Owner of Sinclair's "Stolen Honor" production company is a Bush appointee

[EarlG]

Thanks to new DUer pk_du for this information:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1036078#1044803

I have compiled it into a single post. This is important. This guy certainly gets around.

This is the address of Quantum Communications, the production company of "Stolen Honor":
Red, White and Blue Productions
C/O Quantum Communications
123 State St.
Harrisburg, PA 17101
Phone [phone]
http://stolenhonor.com/contact.asp

This is the man who owns Quantum Communications:
Mr. Charles R. Gerow
Law Offices of Charles R. Gerow
Reagan/Bush Campaign Field Staff, 1980
Reagan Alumni Association
Active involvement in numerous campaigns
Advance work in 6 Presidential campaigns
Alternate Delegate at Large, 1988
Dole for President, surrogate speaker,1996
Candidate for U.S. Congress
Lawyers for Bush, 2000
Principal, Quantum Communications
Adjunct faculty of several Pa. colleges
http://www.rnla.org/bio/BioDetail.asp?MemberID=733

He ran for Congress as a Republican in 2000:
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/charlie_gerow.asp

He was a Pennsylvania delegate to the GOP Convention in New York
"I don't like smoking bans. I'm a guy who believes in freedom," said Charlie Gerow, a cigar-smoker and delegate from Harrisburg, Pa. "Doesn't every civilized person enjoy cognac with a good cigar after dinner? I miss that here."
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040829-114527-6443r.htm

"I think the president's plan is exactly what the country needs right now," 19th Congressional District delegate Charlie Gerow said. "The president understands the importance of allowing people to keep their hard-earned money instead of sending it to Washington, D.C."
http://ydr.com/story/election/39373/

JUST ADDED: He's a member of Pennsylvania's Reagan Legacy Project State Advisory Committee
http://www.reaganlegacy.org/state_committees/

JUST ADDED: He's the president of the Penn Center, a "conservative think tank"
"The governor tried to put the Republican legislature between the dog and fire hydrant," said Charles R. Gerow, president of the Penn Center, a conservative think tank in Harrisburg. "But the Republicans, filled with jolt of testosterone, uncharacteristically did the right and smart thing."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20031218-103231-8658r.htm

JUST ADDED: Republican "party activist"; "political heavyweight"
"I've always been with Arlen in past, but I'm with Toomey this time because I think he is a conservative who can win -- that's what I look for," said Charlie Gerow, a party activist and one of the few political heavyweights in the state who backs Mr. Toomey.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20040409-123822-6379r

JUST ADDED: Documentary maker Sherwood also has ties.
As the Kerry campaign will quickly point out, Sherwood has "ties" to the Bush administration, having served in media services for former Gov. (and now Homeland Security Secretary) Tom Ridge in Pennsylvania. He is executive vice president of WVC3, a Virginia company involved in security and counterterrorism work. "There has been absolutely no discussion, association, communication or coordination at all with the Bush campaign," said Charlie Gerow, a spokesman for Sherwood's production company. Said Sherwood: "I am a registered independent. This is not political, it's personal."
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:1gXotPLXuOsJ:www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/wooten/2004/091104.html+%22Charlie+Gerow%22+bush&hl=en

He's doesn't just own the production company, he's the publicist for "Stolen Honor":
The controversy over the anti-John Kerry ads aired by the swift boat vets has settled to a low boil, but the issues could take on new life and a new direction on September 9 with the premiere in Washington of a for-profit documentary called Stolen Honor. "I believe this is going to be the documentary of 2004," says Charlie Gerow, publicist for the film. "Forget about Michael Moore."
http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2004-09-09/news/news_print.html

HE'S A BUSH APPOINTEE
The President intends to appoint Charles R. Gerow, of Pennsylvania, to be a Member of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Commission. (Recommendation submitted by the Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031024-7.html

[Stephanie]

1. Media blast time

This guy needs to be called out, and Rove too.

[kentuck]

2. Damn !

Sort of like the Swift Boat people....

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Time to blast the mainstream media

Also, has this been sent on to the Kerry Team?

[AnIndependentTexan]

6. I just posted it on their forum, however, we need to let them know

[Texas_Dem]

4. Are these people stupid or morally corrupt?

Or both? How can these people think that their connections back to the White House won't be discovered and exposed? I suppose they have done it for so long and gotten away with it, they think that it does not matter any more.

