LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) In a snidely worded press release, the Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Tuesday (Oct. 19) that not only will Sinclair stations not air the John Kerry documentary "Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal" in its entirety, but that it never had any plans to air the doc in the first place. Denouncing "numerous inaccurate political and press accounts" the Sinclair Group explained that a one-hour special called "A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media" will air on certain stations instead.
The Baltimore-based company says that the new special will "focus in part on the use of documentaries and other media to influence voting, which emerged during the 2004 political campaigns, as well as on the content of certain of these documentaries." Although "Stolen Honor," a documentary harshly critical of Sen. Kerry's post-Vietnam activities, will still appear in clips, it will only be a small portion of "A POW Story," at least according to Sinclair.
Sinclair adds, "the program will also examine the role of the media in filtering the information contained in these documentaries, allegations of media bias by media organizations that ignore or filter legitimate news and the attempts by candidates and other organizations to influence media coverage." It's unclear what that means.
"The company and many of its executives have endured personal attacks of the vilest nature, as well as calls on our advertisers and our viewers to boycott our stations and on our shareholders to sell their stock," says Sinclair CEO David Smith.
Late last week FCC Chairman Michael Powell refused to set the precedent of blocking the program, saying that the First Amendment had to hold sway in the matter.
In the week since the alleged "numerous inaccurate political and press accounts" claiming that Sinclair planned to air "Stolen Honor" on 62 stations from Oct. 21-24, the company's stock prices fell around 15 percent. The stock drop came in response to charges from the Kerry campaign and from Democratic leaders arguing that Sinclair's decision to force stations to air the politically weighted "Stolen Honor" because of purported violations of campaign finance laws.
Sinclair owns station in 39 markets. The group earned the ire of media organizations and politicians including John McCain for refusing to air an April "Nightline" special honoring American service men and women killed in the Iraq war.
