Stolen Honor is the issue, not Sinclair.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

I think that this focus on Sinclair, on punishing Sinclair is misguided.

The movie will run, and the Kerry campaing needs to address it, head-on.

In fact, they need to start addressing it now! Premptive strike.

[ibegurpard]

1. Sorry, but you're wrong

this goes WAY beyond Kerry. This is an abuse of the public trust by a corporation this is given a license to use the PUBLIC airwaves. It should be opposed RELENTLESSLY by people of ALL political persuasions.

[Trajan]

4. You are BOTH right ....

and hence you are both wrong ....

BOTH issues are important ... neither exclusive of the other ....

There should be a STRONG 'pre-emptive' attack by Kerry's campaign against the insinuations of 'Stolen Honor', as well as an attck against Sinclair for misuse of public airwaves and violation of the public trust ....

BOTH are valid arguments: dont discard either one ...

[ibegurpard]

6. I amend my statements

You are correct.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

7. OK, Ill buy that.

Sinclair is broadcast, so there are those public trust ethics involved.

Im just saying to just focus on Sinclair and not be prepared to meet the challenge/attack posed by this movie seems to be a mistake, as people will be talking about/asking questions because of the movie...

[NewYorkerfromMass]

19. The Sinclair thing is definitely the focal issue

It's like Swift Boat Vets on steroids. A complete abuse of the public airwaves.
They are both important but not equally so. Sinclair is BY FAR the priority right now, Stolen Honor will be the next target.

[Booster]

25. If Sinclair wanted to be "fair", they would offer to air either

Michael Moore's movie or "Going Upriver" under the same circumstances; forced on everybody. ha, like that would happen.

[secular_warrior]

29. Exactly. Why doesn't our side ever seem to "get" the big picture ?

This is much, much bigger than this election.

Murdoch and his Fox News Channel was allowed to get away with something unheard of -putting a political slant on NEWS; it is basically a propaganda arm of the GOP. If a smalller player like Sinclair is able to get away with such bullying, fascist behavior -- it will only be a matter of time for this type of thing to be the RULE instead of the exception. We must put up the fight of our lives to stop this thing here and now. Then we must work to break up and regulate Big Media - the biggest threat to democracy.

It won't really matter if Kerry get's elected if the Sinclairs and FOXes of the world are allowed to continue/ and or escalate their fascist behavior. They will simply use their propaganda machine to destroy him in office if they fail to do it now. Like I said, this is much bigger than this election.

[LittleClarkie]

35. Indeed, any response to Stolen Honor itself

will have to come from Kerry, or not at all. It didn't matter much what we said about the Swiftees when the campaign wasn't responding.

But what Sinclair is able to do is scary. This we can affect, while still working on the campaign, mind you. Don't take your eyes off the real prize.

Even so, if I have a dull moment, I may do some POW research.

[Bush was AWOL]

2. I disagree

it's sinclair. Stolen honor can play wherever else it wants, but should not be permitted to be played on Network telivision right before and election. Movie theatre? Fine by me. Pay per View? Fine by me. ABC in battle ground states? Not fine by me. It's sinclair not Stolen Honor.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

5. So Clear Channel can ban the Dixie Chicks and its fine, huh.

It seems there is a moral equivilance here.

Cenorship for thee but not for me.

[secular_warrior]

31. This is less about censorship and more about fascism

Clear Channel shouldn't ban the Dixie Chicks or any other artist for their views.

In general, nothing should be banned simply for it's viewpoint, political or otherwise. Stolen Honor should be allowed to be aired, just as F911 should be.

But when it comes to elections there are special ethical considerations:

1. A media company should not use public airways to enforce a political agenda.
2. Equal time - media companies should allow major candidates equal time.
3. News should never be slanted.

This situation is not analagous to the Dixie Chicks being banned, which was an unfair censorship issue. This has to do with a corporation attempting to control government (which is the definition of fascism) by using the public airwaves.

[Old and In the Way]

3. So what is the opposition's point to Kerry?

That Kerry should have shut up and stayed inline and support a corrupt and unwinnable war? Not enough American's died? We didn't kill enough VietNamese?

When are they going to have to justify their opposition to the Peace movement?

[KharmaTrain]

8. Very, Very Wrong

Look closely at this company and see how this is a total abuse of their licenses, and this isn't the first time they've done it. If they air this as a "news" program, fairness and balance across the broadcast and cable spectrum is completely compromised to the highest bidder and to those with the deepest pockets.

Unlike the cable channels that aren't government regulated, Sinclair owns very valuable broadcast licenses that belong to you, not them. In theory, if you don't like CNN, you can start your own Faux (which is what they did), but TV licenses are limited and the prices are kept artificially high by companies like Sinclair to make lots of money and keep others out.

It's time to pull the curtain away at our "public media"...and this includes the abuse by religious groups as well...who are licensed to serve ALL the members of a community, not just a few...that's why it's called broad, not narrowcasting.

Off soap box...done for the night...drive safely!

[hippiegranny]

9. I disagree

Sinclair should definitely be punished for their abuse of the public airwaves, and I sincerely hope they do not get away with this.

As for "Stolen Honor" that BS will hopefully go the way of the swiftliar credibility, but without all the cablenews giving it free publicity. Which, if you think about it, it has already gotten plenty of publicity. Maybe that was the whole point. These guys have SUCH twisted, cheating hearts.

