Maine: WGME loses ads over plan to air anti-Kerry film

[Iceburg]

WGME loses ads over plan to air anti-Kerry film

By RAY ROUTHIER, Portland Press Herald Writer

WGME's plan to air a documentary critical of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry prompted three Maine companies Thursday to pull their advertising from the Portland TV station.

Hannaford supermarkets, the Lee Auto Malls, and the law offices of Joe Bornstein withdrew their advertising indefinitely from WGME (Channel 13) over its plans to air "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" on Oct. 23.
...more http://business.mainetoday.com/news/041015wgme.shtml

[NotShocked]

1. Sinclair/WH are getting what they deserve

Sinclair made a couple of bad deals with some bad people thinking that they had so much control, and now they are about to realize that THEY ARE DEPENDENT on others and don't have all the power.

[Political_Junkie]

2. WooHoo!

This is great news!

[R Hickey]

3. Madison Wisconsin is doing it to channel 47.

Lets see if we Democrats can boycott all 63 Sinclair stations right off the air.

[ClintonTyree]

4. That's the only thing these morons will understand.................

hit them on the balance sheet, and hard. Take money away from a Conservative and you've got their attention. Honesty, integrity and the like mean nothing to these people. MONEY however, not only talks to them, it SCREAMS!

[MaineDem]

5. Thank goodness!

Weve been inundating the sponsors and the station. Glad to see it's having some impact.

[truthisfreedom]

6. greedy weasels think that by sucking on bush they can get infinite power.

what they forget is to think like real businesspeople, not scum. bush has created chaos and corruption in corporate America at an unprecedented level.

[peacefreak]

7. Good news!

I am a directly affected by this decision. Hopefully, as Maine goes, so goes the nation.

[reprehensor]

8. Think and act locally.

It's working.

[gavodotcom]

9. All I gotta say is:

[Judi Lynn]

10. They're going to lose a respectable chunk of change for this!

They companies sound damned serious, too. Thank goodness they seemed to treat this subject seriously. They need to know there are a whole lot of Democrats who don't like seeing our candidate trashed by this fraudulent hate campaign.

[wicket]

11. WOO HOO!!!!

[Flammable Materials]

14. Is Sinclair backpedaling? Or putting up smoke and mirrors?

This notice is on the front page of their website:



We welcome your comments regarding the upcoming special news event featuring the topic of Americans held as prisoners of war in Vietnam. The program has not been videotaped and the exact format of this unscripted event has not been finalized. Characterizations regarding the content are premature and are based on ill-informed sources.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry has been invited to participate. You can urge him to appear by calling his Washington, D.C. campaign headquarters at
[phone].

if you would like to make further comments on this matter, you may do so at:
[e-mail]


Here is the letter I wrote them this morning:


You are not fooling anyone with the statement on the front page of your website. Sinclair Broadcasting Group crams its partisanship down the throats of its viewers. You do it every night at the end of each news program. You did it by censoring "The Fallen". And you're about to do it once again with your upcoming smear-piece on John Kerry.

Unlike Sinclair Broadcasting, I do not believe in censorship of viewpoints that are different from my own. As far as I'm concerned, you are free to air whatever you wish. But I do believe in the old saying that "you reap what you sow". This is still America, and nobody is stopping you if your business model involves alienating advertisers and viewers. Nobody, that is, except your shareholders.

[wicket]

15. Great letter!!!

Keep us updated if you get a response :)

[AngryOldDem]

17. This is what was on their comment line

Exact same wording.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

26. Wow!! Your letter is definitely "flammable"! Great work!

[sniffa]

12. awesome

is this because of concerted efforts to hit their sponsors?

[Justice]

13. Or call the companies that are local to you

Hannaford's is based in Maine, but have stores thoroughout New England. So calling them works even if you were outside of Maine.

For example, I am calling Dunkin Donuts - based in Massachusetts but listed as an advertiser on Sinclair stations.

Also, people need to let Hannaford's know that we are shopping there because they pulled the ads. Not only would we boycott them, we will do the positive - buy stuff there b/c they responded.

Also, I saw Lowe's on the list. Lowe's supports Democrats. Even though not local to any station, I would think calls to Lowes would be helpful.

[trogdor]

21. Hannaford is my fave local supermarket.

In central New York. Has been for a long time. No "shopper cards" or other nonsense. Now I have even one more reason to shop there.

