Sinclair Broadcasting - again

<http://www.dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040927/NEWS09/409270338/1001/NEWS>

It's called "The Point." It's a one-minute commentary broadcast on the 62 U.S. television stations owned by Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group. It appears in Iowa on Des Moines' KDSM, a Fox affiliate, and on Cedar Rapids' KGAN.

The host is Mark Hyman, Sinclair's spokesman and head of corporate relations. In nine of the last 12 segments - each clearly labeled commentary - Hyman has sharply criticized presidential candidate John Kerry.

Federal records show Sinclair's chief executive, David Smith, and a Sinclair political action committee donate regularly to Republican candidates. Sinclair is the broadcast group that declined to air the ABC News program "Nightline" on April 30 because it felt Ted Koppel's recitation of the names of soldiers killed in the Iraq war was a political statement.

He just recites Republican email talking points.

"The Des Moines Fox station gets about 30 complaints a week about "The Point" - but that's fewer than the complaints it receives about National Football League scheduling, said Julie Quick-Alcorn, assistant to general manager Mike Wilson."

OK, time for Des Moines area DUers to make some noise. I have a Sinclair station in my town and I refuse to watch the local news (which carries Hyman's "commentaries"). I complain to them often and most people I've talked to at the station are sympathetic but claim their hands are tied by the corporation.

Since I don't watch their news, I've stopped paying any attention to ABC shows.

This p.o.s. comes on my TV at the height of the "bush did not do his gaurd" stuff and says John Kerry needs to release his military records! Come on!

I think in our E-mails to both the Des Moines station and the Cedar Rapids one (news channel 2--a CBS affiliate, we need to tell them that our concerns in our E-mails will also be sent to the sponsors of the news cast and ALL our address book members to get them to stop watching the channel till "the point" is gone.

I'll do mine by tonight. I'll try to watch to see who the advertisers are at 10:00, but I hope I don't miss a new Daily Show.

I sent another complaint off this morning to www.kdsm.com. I had previously emailed them about this guy and I quit watching their local news. But, then again, I have stopped watching all local news.