[AntiCoup2K4]

10. Stolen Honor, and Sinclair are the symptoms, as was the blatant CNN stunt.

....yesterday, when their satellite feed conveniently went dead when airing a pro Kerry response to the Sinclair propaganda.

But these are merely symptoms of the overall illness : a corrupt corporate media regulated by nobody - especially not the Federal Agency charged with that responsibility, the FCC, which is under the nepotism-spawned dictatorship of Colin Powell's son.

During the primaries, Kerry didn't seem to share Howard Dean's opinion of the importance of a return to a fairly regulated media. I hope he's seen the wisdom in that position by now (as he has some other things Dr Dean was saying at the time) and makes it a high priority in his administration.

[RafterMan]

11. Wrong

This is media usurping democracy.

Enough is enough.

[seabeyond]

12. i think sinclair is above and beyond the issue

the abuse of their trust in running our airwaves. the abuse of their power to influence an election. the taking over what is fed to the american people in propaganda. a step closer to fascism

the show, is lies, we know this and can be proven

[BootinUp]

13. I disagree

The last thing we need is to talk about essentially a 60 minute swift boat ad. It should be denounced as discredited just like the swift boat ads. And we SHOULD raise the issue of fairness in the media and Sinclairs misuse of the airwaves. It could pay dividends in future battles to reveal them for what they are.

[chimpymustgo]

14. Exactly. We should not even mention the "ad".

This is corporate abuse of power and abuse of the public trust. It is a clear violation of FCC and FEC rules.

[troublemaker]

15. couldn't be more wrong

Sinclair is the issue, not Stolen Honor.

Kerry will never, and should never, say a word about the film.

[vetwife]

16. Nude Bush dancing on a table 35 years ago might be interesting !

Report THAT !

[Crunchy Frog]

17. Completely disagree.

This is a complete abuse of publicly owned airwaves for partisan political propaganda. It would be just as wrong if it were F9/11 that they wanted to show, and you can be damned sure that they would be stopped if that were the case.

[Zynx]

18. What Sinclair is doing is the first true example of fascism in this countr

y.

[evilqueen]

20. It's not only about Sinclair airing Stolen Honor, it's also about...

Sinclair refusing to air Nightline when the names of the KIAs were going to be read aloud.

Sinclair is the problem. It's TWO (not one) incidents of bias and partisanship.

[Giornovichi]

21. is it really a bad thing?

I haven't seen the Stolen Honor movie yet.
What does it say? It says it just chronicles his anti-war activies following his two tours in Vietnam? When he went on Dick Cavett and whooped on O'Neil, and helped end the Vietnam war... isn't that going to help him?

Won't the public want to see that young guy stand up to the government and help end an unpopular war.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

24. Documentaries tend to editorialize from a certain POV

and this one is definitely anti-Kerry in case you missed the title.

[evilqueen]

26. If they want to see him stand up to the gov't...

... to help end an unpopular war, there's already a documentary movie out about that created by George Butler (best known for his highly acclaimed films Pumping Iron, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition), which is now playing in theatres and is also available for download FREE online. Butler is a recognized documentary filmmaker, not a political shill.

Download it here:
http://www.thekerrymovie.com /

Movie's official site here (find out where it's playing):
http://www.goingupriver.com /

Roger Ebert's Review here:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AI...

DVD will be available for sale on Oct. 19th, I think. Check the official movie site for details.

Oh, and I was wrong about Sinclair. This is NOT the second incident, it's one in a long list of incidents. Find out more about that here:
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF...
and a .pdf file here:
http://www.sinclairwatch.org/sinclair_report.pdf

[Rose Siding]

22. There's not time to teach the whole country about Vietnam

Three weeks isn't long enough for a national discussion about the Vietnam War. I wouldn't have thought it would ever be necessary. Wasn't "Platoon" a big hit? "Apocalyse Now"? I thought *everyone* had already accepted enough of the brutal reality of what we did there.

I don't get why this looks like a big tidal wave coming, but it does.

How do we reintroduce the morality of a 35 year old war along with the dozen other things that need Kerry's focus? Three weeks...

[goodboy]

23. Sinclair has a history of Republican boot-licking and...

need to be held accountable for breaking the law. Secondly, Kerry should never dignify this absolute bullshit with so much as a fart in their general direction. Third, this election is a referendum on Bush's record and pissing around with this would only distract him from the task at hand, which is to spank Shrubby all the way back to Crawford.

[goodboy]

33. #23 is good...:)

[evilqueen]

27. *kick*

for the morning crowd.

G'morning!

[sherilocks]

28. The level of responses here is impressive...

It shows a level of understanding of the Sinclair issue that I wish the general American population had. It's the principle of what they're doing, not specifically Sinclair that we're after. Not that I wouldn't want to see Sinclair go down the tubes.

[bowens43]

30. There is nothing to address.

This is nothing more than a smear campaign by a bunch of right wing nut jobs. Sinclair IS the issue. At stake is whether or not public air waves can be used as a weapon against a particular candidate or a political ideology. This is not an isolated incident.

[Giornovichi]

32. would equal time be o.k.?

Would it be enough if Sinclair broadcasting gave the Kerry spokesman 42 minutes to respond?

[harpo]

34. BS...I'm going after them...

I want to send a CLEAR MESSAGE that I don't put up with abusing the PUBLIC AIR WAVES! Just in case there are others who have similar ideas...