This one needs to be blasted away.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Excellent digging.

Very good job. Rust it to Kerry-Edwards.


Harrisburg...hmmm...center of a theory about 9-11 aircraft passenger switches. Nice coincidence.

[in_cog_ni_to]

7. Copps needs to read this!

The FCC needs this! I'll send it to them. Unbelievable.

[tjdee]

8. But but, these veterans deserve to be heard, what are you people?

Holocaust deniers?
:eyes:

Great find, pk_du.

[AnIndependentTexan]

10. The sad thing is I think Kerry was aware of this.

These idiots don't understand that the whole reason Kerry put his war record up there was to give them a chance to be heard. Then they prevert everything he does. Bush is evil and isn't it ironic when a neo-con talks about Holocaust? Maybe we should remind them of Karl Rove and his family connection to it.

[Chiyo-chichi]

9. PA Governor

Edward Rendell is a Dem, right? Not that the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Commission shouldn't be non-partisan, but somebody should make Rendell fully aware of Gerow's activities & call him to task for appointing this smear merchant.

Preferrably one of Rendell's constituents... hint, hint, any DUers in PA.

[Stephanie]

11. Just sent it to the DNC

Howard Wolfson was great on this last night on the Newshour.

Just blogged it too. Send this out to the blogosphere!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. Combined with the HOMELAND SECURITY CONTRACT that

Carlton Sherwood's company got...a trail of money for this film leads right back to the White House...taxpayer funds were used to make this film and promote it.

[EarlG]

13. kick

[starroute]

14. More on Gerow -- particularly his campaign supporters

For more details on the links below, see a thread developed over the weekend at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1024263


Gerow's supporters when he ran in the 1998 congressional primary included:

Richard Mellon Scaife (http://garciapublicaffairs.com/htm/Scaifecont98-90.htm)

Gary Bauer (http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/05/19/primaries and http://www.atr.org/opeds/tas/tas0798.html)

Grover Norquist and Ed Meese (http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/05/05/cq/goodling.html)


The online listing of his 2000 contributers (http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/charlie_gerow.asp) includes some more obscure but equally revealing names:

Lewis Lehrman -- long time right-winger (he invested in Arbusto Energy in 1977! -- http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Arbusto%20Energy) and founder of a pro-Reagan lobbying group called "Citizens for America" which had connections with the Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute (http://www.lew82.com/candidate/citizens/main.html).

Jack Abramoff -- a Bush "Pioneer" (http://www.stealthpacs.org/agent.cfm?agent_id=4920), headed Lehrman's pro-Reagan lobbying group, formerly on the RNC -- plus a whole lot more, including producing whitewashes of the South African apartheid regime and being involved in Indian casinos with mob-related figures (http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/ContributorsAndPaybacks/pioneer_profile.cfm?pioneer_ID=834).

Frank J. Donatelli -- long-time Republican activist, worked with Jim Baker going back to 1978, including assisting Baker on the 2000 Florida recount (http://www.mwcllc.com/people/individuals/donatelli_f.asp)

Ronald Robinson -- another Republican activist, active in the campaigns of John Ashbrook, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, James Buckley, and Oliver North (http://www.reaganranch.org/leadership/bios/ron_robinson.htm and http://www.buildingequality.us/ifas/cnp/bios/robro.html).

[starroute]

16. Gerow and Lawyers for Bush

It may or may not be significant, but Gerow is also listed as a member of Lawyers for Bush 2000 (http://www.rnla.org/bio/BioDetail.asp?MemberID=733).

This sounds like the same group that Harry MacDougall ("Buckhead") was connected with in Georgia:

"I attended a meeting on Tuesday to organize lawyers for Bush-Cheney in my state to monitor and if necessary litigate election issues," he said in a Buckhead posting last month.

http://www.tigerboard.com/boards/missouri-tigers.php?message=1762038


In the course of the Buckhead threads, questions were raised about whether this organization might be a center of electoral dirty tricks and possibly the means by which MacDougall got his assignment to "expose" the CBS memos.

[starroute]

20. A third point of interest -- Shirley and Bannister

I found this story on "Stolen Honor" at -- please forgive me -- Free Republic, but it originally appeared in a local PA newspaper and includes a few paragraphs that seem highly significant:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1212098/posts

While the stories of the POWs sounded legitimate, the Kerry campaign warned that the group has a shady history.

