emboldened Sinclair Broadcasting pushing forward its right-wing agenda [View All]

THE SINCLAIR PROPAGANDA MACHINE
Evan Derkacz, AlterNet

Owned by Bush-backers, an emboldened Sinclair Broadcasting
is pushing forward with its right-wing agenda. It's time to
push back.

http://alternetheadlines.c.topica.com/maacX8YabcwrMbnuoUEbaeQBp9/

Set aside "values" and voter fraud for a moment and just take a look at Sinclair Broadcasting Group. If the nation's largest owner of TV stations didn't actually help reelect George W. Bush it wasn't for lack of effort. Their message to America now: Our man won, deregulation will continue and we've only just begun... to expand.

First a recap, then a fresh glimpse inside Sinclair. Back in April, Sinclair ordered its ABC affiliates not to air an episode of Nightline during which host Ted Koppel planned to simply read the names of the fallen soldiers – around 700 at the time. When pressed to explain this unprecedented move, denounced sharply by Sen. John McCain (R-AR) among others, Sinclair's CEO, David Smith, responded: "ABC is disguising political statements as news content."

In early October, less than a month before "the most important election of our lives," Sinclair brazenly ordered its 62 TV stations (including several in the major swing states of Ohio and Florida) to preempt regular programming to air, just days before the election, a documentary attacking John Kerry.

Not only was the documentary, "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," created by a Bush family friend, but it was filled with demonstrable lies.

Yet Sinclair's VP, lobbyist and one of the nation's most high-profile conservative commentators, Mark Hyman, responded (reportedly with a straight face) : "This is a powerful story... The networks are acting like Holocaust deniers and pretending don't exist."

..more..

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News Advisory:

-- Sinclair Broadcast Group Abuses Public Airwaves; Airs Nightly Conservative 'The Point' Without Counterpoint

-- Media Matters for America Leads Launch of www.SinclairAction.com

WHAT: Media Matters for America, supported by a group of public interest organizations will host a press teleconference to announce the launch of a nationwide campaign aimed at drawing attention to the conservative slant in Sinclair Broadcasting's nightly commentary titled "The Point." The vehicle for the initiative is a new website http://www.SinclairAction.com .

WHO:Supporters:
MoveOn.org
MediaChannel
Robert Greenwald, Director of Outfoxed
Free Press
Alternet
Campaign for America's Future
Working Assets

Call Participants:
David Brock, president and CEO, Media Matters for America
Robert Greenwald, Director of Outfoxed
Timothy Karr, Executive Director of MediaChannel.org and Media for Democracy

WHEN: 10:30 am (EST), Tuesday, Dec. 14
Conference call number: 877-405-8906, Conference Access Code: 2808516 #

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=40653

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Local NC citizens fight Sinclair!
www.SinclairWatch.net