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Edited on Tue Oct-19-04 04:18 PM by ann_coulter_is_a_man
press release:
----------------------------------------------------------
MEDIA ADVISORY
October 19, 2004
Nader Challenges Sinclair Station Managers to Defy Orders
When: Wed., Oct.20
Where: See list below
Washington, D.C. The independent presidential campaign of Ralph Nader
and Peter Miguel Camejo is urging managers of Sinclair Broadcasting
Group stations to defy the orders of CEO David Smith to broadcast a
so-called “news commentary” on John Kerry just days before the election.
A team of Nader/Camejo Corporate Crimebusters will deliver letters to
this effect to 16 local station managers in 12 states on Wed., October 20.
Smith’s demand that local broadcasters pre-empt regular primetime
programming with what is essentially ideology masquerading as
information is a crass attempt to exploit control of the public airwaves
to promote a private political agenda, and is a flagrant example of how
our democracy is being swamped by the confluence of money, politics and
concentrated media.
Sinclair Broadcasting Group has taken advantage of increasingly relaxed
FCC regulations under the Bush administration to expand its media
empire, and is now owner of the single largest group of television
stations in the country, reaching an estimated 24 per cent of U.S.
households. Sinclair executives have paid for this privilege with
$65,000 in political contributions to Republican candidates since the
beginning of 2004, and a total of $300,000 over the past decade,
according to FEC filings.
The company’s overt involvement in partisan politics is not new. Back in
September 2001, Sinclair required affiliates to broadcast messages
conveying their full support for the Bush administration. In July 2003,
it refused to let stations air a DNC ad countering Bush’s State of the
Union contention that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Niger. It
aired purportedly legitimate news stories that it was later revealed
were actually written, produced, and paid for by the Bush
administration. Last April, Sinclair ordered its ABC affiliates not to
air Nightline’s tribute to U.S soldiers killed in Iraq lest it quell
public enthusiasm for the protracted occupation of that country.
Sinclair’s attack on the democratic process, which relies on an informed
electorate, is the most egregious example to date of the pressing need
to reclaim our democracy from the accelerating grip of big-money
politics and concentrated corporate media. This requires real campaign
finance reform, which means public financing of public elections; some
free access to ballot qualified candidates on television and radio;
vigorous antitrust regulation and enforcement; ending broadcasters' free
licensed use of the public airwaves; and the reversion of some organized
time on our publicly owned airwaves to establish audience-controlled
radio and TV networks to ensure the diversity of voices and solutions
necessary for a really free press and a true civic democracy.
A team of Coporate Crimebusters will deliver letters to station managers
at the following locations on October 20:
Alabama: Birmingham WTTO, WABM, WDBB, 651 Beacon Pkwy, at 2:00 pm.
California: West Sacramento KOVR, 2713 Drive, at 2:00 pm.
Florida: Tampa WTTA, 7622 Bald Cypress Place, at 2:00 pm.
Iowa: Cedar Rapids KGAN, 600 Old Marion Road, NE, at 10:30
Des Moines KDSM, 4023 Fleur Drive, at 2:00 pm.
Maine: Portland WGME, 1335 Washington Ave., at 2:00 pm.
Massachusetts: Springfield WGGB, 1300 Liberty Street, at 1:00 pm.
Michigan: Flint WSMH G-3463 W. Pierson Road, at 2:00 pm.
New York: Grand Island WUTV, WNYO, 951 Whitehaven Rd., at 4:00 pm.
Rochester WUHF, 360 East Avenue, at 1:00 pm.
Syracuse WSYT, WNYS, 1000 James Street, at 10:00 am.
North Carolina: Asheville WLOS, WBSC, 110 Technology Drive, at 2:00 pm.
Ohio: Columbus WSYX, WTTE, 1261 Dublin Road, at 10:00 am.
Cincinatti WSTR 5177 Fishwick Drive, at 2:00 pm.
Tennessee: Nashville WZTV, WUXP, WNAB, 631 Mainstream Drive, at 2:00 pm.
Wisconsin: Madison WMSN, 7847 Big Sky Drive, at 2:00 pm.
Corporate Crimebusters is a Nader for President Campaign initiative that
brings electoral politics back to the grassroots. Its 20 teams are
spread out across 38 states to shine a spotlight on local issues and
reach the silenced majority—those 50% of the electorate who do not
bother to vote because they have been effectively disenfranchised by a
duopolistic party system in the thrall of big corporate interests. It is
time for people to take their government back from the big money
controllers who call the shots for both major parties.
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