[opendtv] News: Honoring an Invite
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 09:36:13 -0400
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA472609.html?display=Breaking+News&referral=SUPP
Honoring an Invite
Broadcasting & Cable, 10/15/2004 6:39:00 PM
Even before Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) requested equal time on
Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. stations, a company executive told B&C
having Kerry appear in a controversial broadcast was the plan all
along.
"We told Kerry before we produced anything that we wanted his
participation, and we sent him a copy of the documentary," Sinclair
Vice President of Corporate Relations Mark Hyman told Bill McConnell
(B&C, Oct. 18, page 16). "We were quietly waiting for his campaign to
get back to us and tell us what he wanted to do when the L.A. Times
story appeared."
Sinclair found itself in the middle of controversy again this week
after the Los Angeles Times revealed the company's plans to air all
or part of a documentary attacking presidential candidate Sen. John
Kerry. The film, Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, charges that
Kerry's protests against the Vietnam War in the 1970s were used by
the North Vietnamese to demoralize U.S. POWs.
Sinclair has asked all of its 62 owned stations to preempt regular
programming to air the Stolen Honor program.
On Friday, Kerry's campaign lawyer Marc E. Elias sent a letter to
Sinclair President David D. Smith requesting time on each station at
an hour when an audience similar in size to that of Stolen Honor
could be expected to be watching.
At press time, the company had not responded to the campaign's
request. But Hyman told B&C earlier this week, "if John Kerry comes
in, it would be a huge get for us. He hasn't done a sit-down
interview with a real news organization-with anybody besides Dr.
Phil, Regis and Kelly, and Jon Stewart-since the Democratic
Convention."
Kerry supports rolling back media consolidation, and Sinclair is the
country's largest station groups in terms of number. But Hyman
dismissed the idea that Sinclair's broadcast was motivated by
corporate interests. "So we would put ourselves in his gun sight?
Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton told Fox News, 'They'd better hope we
don't win.'"
Sinclair was accused of pro-Bush bias in April when its ABC
affiliates dropped the edition of Nightline with Ted Koppel's reading
of the names of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I haven't hidden that I'm conservative in my political beliefs, but
nobody here had anything to do with this documentary," said Hyman,
who delivers pro-Bush editorials on Sinclair stations on The Point.
"When it was offered to us, we spent 2 1/2 weeks vetting the people
who made allegations. We didn't forge any documents or hire fake
actors."
Hyman said airing the documentary special close to the election was
not a blatant attempt to hurt Kerry: "Under that standard, every
single news report of bombings in Iraq or the death of a soldier or
stories of economic performance that is weaker than expected should
be considered an in-kind contribution to John Kerry."
But why air the program so close to the elections? Hyman said the
veterans interviewed in Stolen Honor did not come forward until
August. "According to the filmmaker [Carlton Sherwood], none of the
big broadcast networks wanted to speak with him," Hyman said. "That's
why he went shopping for other venues. We did our due diligence on
his film and saw something to it."
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