Nightline preemption: I pit the Sinclair Group

[AmericanMaid]

Tonight, Nightline is broadcasting a tribute to soldiers KIA in Iraq. Story below:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/29/abc.nightline/index.html

I love this quote:"[Nightline] appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." How the fuck is showing the names & faces of fallen soldiers at 11:35pm on a Friday night undermining the war? When, I read that article I thought to myself “I bet some of those affiliates are in battleground states.” Sure enough…

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/allpolitics/0010/battleground.states/battlegroundstates.html
What the fuckity fuck? :mad:

[friedo]

Well, Sinclair owns the stations; they can show whatever they want. I agree that their reasons seem pretty odd, though.

[AmericanMaid]

I’ve found the problem:

http://www.sbgi.net/about/executives.shtml

Apparently the Agents Smith believe the Iraq War integral for maintaining the Matrix.

[headshok]

According to the CNN article:

According to campaign finance records, four of Sinclair’s top executives each have given the maximum campaign contribution of $2,000 to the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

The executives have not given any donations to the campaign of Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, the records showed.

Now there’s a political agenda.

[fessie]

But, but, publicly acknowledging the impact the war is having on American families would be double plus ungood!

[RTFirefly]

I write to strongly protest your decision to instruct Sinclair’s ABC affiliates to preempt this evening’s Nightline program. I find deeply offensive Sinclair’s objection to Nightline’s intention to broadcast the names and photographs of Americans who gave their lives in service to our country in Iraq.

I supported the President’s decision to go to war in Iraq, and remain a strong supporter of that decision. But every American has a responsibility to understand fully the terrible costs of war and the extraordinary sacrifices it requires of those brave men and women who volunteer to defend the rest of us; lest we ever forget or grow insensitive to how grave a decision it is for our government to order Americans into combat. It is a solemn responsibility of elected officials to accept responsibility for our decision and its consequences, and, with those who disseminate the news, to ensure that Americans are fully informed of those consequences.

There is no valid reason for Sinclair to shirk its responsibility in what I assume is a very misguided attempt to prevent your viewers from completely appreciating the extraordinary sacrifices made on their behalf by Americans serving in Iraq. War is an awful, but sometimes necessary business. Your decision to deny your viewers an opportunity to be reminded of war’s terrible costs, in all their heartbreaking detail, is a gross disservice to the public, and to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly deserves.

Link.

[RTFirefly]

SINCLAIR REQUIRES JOURNALISTS TO READ PRO-BUSH STATEMENTS: In September 2001, Sinclair Broadcasting required its affiliates to air messages “conveying full support” for the Bush administration. At a Baltimore affiliate, WBFF "officials required news and sports anchors, even a weather forecaster, to read the messages, "which included statements such as “[the station] wants you to know that we stand 100% behind our President.” Several WBFF staffers objected on the grounds that reading the statements would “erode their reputations as objective journalists” because it made them appear to be “endorsing specific government actions.”

SINCLAIR REFUSES TO AIR AD HIGHLIGHTING 2003 BUSH ERROR: In July 2003, Sinclair Broadcasting refused to allow WMSN TV – its FOX affiliate in Madison, WI – to air a DNC advertisement that featured a clip of President Bush making the false claim “Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa” in his 2003 State of the Union Address. Three other Madison stations, including ABC, NBC and CBS, readily agreed to air the ad. The Madison CBS affiliate, WISC, said the advertisement was “no worse than any other political ad.”

SINCLAIR PRODUCES CENTRALIZED RIGHT-WING CONTENT FOR ‘LOCAL STATIONS’: In a controversial business practice, Sinclair Broadcasting has fired much of the staff for the local affiliates it owns, instead producing content for its local stations from a central facility outside Baltimore which it then airs on “local” news broadcasts. The centralized content features nightly commentary by Sinclair corporate communications chief Mark Hyman. Hyman regularly refers to the French as “cheese-eating surrender monkeys,” the so-called liberal media as the “hate-America crowd,” and progressives as “the lonely left” On one recent commentary, Hyman called members of Congress who voted against a recent resolution affirming the righteousness of the Iraq war “unpatriotic politicians who hate our military.”

