ABC Affiliates Told Not to Air 'Nightline'

[Johnny Stew]

Originally Posted by dissention

Sinclair is evil and has no right to censor the public airwaves. This is complete and utter ****.

I'll still be able to see it on the Boston ABC channel, but I just find this absolutely disgusting.

Frankly, the whole thing has me baffled, because I was convinced that it was only a liberal agenda that existed amongst the media and media corporations.

[dissention]

Originally Posted by Johnny Stew

Frankly, the whole thing has me baffled, because I was convinced that it was only a liberal agenda that existed amongst the media and media corporations.

No ****!

[dissention]

Okay, here's the statement from Sinclair:

"There is no organization that holds the members of our military and those soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in service of our country in higher regard than Sinclair Broadcast Group. While Sinclair would support an honest effort to honor the memory of these brave soldiers, we do not believe that is what "Nightline" is doing. Rather, Mr. Koppel and "Nightline" are hiding behind this so-called tribute in an effort to highlight only one aspect of the war effort and in doing so to influence public opinion against the military action in Iraq. Based on published reports, we are aware of the spouse of one soldier who died in Iraq who opposes the reading of her husband's name to oppose our military action. We suspect she is not alone in this viewpoint. As a result, we have decided to preempt the broadcast of "Nightline' this Friday on each of our stations which air ABC programming."

If ANYONE would like to contact Sinclair or their owner, Mark Hyman, please try calling this number:

410-568-1565

When you call, you'll hear a recording from that schmuck Hyman that says he's unavailable. However, press '0' and ask for his assistant Jan at ext. 1504. The phones lines are jammed up, but if you wait long enough or keep trying, you should get through to someone.

You can also call this number, 410-568-1500, and ask for any one of these men:

Mark Hyman
Bob Smith
Duncan Smith
Fred Smith
Bill Butler
Barry Drake

You can also fax them at:

410-568-1533

If all of these options fail you, contact these people and express your disdain for this garbage:

Investor Relations Contact
Lucy A. Rutishauser
VP Corporate Finance and
Corporate Treasurer
[email protected]

Sales Questions
Darren Shapiro
VP Sales
410-568-1500

Jeff Sleete
VP Marketing
410-568-1500

Web Site Concerns
Mike O'Malley
Corporate Webmaster
[email protected]

And don't forget that you can call your local ABC station. These are the ones that are censoring Nightline:

St. Louis
Columbus, Ohio
Asheville, N.C.
Charleston, W.Va.
Greensboro, N.C.
Pensacola, Fla.
Tallahassee, Fla.
Springfield, Mass.

Show your support and BREAK THE HYMAN!

[dissention]

http://www.americanprogress.org/site...J8OVF&b=6228#1

MEDIA
Sinclair's Cynical Agenda

Tonight, ABC's "Nightline" will pay tribute to U.S. troops killed in Iraq by airing a 40 minute special – the names of the fallen will be read by anchor Ted Koppel as their photographs appear on screen. But Sinclair Broadcast Group – the country's largest owner of TV stations – will not allow its ABC affiliates to air the show. In a statement, Sinclair claims the special "appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." While Sinclair claims it is pre-empting Nightline because it is an attempt to "influence public opinion," the record shows that Sinclair media has repeatedly leveraged its control over the airwaves to manipulate public opinion in favor of President Bush's right-wing agenda.

SINCLAIR REQUIRES JOURNALISTS TO READ PRO-BUSH STATEMENTS: In September 2001, Sinclair Broadcasting required its affiliates to air messages "conveying full support" for the Bush administration. At a Baltimore affiliate, WBFF "officials required news and sports anchors, even a weather forecaster, to read the messages, "which included statements such as "[the station] wants you to know that we stand 100% behind our President." Several WBFF staffers objected on the grounds that reading the statements would "erode their reputations as objective journalists" because it made them appear to be "endorsing specific government actions."

SINCLAIR REFUSES TO AIR AD HIGHLIGHTING 2003 BUSH ERROR: In July 2003, Sinclair Broadcasting refused to allow WMSN TV – its FOX affiliate in Madison, WI – to air a DNC advertisement that featured a clip of President Bush making the false claim "Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa" in his 2003 State of the Union Address. Three other Madison stations, including ABC, NBC and CBS, readily agreed to air the ad. The Madison CBS affiliate, WISC, said the advertisement was "no worse than any other political ad."