"This group is the poor, distant cousin of the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush," said Mark Nevins, a spokesman for the campaign. "It’s comprised of people with questionable backgrounds whose sole mission in life is to smear John Kerry."

Nevins pointed out that Sherwood, who also narrates in the film, was arrested for illegally taping a conversation in 1983 and falsely accused the Vietnam veterans of mishandling the $9 million they were granted to build the Vietnam War Memorial in 1984.

Nevins also suggested Sherwood was another right-wing conspirator who hired Republican public relations firm Shirley and Bannister to help market their product.


When I Googled on Shirley and Bannister, I found something interesting on a message board. The direct link doesn't want to paste correctly, so please do this Google search and then click the link that comes up there:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=firefox-a&q=%22Fire+Up+the+Slime+Machine%2C+Scotty&btnG=Search

Fire Up the Slime Machine, Scotty by Joe Conason

March 9, 2004 | As strategists in both parties gird for what all expect to be an unusually nasty presidential election, the stage has been set by the revival of a conservative crew that might be called "the usual suspects" -- including consultants Floyd Brown, Craig Shirley and David Bossie. With new Web sites and fundraising vehicles already running, these veterans of the "vast right-wing conspiracy" against the Clintons are now launching the first wave of "independent" commercial attacks on John Kerry, the Democratic nominee-to-be.

<snip>

Meanwhile, Grassfire.com, a new "grass-roots" outfit overseen by Beltway insider Shirley, has produced an ad that claims Kerry is "more liberal than Ted Kennedy." Aside from "nonpartisan educational" groups like Grassfire, his clients have included the Republican National Committee, the Republican Majority Committee, the American Spectator, the Club for Growth, the Conservative Political Action Committee, the Federalist Society, the National Rifle Association, News World Communications and the Washington Times Foundation.

<snip>

Craig Shirley, who presides over a large, Virginia-based P.R. firm with his wife, Diana Banister, played a less prominent but no less toxic role during the Clinton years. Among Shirley's notable clients were Paula Jones, the Clinton sexual harassment accuser who later modeled for Penthouse; and Gary Aldrich, the retired White House FBI agent whose fabricated tales of Clinton motel trysts and pornographic West Wing Christmas trees made his book a bestseller.

Yet as Kerry has reason to know, these operatives didn't commence their unsavory careers during the Clinton era. In 1988, they made political history with their first intervention in a national campaign, the so-called Willie Horton commercial. ... The Horton ad appeared not as part of the Bush-Quayle campaign, whose strategists shied away from such obvious racism, but under the auspices of a shadowy organization called "Americans for Bush." According to testimony filed with the Federal Election Commission, which investigated the financing and planning of the Horton ad in 1990, the ad's actual creators included Brown and Shirley. ...(FEC commissioners and investigators strongly suspected unlawful collusion between Bush-Quayle and Americans for Bush, but Republican members of the commission quickly killed the probe.)

[starroute]

30. The significance of Gerow's 2000 list of supporters

The striking thing about the people who supported Gerow in 2000 is that they are not just a random bunch of names. Most of them have long-standing connections with one another and with a powerful faction of the extreme right that has in the past been particularly involved in supporting overseas groups with racist or even fascist connections, such as the Contras and the South African apartheid regime.

For example, here's some info on Lewis Lehrman:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/lehrman/lehrman.html

Lehrman is a former drugstore executive turned conservative economic theorist turned Heritage Foundation big wig. He helped found Citizens for America, which was formed in 1983 by various conservative heavy hitters such as Holly Coors (the wife of Joseph Coors) to promote conservative causes. According to GroupWatch, CFA “worked closely with Oliver North in North's Contra supply efforts,” organizing briefings by Contra speakers that targeted congressional offices and encouraged congressional members to vote Contra aid. CFA was also the principal U.S. sponsor for a 1985 meeting of anticommunist ‘freedom fighters’ held in Angola.

According to the same page, Lehrman is on the board of directors of the Project for a New American Century, on the boards of trustees of both the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, and belongs to the Council for National Policy. He also ran for governor of New York against Mario Cuomo in 1982. And, of course, there was that partnership in Arbusto Energy:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1111/is_1797_300/ai_59086099/print

With assistance from his uncle Jonathan Bush, a personable Wall Street financier, George W. assembled a limited partnership of two dozen investors. The Arbusto partners included George W.'s grandmother Dorothy Bush; Rite Aid drugstores chairman Lewis Lehrman, then a rising force in New York Republican politics; William Draper III, a corporate executive and family friend who was later appointed to head the Export-Import Bank; and James Bath, a mysterious Houston aircraft broker who appears to have been fronting for several Saudi Arabian sheiks.

