Sinclair Broadcasting Group, owner of numerous television stations throughout the nation, including Fox 47 in Madison, decided it would soon pre-empt blocks of each of its stations' prime time schedules in order to air an anti-John Kerry documentary.
The independently produced documentary, titled \Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal,"" focuses on Kerry's post-Vietnam antiwar activities and concludes that his testimony resulted in numerous deaths of prisoners of war. In it, the narrator asks, ""Were John Kerry and his fellow antiwar activists responsible for lengthening [POWs'] imprisonment and, in doing so, causing the deaths of men who might otherwise have survived?""
""The more people that see this film, the more people have a clear understanding of the record of John Kerry, and I think that's an important thing,"" said Charlie Gerow, president of Quantum Communications, a public relations firm representing Red, White and Blue Productions, which produced the documentary.
Sinclair, owner of 62 stations and who the Democratic National Commitee's Web site notes for its conservative leanings, told its stations to air the documentary instead of their normal prime time broadcast sometime within the next two weeks. It will air in numerous battleground states, including Ohio, Florida and Wisconsin, according to CBS. In April, Sinclair blocked its ABC affiliates from airing a Nightline episode in which Ted Koppel read aloud the names of soldiers who died in Iraq.
This decision drew much ire from the Kerry campaign. The DNC filed a complaint against Sinclair Broadcast Group and said what was being done was an ""illegal in-kind contribution.""
""It is unfortunate that a major media corporation would choose to run a documentary like this, which is full of falsehoods and untruths, and is little more than a partisan hatchet job on John Kerry's record of service in Vietnam,"" said George Twigg, Wisconsin spokesperson for the Kerry campaign. ""The real point is what you have is a major media company which instead of providing its audience with actual news and information about the campaign, they're basically providing Republican propaganda that has been discredited and proven untrue on a number of levels.""
Gerow questioned the DNC's motives to prevent the airing of the program.
""What is John Kerry afraid people will see: Why is John Kerry afraid people will watch this film?"" Gerow asked.
There is little the Kerry campaign can do to stop Sinclair from airing this program. Since Red, White and Blue Productions is an independent production company, which received no funds from the Bush campaign, Sinclair is free to air the program and not violate Equal Time laws.
""I don't think there's anything prohibiting a station from doing whatever they want,"" UW-Madison journalism professor Jack Mitchell said. ""These are Sinclair-owned stations, so they own them, so they can make the choices.""
Fox 47 and the Sinclair Broadcast Group could not be reached for comment.