SINCLAIR PRODUCES CENTRALIZED RIGHT-WING CONTENT FOR 'LOCAL STATIONS': In a controversial business practice, Sinclair Broadcasting has fired much of the staff for the local affiliates it owns, instead producing content for its local stations from a central facility outside Baltimore which it then airs on "local" news broadcasts. The centralized content features nightly commentary by Sinclair corporate communications chief Mark Hyman. Hyman regularly refers to the French as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," the so-called liberal media as the "hate-America crowd," and progressives as "the lonely left" On one recent commentary, Hyman called members of Congress who voted against a recent resolution affirming the righteousness of the Iraq war "unpatriotic politicians who hate our military." You can see all of Hyman's commentaries this month HERE. (Read more from American Progress about the problems of media consolidation.)

SINCLAIR AIRS FAKE NEWS BROADCASTS PRODUCED BY BUSH ADMINISTRATION: In March, it was discovered that the Bush Administration was producing "television news stories, written and paid for by the government, which have the appearance of legitimate news segments delivered by independent reporters," and distributing them to local newscasts as a way of promoting administration policies – including its ill-conceived Medicare prescription drug law. On the broadcasts, a public relations professional named Karen Ryan pretended to be a reporter. Among the stations which aired the administration propaganda as news: WPGH in Pittsburgh "the Sinclair Broadcasting station that fired much of its news staff in favor of feeds from a centralized newsroom in Baltimore."

SINCLAIR EXECUTIVES MAJOR BUSH CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS: Sinclair executives have contributed more than $16,500 to President Bush since 2000. This year, Sinclair CEO David Smith gave President Bush the maximum $2000 contribution. Before soft money contributions became illegal, Sinclair Broadcasting gave more than $130,000 to the president's political allies but no money to his opponents.

WOLFOWITZ NEEDS TO WATCH NIGHTLINE TONIGHT: One person who should be sure to tune into Nightline: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. Appearing yesterday before a congressional committee, Wolfowitz was asked how many soldiers had died in Iraq. Revealing a shocking insensitivity about the extent of the casualties in Iraq in the highest reaches of the Pentagon, Wolfowitz replied "It's approximately 500, of which - I can get the exact numbers - approximately 350 are combat deaths." In fact, 722 American troops have died during operations in Iraq – 521 from combat.

[dissention]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04080/288764.stm

She's not a reporter -- she just plays one on TV
Saturday, March 20, 2004

By Dennis Roddy

Karen Ryan was happy to hear my voice.

"At least you called to ask if I'm a real person," she said. After a week of being called everything from an actress to a hooker, a little self-doubt was inevitable.

Karen Ryan, who was once a TV reporter, opened a public relations business in Washington. One of her specialties was the "video news release." Industry groups or government agencies with a story to tell and the money to get it told would hire her to produce one- or two-minute TV "news" reports. She would do friendly interviews, slip in a mention of a product or program, then send it off to TV stations.

She ended each report with, "In Washington, this is Karen Ryan reporting." That's how she closed a spot touting the Bush administration's new Medicare prescription package, commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But this is an election year. Someone noticed the self-promotional spot and, in no time, the General Accounting Office opened an investigation and the public howled indignantly.

The focus of public fury is, as usual, the least blameworthy target. Ryan has been called a phony. One newspaper editorial told people that, if they see her, don't believe her. Chris Matthews, onetime chief of staff for Tip O'Neill, used the term "hooker." When Tip O'Neill's fixer calls you a hooker, that's got to hurt.

The problem here is that, aside from the Department of Health and Human Services, Ryan has done reports for an array of industry groups. She has "reported" on the virtues of Excedrin, laser eye surgery, frequent flier programs, even the FluMist that became a hot item this year as the supply of flu shot vaccine dwindled.

"Stations are lazy," she said. "If these things didn't work, then the companies would stop putting them out."

It's not only laziness. Television stations cut corners to maximize profits. Instead of paying a correspondent to cover Washington, it's cheaper to plug in a wishy-washy video shilling Excedrin, and end it with a familiar voice.

Karen Ryan's voice got very familiar. Stations in Tampa, Sacramento, Baltimore, North Carolina -- wherever the need arose for a quick segment of free "journalism" -- fed her to unsuspecting viewers.