In short, Lehrman is a powerful figure very near the heart of the New Right -- a strange name to find on the contributions list of an unsuccessful challenger for a congressional seat in central Pennsylvania.

It's also interesting that there seems to be a shift between 1998 and 2000. The 1998 names come from the relatively low-rent district of the right -- anti-Clinton, anti-tax, and religious right figures. The 2000 names, like Lehrman, are much closer to the Republican Party and to the real centers of power.

[starroute]

32. There's an Opus Dei connection as well

Here's a BuzzFlash piece from a year ago:

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/11/con03352.html

"In Washington there is a group called the Catholic Information Center for Opus Dei. Now, you think I'm going to start getting into the Da Vinci Code, but it's scarier than that. The Center is run by a priest named Robert McCloskey, and his program is to purge, he believes, 80 percent of Catholics from the church in America. He says, "There's a name for Catholics who dissent from church teachings. They're called Protestants."

And in Washington at this Center, he has involved in his political activities the following people who he has personally baptized into his set—Robert Bork, Robert Novak, the conservative pundit, Lawrence Kudlow, who you may see on MSNBC as a financial expert, Alfred Regnery, the chief conservative publisher in the country, financier Lewis Lehrman, U.S. Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, whose baptismal sponsor was the leader of this group in the Senate, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who, I'm sure you all remember, saying to a very surprised Associated Press reporter that he was against "man on dog sex."


Besides Lehrman, Alfred Regnery is another name of interest. He published the anti-Kerry "Unfit for Command," published Gary Aldrich's anti-Clinton book back in the 90's, and even published Carlton Sherwood's Moon whitewash in 1991. His family has a long tradition of extreme right-wing activity.


The line-up of conservative groups today isn't what it was in the 80's or 90's. The more grassrootsy small-government and religious right types seem to be less active. Instead, we're seeing the Neocons, a certain style of reactionary Catholic, and military-industrial complex agitators like Sherwood's current partners working together in support of American imperialism and against the American traditions of freedom and individual rights. There's a definite whiff of fascism about the whole enterprise that's enough to make you nostalgic for the simple old days of the Moral Majority. And this Gerow/Sherwood/Sinclair lineup seems to be part of it.


On edit: Lehrman is a member of the Knights of Malta as well.
http://www.mosquitonet.com/~prewett/ncrmay891113.html

And, no, I don't know if any of this is relevant. But there's a mystery here -- the question of who's *really* behind "Stolen Honor." I don't believe for one moment that it's Karl Rove. I think it's probably a small group of significant individuals on the near-fascist right. And I'm damned well determined to find out who they are.

[yardwork]

33. Ron Robinson is also a Catholic - see my post below

[myrna minx]

15. This is damning stuff.

Great research pk_du. :toast:

[progressivebydesign]

17. I'd like to know about the money given to Sherwood for the govt website.

That's STILL in question. Sherwood landed a FAT contract to develop www.firstresponder.gov . The website was NOT online in March 2004, as expected (it's still not online). At some point, a very scary company called, "Plexus Scientific" was given a 1.9 million dollar add on to a task order to produce the www.firstresponder.gov website.

So.. where is the website? Did Sherwood get the money? Did Plexus get the contract? and $1.9 million dollars for WEBSITE?????????????

Sherwood, himself, is quite a connected guy. Former employee of Tom Ridge, and then he gets a fat contract from Homeland Security to do an imaginary website.

Oh.. and NICE to know that our first responders, and homeland security is a priority.. they dole out the money, and have nothing to show for it.

[mcg]

25. More on Sherwood and firstresponders.gov

<http://mediamatters.org/items/200409100003>

"As Catchegory documented, Pennsylvania Insider editor Al Neri noted in the June 2003 Insider that Sherwood is "a former Ridge confidant and administration official" who was "tapped to create and manage a new Fed website -- www.firstresponder.gov -- a key Bush Administration public outreach program directed to the more than 8 million police, fire, EMS and emergency management personnel nationwide." (Firstresponder.gov is not yet operational. According to the American Public Works Association, it was supposed to be live by March 2004, but it has apparently been delayed.) In February 2002, Ridge heaped praise on Sherwood at a National Press Club luncheon."

