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April 30, 2004
Sinclair Broadcasting

Senator John McCain has sent a scathing letter to David Smith, President and CEO of Sinclair Broadcasting.

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.

Daaaaaamn! Snap!

This comes from a Republican, remember, and a former P.O.W.

The Center for American Progress has more on Sinclair's history of shilling for the RNC, including refusing to run ads critical of the administration, producing far right-wing centralized content, and requiring its affiliates to air messages "conveying full support" for the Bush administration.

Their FCC license should be taken away.

Not that it makes any difference but Sinclair is based in Baltimore, my hometown, and owns WBFF in Baltimore. It could be anywhere, but the fact that they're in Baltimore makes me even more mad.

Comments

Previous Comments

Tried to comment on your first post about this, but it didn't take - just wanted to say thanks for being one of the first to point this out. It's finally receiving major media coverage today. I said yesterday that I thought this was going to really cause SBC a shitstorm and I think that's happening today - as a friend of mine wrote, how can the ongoing (deserved) canonization of Pat Tillman be patriotic but recognition of the guys who DIDN'T turn down NFL contracts be political?