Sinclair's Continued Charade

Despite the outcry from consumers, Congressional lawmakers, advertisers, press experts and media watchdog groups, Sinclair Broadcasting refuses to back down from its plans to air the anti-Kerry attackumentary Stolen Honor a week before the November 2 election. (Click here to read the backstory to this controversy.)

Sinclair--whose 62 stations reach 25 percent of the US television audience--is receiving much-needed support from its GOP friends. Last week FCC Chairman Michael Powell, a Bush-appointee who supports radical media deregulation, defended Sinclair's decision. "Don't look to us to block the airing of a program," Powell told the press. "I don't know of any precedent in which the commission could do that...I think it would do an absolute disservice to the First Amendment and I think it would be unconstitutional if we attempted to do so."

But Sinclair can hardly hide behind the First Amendment after preventing its seven ABC affiliates from running a Nightline special last April dedicated to recognizing US troops killed in Iraq.

And, as former FCC chairman Reed Hundt (1993-1997) noted in a letter to blogger Josh Marshall: "No broadcast group in the history of America has ever committed an hour to smearing a presidential candidate, and no FCC chairman before this one would have reacted with equanimity to this radical step-down in broadcasting ethics."

Moreover, a recent precedent does indeed exist in federal election law for taking action against Sinclair's plans. Last month the FEC blocked an attempt by the conservative 527 group Citizens United to run an anti-Kerry documentary on the airwaves under the guise of "news content." The federal election law cited prohibits public corporations and labor unions from airing "electioneering communication" sixty days before an election. The Swift Boat- aligned Sinclair film should be subject to the same scrutiny, at least by the FEC, if not Powell's FCC.

Further, broadcast networks are still mandated to offer candidates equal time during a campaign. Kerry campaign attorney Marc Elias wrote to Sinclair President David Smith last week requesting just that, though it seems unlikely that Sinclair will comply given its partisan Republican ties. Sinclair has previously rejected proposals to broadcast pro-Kerry films by George Butler (Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry) and Paul Alexander (Brothers in Arms) as potential counter-balances to Stolen Honor . Michael Moore has even offered the company a chance to air Fahrenheit 9/11 for free. Don't expect them to take up his offer.

A deserved backlash is brewing against Sinclair. Nonpartisan advertisers are pulling ads in local markets. The respected financial website The Street included Sinclair on its list of "The five dumbest things on Wall Street this week." Most damaging, Sinclair's stock fell to its lowest level since 1995 as the investment analysts Lehmann Brothers warned of further financial and political damage.

Readers should keep the pressure on Sinclair. Click here to sign the "Stop Sinclair" petition and boycott the media company's advertisers. Bad politics can also mean bad business.

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