On KMAX in Sacramento, she told viewers of the 9 p.m. show about how frequent flier miles were becoming easier to use, and interviewed a spokesman from Capital One, a credit card vendor, to show how. In Atlanta, WAGA aired her report on the new Medicare prescription benefits program. Viewers in Tampa turned to WTSP and learned why money spent now on seeing a doctor saves money later. In Pittsburgh, WPGH, the Sinclair Broadcasting station that fired much of its news staff in favor of feeds from a centralized newsroom in Baltimore, offered Karen Ryan on Aug. 16.

But along with laziness and thriftiness, never discount plain cluelessness.

Carol Michel, senior executive producer at WTSP, assured me her station rarely uses video news releases without the proper treatment.

"We seldom use them. If we do use them we would for certain re-track it. We would have one of our anchors re-read it," she explained. So, Karen Ryan's voice would vanish and a local "reporter" would dub the thing.

So much for the "if-only-we-had-known" defense.

"When video news releases go out to television stations they are clearly identified," Ryan said. Her Health and Human Services-financed piece, for instance, was titled "The Government Answers Your Questions on Medicare."

"Every television station that takes a video release knows there's a client behind them," she said.

Now that she has been denounced as a Bush administration plant, Ryan doubts she'll be doing any more of this work. One of the tasty ironies is that Karen Ryan isn't even sure she's voting for Bush. She touted the Medicare bill, but when I asked her if she thought it was a good bill, she replied, "I have no idea."

And the woman who planted sponsored news reports about FluMist on dozens of stations has one other confession. She opted for the shot, instead.

She got the flu anyway.

[dissention]

Republican Values
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
August 17, 1996, Saturday, SOONER EDITION

David D. Smith, president and chief executive officer of Sinclair Broadcast Group, was arrested this week in his hometown of Baltimore and charged with a misdemeanor sex offense. Sinclair owns WPGH, the Fox affiliate in Pittsburgh, and programs most of WPTT.

The Baltimore Sun reported that Smith, 45, was arrested Tuesday night in an undercover sting at a downtown corner frequented by prostitutes.

On Thursday night, Sinclair issued a statement that Smith's arrest was unrelated to company business and ''The company will continue to operate under the direction of its current management.''

Broadcasting official charged in sex stakeout; Sinclair president, woman arrested in company car
Published on: August 15, 1996
Edition: FINAL
Section: NEWS
Page: 2B
Byline: SUN STAFFPeter Hermann

372

The president of Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which owns the local Fox television affiliate, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with committing a perverted sex act in a company-owned Mercedes, city police said.

David Deniston Smith, 45, of the 800 block of Hillstead Drive in Timonium, who also is Sinclair's chief executive, was arrested in an undercover sting at Read and St. Paul streets, a downtown corner frequented by prostitutes, Baltimore police said yesterday.

Smith and Mary DiPaulo, 31, were charged with committing unnatural and perverted sex act. Smith was held overnight at the Central Booking and Intake Center and released on personal recognizance at 2 p.m. yesterday. DiPaulo's bail status was not available.

Officials at WBFF-TV (Fox 45) and Sinclair, one of the fastest-growing broadcasting companies in the nation with 28 television and 34 radio stations, would not comment yesterday. The company had $126 million in sales in the first half of this year.

Police said undercover Officer Gary Bowman, on a prostitution detail, was talking to DiPaulo about 9: 15 p.m. in a car at St. Paul and Read streets. She left the undercover car after telling Bowman that ``she had just seen her regular date driving in the area,'' according to court documents.

Police said DiPaulo ran across the street to a 1992 Mercedes, registered to Sinclair, and got in on the passenger side. Police followed the car onto the Jones Falls Expressway, where they said they witnessed the two engage in oral sex while Smith drove north.

Police said they followed the car back to Read and St. Paul streets, where they arrested Smith and DiPaulo, who lives in the 700 block of Washington Blvd.

[Johnny Stew]

In Pittsburgh, WPGH, the Sinclair Broadcasting station that fired much of its news staff in favor of feeds from a centralized newsroom in Baltimore, offered Karen Ryan on Aug. 16.

This doesn't surprise me at all, since... just as your latest post states... WPGH is our local Fox affiliate.

[estranged4life]

a sad "Reality" check IMO...I cannot imagine how those who lost loved ones felt.