Will Sinclair and allies try to spin this as blocking their free speech?

On reviewing the brouhaha over Sinclair's plan to air the Kerry-bashing documentary virtually on the eve of the election, it occurred to me that the GOP spin will almost certainly be, "What's Kerry afraid of? He can run but he cannot hide!" Never mind that the GOP team flooded the airwaves and the press with whining about the Reagan movie and succeeded in getting it banished to Showtime.

Any thoughts on this and how to fight that, too?

... keep hammering the point home that Bush has FAILED as president.

Anti-Bush filn.

it's scary

campaign contributions, whether in cash or in kind, are always considered as free speech by these people, unless it was a campaign contribution from a labor union to a Democrat, then by God, we need paycheck protection legislation, now!!!

then you brought up at least one point we can come back at them with about the Reagan miniseries. Network refusal to run "issue oriented ads"(remember the Super Bowl and Moveon.org?) is another blatant violation of free speech. So in the words of bushie, bring it on!

They aren't the same as cable. Sinclair has the privilege of using OUR air waves, just like we have the privilege of driving on OUR streets. If we abuse the privilege, we lose our license. He's abusing the privilege, you can't run free campaign ads under the guise of news. It's the underlying basis of everything that's wrong in this country today. Corporate control of the media, and it is NOT liberal.

Americans really don't demand their rights or even fair treatment. Advertisers and a few big corporations control our airwaves.

I feel a "Network" moment coming on...

The SC has ruled that money is speech. If I boycott Sinclair and their advertisers, then I'm exercising my free speech.

24.

or maybe let Kerry make his own 'news story' to air.

We know they are attempting to subvert a presidential election.

Which means they should NOT be in possession of a broadcasting license.

It's that simple. None of their arguments are worth spit or listening to. This is the bottom line. Look 'em straight in the eye and say "License revocation."

Make no attempt whatsoever to argue on their terms.

Maybe if they hadn't already given so much money to the Republicans, they could argue free speech. Maybe.

But this isn't about free speech. It's about the public airwaves being co-opted for partisan use. It's about an attempt to subvert an election.

These people should not be allowed to hold public airwaves hostage.

Revoke their licenses.

when there is no fire. What they want to say is not news, not opinion, but flat out lies.

You can get arrested for yelling FIRE in situations like that.

There was a nice discussion on one of the shows last night with two lawyers. The exemptions being relied by Sinclair from the FCC and the FEC regulations both require that this show be "bono fide news." A claim that this speech is protected by the First Amendment is not consistent with that legal position.

If Sinclair drops the claim that this show is "news" then Sinclair will have to give equal time or report this as a campaign contribution.

Hell, they are getting direct barking orders from Rove.