Sinclair backpedaling on airing "Stolen Honor"

[Fla Dem]

Sinclair to Air `A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media'
October 19, 2004 3:54:00 PM ET


BALTIMORE, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sinclair Broadcast Group SBGI announced today that on Friday, October 22, 2004 at 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. central time) certain television stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. will air a special one-hour news program, entitled "A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media." In order to minimize the interruption of normally scheduled programming in those markets where Sinclair owns and/or programs more than one television station, the news special will be broadcast on only one of those stations. A complete list of stations which will be airing the program and the times of such broadcasts is attached.

The news special will focus in part on the use of documentaries and other media to influence voting, which emerged during the 2004 political campaigns, as well as on the content of certain of these documentaries. The program will also examine the role of the media in filtering the information contained in these documentaries, allegations of media bias by media organizations that ignore or filter legitimate news and the attempts by candidates and other organizations to influence media coverage.

Contrary to numerous inaccurate political and press accounts, the Sinclair stations will not be airing the documentary "Stolen Honor" in its entirety. At no time did Sinclair ever publicly announce that it intended to do so. In fact, since the controversy began, Sinclair's website has prominently displayed the following statement: "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."

more..........

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.asp?Feed=PR&Date=20041019&ID=4038212&Symbol=US:SBGI

[robbedvoter]

1. Just putting lipstick on the pig. Now we'll be attacked as well.

[judge_smales]

2. But what they are going to air is just as bad.

So I;m not sure how much of a victory it is.

[eddiebrowns]

3. Date changed to Friday because.................

I know that they'll say it's because now that they are not just showing the whole "crockumentary" with little input from newspeople; now they are showing clips from it and having a panel discussion, thus requiring more time to prepare. BUT, here's my theory: Peter Gammons of ESPN's Baseball Tonight has called tonight's BoSox-Yanks game 7, "the most anticipated baseball game in history". So the pervs at Sinclair said, "hey let's show it on Friday-those people in the Midwest all stay home on Fridays anyway!" Oh Yeah??(love the educated retorts) Now, they'll be going up against High School Football-let me tell you about Ohio and their love affair with HS football-they'd get more viewers tonight than they will get on Friday. Unless people tape the show, the ratings at Sinclairs stations in Ohio will be abysmal!

[mom cat]

4. Will this be available online?We need to watch what they put on and be

prepared to blast any distortion and political bias.