Variety: Copps (of the FCC) tickets Sinclair

[tuvor]

Originally posted yesterday under LBN, but without the FCC in the subject line. Another DU'er suggested this story needed more attention, so I'm reposting.

John Dempsey, STAFF

NEW YORK -- FCC (news - web sites) commissioner Michael J. Coppsattacked Sinclair Broadcasting on Tuesday for its plan to force its 62 TV stations to carry a primetime documentary critical of Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) during the week before Election Day, calling the decision "an abuse of the public trust."

"And it is proof positive of media consolidation run amok," Copps said in a statement, "when one owner can use the public airwaves to blanket the country with its political ideology -- whether liberal or conservative."

The docu, "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," criticizes the young Kerry's political activities immediately after his service as a Swift Boat captain during the Vietnam War, when he appeared on television and before congressional committees to testify that some American soldiers committed atrocities in Vietnam.

Sinclair officials didn't return phone calls seeking comment, but the company's VP Mark Hyman has said the docu charges the North Vietnamese used Kerry's antiwar statements as an excuse to torture American prisoners of war.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/variety/20041012/va_tv_ne/copps_tickets_sinclair_2