Courtesy of the Center for American Progress; follow the link for links supporting each of the details given above.

[WernhamHogg]

Goddamned liberal media!

[ElvisL1ves]

FWIW, this little act has caused much more damage to their cause, via publicity in the affected cities, than simply letting it go would have. A lot more people will be attuned to the magnitude of the human cost of the war because of this than would have been the case otherwise.

[NDP]

The Sinclair Group’s asinine attempt to suppress one of the more unpleasant aspects of war (i.e., people get killed) unfortunately seems to reflect an attitude that’s not uncommon among backers of the Iraqi War. Every so often in my local newspaper, some right-wing crank with too much time on his or her hands writes a letter chiding it for putting war casualty stories on the front page instead of burying them deep within the paper where they’re less likely to undermine “support for our troops” and hinder “the war against terrorism.” I used to believe viewpoints like this were the province of just a few jingoistic idiots who were deliberately trying to avoid the nasty little realities of conflict and demanding that everyone else do the same. Sadly, it seems Sinclair also insists on imposing this “know-nothing” attitude on its TV viewers.

[choie]

Are they campaigning to cancel Memorial Day too? Unbefuckinglievable.

I’m sure the surviving families are thrilled to know that just reading their loved ones’ names aloud on the air is a practically an act of treason.

:wally

[MaxTheVool]

@RTFirefly

John McCain’s Response:

Count me as one liberal who would give his left nut to have John McCain as our president right now instead of Shrub.

[Snooooopy]

We need to send the Chubb Group over to kick the Sinclair Group’s ass.

[5_time_champ]

I just the called the local affiliate here is St Louis. I left a message stating that the FCC should remove the station’s license.

It seems my sig line becomes more true every day.

[Skywatcher]

5 Time (and all other dopers who won’t be able to see Nighline tonight), ABC has given permission for KTRS to carry the audio if you’re interested in listening to Ted Koppel.

[Elza_B]

Fuck that. What should we do, take down the Vietnam War Memorial and any memorial to the victims of 9/11?

I am against this war, but I am entirely grateful to our troops for fighting for what they believe in. I’ll watch the tribute to the fallen soldiers out of respect for them. I really find it reprehensible of them to take away the choice of others to decide whether or not to watch this.

Ava

[friedo]

@5 time champ

I just the called the local affiliate here is St Louis. I left a message stating that the FCC should remove the station’s license.

Why? Because they chose not to air something they didn’t like?

[Morgyn]

I have two VCRs and am willing to use both to record tonight’s Nightline. I will also make at least 2 copies and send them to Dopers in areas where Nightline isn’t being broadcast, if people there want them and are willing to share.

[furt]

ABC’s asinine attempt to highlight one of the more unpleasant aspects of war (i.e., people get killed) unfortunately seems to reflect an attitude that’s not uncommon among opponents of the Iraqi War. Every so often in my local newspaper, some left-wing crank with too much time on his or her hands writes a letter chiding it for putting war casualty stories on a back page instead of putting them on the front page where they’re more likely to undermine support for the war against terrorism. I used to believe viewpoints like this were the province of just a few jingoistic idiots who were deliberately trying to ignore the larger reality that many thousands more people people died under a cruel dictatorship and demanding that everyone else do the same. Sadly, it seems ABC also insists on imposing this “know-nothing” attitude on its TV viewers.

I wonder if Ted Koppel will read the names of those put into mass graves in the last six months of Hussein. Of course not; he only has a half-hour.

[NDP]

I wonder if Ted Koppel will read the names of those put into mass graves in the last six months of Hussein. Of course not; he only has a half-hour.

I wonder when you are going to stop ripping off my entry almost verbatim (except for a few Mad-Lib-like insertions of your own to support your specious argument).

(Sorry, about that. I just remembered that I don’t feed trolls.)