 8
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
elektro80
Site Admin
Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
|
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 2:36 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
What is this Sinclair company? The secret lair of the Illuminati ? _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
MySpace
SoundCloud
Flickr |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
mosc
Site Admin
Joined: Jan 31, 2003 Posts: 18195 Location: Durham, NC
Audio files: 211
G2 patch files: 60
|
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 8:18 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
elektro80 wrote: | What is this Sinclair company? The secret lair of the Illuminati ? |
What do you mean secret? _________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
jksuperstar
Joined: Aug 20, 2004 Posts: 2503 Location: Denver
Audio files: 1
G2 patch files: 18
|
Posted: Tue Oct 12, 2004 10:25 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
If I have one social fear it's that people have inertia & momentum. And it sure seems the pendulum of American politics has swung very far from center. It's going to be ungly when it finally starts swinging back toward a more balanced state. |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
elektro80
Site Admin
Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
|
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:21 am Post subject:
|
|
|
mosc wrote: | elektro80 wrote: | What is this Sinclair company? The secret lair of the Illuminati ? |
What do you mean secret? |
Well, they have huge signs plastered all over their builiding .. like " THIS IS THE SECRET LAIR OF THE ILLUMINATI" ?? Not?
And now they are after Kerry´s mojo? _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
MySpace
SoundCloud
Flickr |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
mosc
Site Admin
Joined: Jan 31, 2003 Posts: 18195 Location: Durham, NC
Audio files: 211
G2 patch files: 60
|
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 6:27 am Post subject:
|
|
|
elektro80 wrote: | they are after Kerry´s mojo? |
That's right, they are after Kerry's mojo... _________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
zynthetix
Joined: Jun 12, 2003 Posts: 838 Location: nyc
Audio files: 10
G2 patch files: 13
|
Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:09 pm Post subject:
|
|
|
Thomas Jefferson wrote: | "If it were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without a free press or a free press without a government, I would prefer the latter." |
Has modern American media lived up to the expectations of a public necessity envisioned by the founding fathers? No. It has surpassed them by becoming an entertaining profit center for ever-growing corporate empires. Or in this case, a slandering profit center for ever-growing corporate empires. $.
I can see why European perception of American media would be warped. Aggressive journalism once brought down a president with Watergate, but something similar does not seem likely today. Maybe because thousands of independent news sources have been consolidated into five major empires, many with political ties?
1) Viacom -CBS, UPN, MTV, Paramount
2)Time Warner - CNN, AOL, HBO, Warner Brothers, Time, Life
3) Disney - ABC, everything sugary and Disney
4) GE - NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, USA
5) News Corporation - Everything Fox, the New York post |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
mosc
Site Admin
Joined: Jan 31, 2003 Posts: 18195 Location: Durham, NC
Audio files: 211
G2 patch files: 60
|
Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2004 11:06 am Post subject:
|
|
|
Got this in the mail today:
Dear Media Reformer,
Thanks to you, Sinclair bowed to massive public pressure. After a deluge of phone calls, emails, boycotts and threatened lawsuits, Sinclair didn't run the anti-Kerry documentary the company claimed was "news." Instead, it ran another program that — while still arguably anti-Kerry — presented both sides of the story.
This is more of a wake up call than a victory. Last year in Washington, laws were rewritten to let companies like Sinclair become even bigger. When one company can operate 62 TV stations and use the public airwaves to promote their political agenda, democracy is threatened.
The real problem is that Washington policymakers are letting industry lobbyists write the laws. Together we are changing that, and we'll keep you in the loop as the issue develops.
You can find many ways to take action and learn more at www.freepress.net. In November, Free Press will release a terrific media reform toolkit. We are working to bolster noncommercial media, limit consolidation, and return the airwaves to the people.
Sinclair miscalculated in a big way. Millions of citizens have now awakened to the need for media reform. Now, let's get to work.
Sincerely,
Robert McChesney
Free Press _________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff |
|
Back to top
|
|
|
elektro80
Site Admin
Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
|