<http://www.catch.com/comments/34140_0_17_0_M>

"That article was dated June 2003 and according to this document (PDF file) the site was supposed to go live on March 2004, but so far ... nada. But it's not like we're in any hurry or anything. Take your time. You've got documentaries to produce. And a whole bunch of history to cover up."

[Kierkegaard]

18. kick

:kick:

[rawstory]

19. RAW STORY followup: They also provide rental space

Just called Quantum.

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=342

They also provide rental space and handle checks. It's probably wrong though to say they're the production company, unless that's the term people use for PR firm.

[starroute]

21. It isn't at all clear who really did produce the film

Sherwood's "Red, White and Blue Productions" seems to be a purely on-paper firm. I couldn't find any mention of other productions by them, the only address ever given for them is c/o Quantum Communications, and their only spokesnman appears to be Charlie Gerow.

The funding is also a mystery. Online sources all claim that the film cost only about $200,000 and was funded by unnamed veterans. I don't really think it was done with government money -- among other things, Gerow appears to have been with Homeland Security for only a few months in 2001-2002 -- but I would like to know where the idea and funding originated.

Sherwood is a journalistic hack, who had one moment of glory in 1980 and then became involved in a lot of questionable attempts to recapture it. Gerow is a small fish who isn't even on good terms with the mainstream of the Pennsylvania Republican Party. Somebody from outside threw this assignment their way, along with the financing and connections to complete it. I'd love to know who that somebody was.

[newyawker99]

22. ...

[danm8r]

27. I'm a newbie... Hug Me!

I've wasted too much time at Hannity trying to knock some sense into their empty heads...

[annabanana]

29. BIG hugs!

And a hearty hello! Welcome to DU
:toast:

about knocking at Hannity..... No sense knocking when there's nobody home.

[myrna minx]

34. Welcome to DU, danm8r!

:hi:

[TwentyFive]

23. Thanks for this info...the GOP is a threat to democracy

This has the mark of KarlRove all over it.

ush is way too stupid to even conceive of the idea.

[DemocracyInaction]

24. I'm terribly afraid that this Sinclair group is not going to be stopped

There will be some lame hand slapping after the elections where the FCC, etc. will condemn them. I truly don't think anything is going to stop them and the FCC will do squat under Powell...total squat.

[George_S]

35. That's OK

We may or may not stop them from airing the "film," but even if we don't, the backlash will be so strong, and all the connections to the GOP and the Heritage Foundation will be so pronounced, that the backlash will be a fireball against them. It is already happening.

More important, we can see the "vast" right wing conspiracy isn't so vast after all, but is merely a few well connected neocons who have a lot to gain from war.

We can't lose on this one, and it may result in the reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, and we know who that will put of business.

[TomClash]

26. Huh?

He was a Pennsylvania delegate to the GOP Convention in New York
"I don't like smoking bans. I'm a guy who believes in freedom," said Charlie Gerow, a cigar-smoker and delegate from Harrisburg, Pa. "Doesn't every civilized person enjoy cognac with a good cigar after dinner? I miss that here."

There are only like 1000 private clubs in NYC where you could light up.

[yardwork]

28. One of Charlie Gerow's campaign contributors is Ron Robinson

President of Young America's Foundation, a huge and extremely right-wing organization. Ron Robinson's wife is Michelle Easton, founder of the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute, another extremist group. Both these people and their organizations have multiple links to both Bush administrations. Apparently they live in Reston, VA.

Remember Scott Robinson, the Wharton student who was identified by friends as the green-shirted man kicking an ACT-UP protester on the floor of the Republican National Convention event? Scott Robinson is involved in a lot of ultra-right organizations on the Wharton campus and elsewhere. In his blog he mentioned hosting W and Laura at his "summer apartment" in Virginia. His parents reportedly live in Carlisle, PA.

I wonder if Scott Robinson, kicker of women lying on the floor, is related to Ron Robinson, right-wing extremist and contributor to the campaign of Charlie Gerow?

[HootieMcBoob]

31. The researchers at DU never fail to impress!

:yourock:

[George_S]

36. Google this...

WVC3 "Carlton Sherwood"

Edit: Google News too.