[AngryOldDem]

16. Major advertiser is threatening to do the same in Dayton, OH

Partner in a law firm that advertises heavily on the Sinclair-owned station here says that he will "never spend another dime" on Sinclair if the affiliate here airs the film. His firm pays out nearly $200,000 a year on ads. This could be a big hit to this station, which is consistently a ratings loser locally.

Is it worth it, Sinclair?

[holiday]

19. well

I wrote to them too. Hope it does good.

[mac56]

18. Further proof that advertisers hate controversy.

nm

[tallydem]

20. Two have pulled out of Sinclair so far in Tallahassee

At least two advertisers have pulled out of the Tallahassee Sinclair station so far
http://tallahassee.indymedia.org/feature/display/4807/index.php

[Blue Gardener]

22. This is the response I got from a furniture store (Iowa)

Sounds like they may have something in the works. The station in question is KGAN in Cedar Rapids. Slumberland is a huge advertiser.

"Thank you for contacting Slumberland. We appreciate your concerns regarding the Sinclair Broadcast Company's decision to air the John Kerry movie. We have contacted the station's management and are taking appropriate action in this matter. Slumberland cannot comment on the details of this action at this time."

[Lerkfish]

23. In Dayton, a MAJOR law firm withdrew advertising earlier....

http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/columns/daily/1015mary.html

(requires free registration, so here's four paragraphs snipped from the column)
-------------------
The managing partner for the law firm Dyer, Garofalo, Mann and Schultz was watching WKEF-TV News 22's 11 o'clock newscast when he caught "The Point," the nightly conservative diatribe from Mark Hyman. (Many viewers presume that Hyman is a local commentator, but he's actually vice president of the Baltimore-based media giant).


Dyer, who serves on the local Kerry Finance Committee, watched in amazement as Hyman launched into a vitriolic attack against Sen. John Kerry's service in Vietnam. His gut reaction: "This is the station on which I spend more than $200,000 a year in advertising."

snip

Dyer said he has been deluged with calls and e-mails in the past couple of days, urging him to drop his advertising with the station. "If they air the show, I will never spend another dime on Sinclair Broadcasting," Dyer said. "Everybody has the right to free speech. As an advertiser I have the right to spend my money as I choose."
------------

I realize this is a column, but its not the thread starter, and the reporting is more like a news story, hope that's ok.

[ticapnews]

24. Commentary in Portland Press Herald

By Bill Nemitz

The words appear, over and over, at the bottom of WGME-Channel 13's newscast: "This is Your News . . . This is Your News . . . This is Your News . . ."

Sure it is.

If this were truly our news, WGME General Manager Alan Cartwright wouldn't have been "in conference" all this week, unable or unwilling to return calls from inquiring minds who want to know what it's like to work for Sinclair Broadcasting Group Inc. - and thus be a front-line warrior in the crusade to smear the Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. John Kerry, only 10 days before the election.

We can only assume that it's no fun. Sinclair's "request" that all 62 of its affiliates run "Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal" - a hatchet job on Kerry's post-combat opposition to the Vietnam War - has reduced station executives like Cartwright to automatons whose job security begins and ends with their ability to hit the "play" button.

more...
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/nemitz/041015nemitz.shtml

[DesEtoiles]

25. there is some decency left in America

[jimbot]

27. I've met Shep Lee before

And I can tell you that although he probably isn't involved much with the day to day operations of Lee Automalls, he is probably more than upset with WGME. He is a wonderful, caring person and hats off to the Lee family.

--JT

[DemocracyInaction]

28. hehehe...was a part of this

Bingo!!! We've swamped these advertisers and they are big advertisers in Maine. Also, I've hit WGME itself with protest about this Hyman Nazi (and I called him a Nazi). I've gotten lots of responses back from WGME begging me to still watch them and telling me that Hyman has nothing to do with their news reporting, etc. I basically replied that if you are going to lie down with swine, your probably going to get drowned in the mud when the pig rolls over. I'd love to see them run out of business for this.

[ticapnews]

29. ***Hannaford reverses position***

Hannaford has issued a statement on their website reversing position from the article published in the paper this morning:

http://www.hannaford.com/political_broadcast.htm

Hannaford's position on political broadcast

Hannaford has indicated that following its announcement yesterday that it had pulled its advertising from WGME (Portland, ME), based on the stations plans to air a controversial political program, it had reversed its decision.

"We recognize that WGME has been placed in an untenable position," corporate spokesperson Caren Epstein said. "It was never our intention to politicize this issue even more by our action. Hannaford is in the supermarket business, not the political business," she said. "We make our media buying decisions based on our customer demographic and WGME is one of the stations in the market that reaches our customers."

---

Cowards.