Sinclair In The Spotlight

• Share

What caused the Sinclair Broadcast Group, whose top executives have been large contributors to President George W. Bush and the Republican Party, to seemingly backtrack on plans to air a documentary attacking Senator John Kerry? Stolen Honor, in which some Vietnam veterans assail Kerry's antiwar activism, had reportedly been scheduled to air on 62 Sinclair affiliates. Instead, on 40 affiliates Sinclair aired A POW Story on Friday, a "news special" that drew on portions of Stolen Honor but also delved into the way politics and the media influence one another. Sinclair denies any about-face, saying that the company had never made a final decision to air the entire documentary. But there was, without any doubt, a last-minute scramble. On Friday afternoon, just hours before airtime, the program was still being edited. Earlier in the day Sinclair had nabbed George Butler, who directed and produced the pro-Kerry documentary Going Upriver, for an interview and garnered permission to use parts of his film.

Everyone from shareholders to Senators had protested the original plans, but some of the most effective reaction came from websites like Boycottsinclair broadcasting.com and Stopsinclair.org. Left-leaning bloggers like Daily Kos and Talking PointsMemo.com pointed thousands of readers to online petitions. A list of 200 major Sinclair advertisers and investors, with phone numbers and email addresses, made the virtual rounds. "We got $83,000 in donations our first day," says Arkadi Gerney, founder of Stopsinclair.org. "For us, that's big money."

In three days, Stopsinclair.org raised enough for full-page newspaper ads opposing Sinclair in four swing-state markets. Burger King announced it would pull ads from Sinclair stations, and $90 million was wiped off the value of Sinclair shares, though the stock rebounded after Sinclair altered its broadcast. Sinclair officials claim opponents hurt their own cause. "They turned what would have been a relatively minor story in 25% of the country into a much larger story in 100% of the country," says Barry Faber, vice president and general counsel at Sinclair. "If they had just let us do the show, it would have been a minor event."