McCain Letter to Sinclair Broadcast on Preemption of Nightline
Fri Apr 30 2004 11:29:49 ET
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) issued the following letter today to Mr. David Smith, President and CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group, in response to the preemption of this evening's Nightline program:
I write to strongly protest your decision to instruct Sinclair's ABC affiliates to preempt this evening's Nightline program. I find deeply offensive Sinclair's objection to Nightline's intention to broadcast the names and photographs of Americans who gave their lives in service to our country in Iraq.
I supported the President's decision to go to war in Iraq, and remain a strong supporter of that decision. But every American has a responsibility to understand fully the terrible costs of war and the extraordinary sacrifices it requires of those brave men and women who volunteer to defend the rest of us; lest we ever forget or grow insensitive to how grave a decision it is for our government to order Americans into combat. It is a solemn responsibility of elected officials to accept responsibility for our decision and its consequences, and, with those who disseminate the news, to ensure that Americans are fully informed of those consequences.
There is no valid reason for Sinclair to shirk its responsibility in what I assume is a very misguided attempt to prevent your viewers from completely appreciating the extraordinary sacrifices made on their behalf by Americans serving in Iraq. War is an awful, but sometimes necessary business. Your decision to deny your viewers an opportunity to be reminded of war's terrible costs, in all their heartbreaking detail, is a gross disservice to the public, and to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly deserves.
-end-
I liked McCain,
but lost a lot of respect for him,
bush treated him like a bitch in the primaries,
and McCain took it,
and supports the man today.
in a thread on fark about this people pointed out that the head of Sinclair is a big bush donator and supporter
yes, if anything, sinclair is playing politics.
there's also stuff about how sinclair is sick of all the negative news coming out of iraq and they're doing a "good news" campaign
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Quote:The dynamic duo contend that the liberal media outlets have failed "to balance the bad news with the good" with respect to the Neocon-inspired invasion and occupation of Iraq.
"On the team of 'good news' commentators about Iraq, I would recommend to Sinclair three of the biggest warmongering members of the U.S. Congress: Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX). All of them pushed, like mad dogs, for a U.S. war with Iraq. These three are typical of a revolting clique of political pygmies that have come to infest the Congress of our once-proud Republic."
Leiberman, however, did concede that it takes "a little bit of digging to find good news" about Iraq.
Who cares what a station chooses or doesnt choose what to air. At least he's not being led along like the rest of the sheep of ABC, blindly airing all the shit that the network feeds them
that's more of your sarcasm, right?
Quote:Who cares what a station chooses or doesnt choose what to air. At least he's not being led along like the rest of the sheep of ABC, blindly airing all the shit that the network feeds them
Right, Sinclair Media is
completely unbiased.
I do wonder why Bush supporters are so up in arms against Ted Koppel reading the names of American soldiers who were killed in Iraq. There are plenty of people, like
Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, who are simply not aware of how many American soldiers have died thus far in the war against Iraq.
Mr. Koppel should be praised in his effort to inform the American people, and Paul Wolfowitz, of the facts on the ground.
Now here's where The Jays, pwned once again, tells me to lighten up, instead of discussing the issue...
McCain is right.
The funny thing about my opinions on politics: I NEVER follow politics. I don't watch it. I have no interest in all the little scandals and bickering back and forth. So my opnions are really based just on my philosophy and not on specific events or facts surrounding a current issue.
I just don't watch the news anymore, it's annoying and all everyone does on both sides is whine about everything.
McCain has been in war. He knows what it's about. You can tell how sincere he is when it comes to this issue. The fact that Bush was nominated over him just shows how dumb most of our country is.
One also has to wonder what the benefactors of so much money think of the head of Sinclair:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
August 17, 1996, Saturday, SOONER EDITION
David D. Smith, president and chief executive officer of Sinclair Broadcast Group, was arrested this week in his hometown of Baltimore and charged with a misdemeanor sex offense. Sinclair owns WPGH, the Fox affiliate in Pittsburgh, and programs most of WPTT.
The Baltimore Sun reported that Smith, 45, was arrested Tuesday night in an undercover sting at a downtown corner frequented by prostitutes.
On Thursday night, Sinclair issued a statement that Smith's arrest was unrelated to company business and ''The company will continue to operate under the direction of its current management.''
...more
Broadcasting official charged in sex stakeout
Sinclair president, woman arrested in company car
Published on: August 15, 1996
Edition: FINAL
Section: NEWS
Page: 2B
Byline: SUN STAFFPeter Hermann
372
The president of Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., which owns the local Fox television affiliate, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with committing a perverted sex act in a company-owned Mercedes, city police said.
David Deniston Smith, 45, of the 800 block of Hillstead Drive in Timonium, who also is Sinclair's chief executive, was arrested in an undercover sting at Read and St. Paul streets, a downtown corner frequented by prostitutes, Baltimore police said yesterday.
Smith and Mary DiPaulo, 31, were charged with committing unnatural and perverted sex act. Smith was held overnight at the Central Booking and Intake Center and released on personal recognizance at 2 p.m. yesterday. DiPaulo's bail status was not available.
Officials at WBFF-TV (Fox 45) and Sinclair, one of the fastest-growing broadcasting companies in the nation with 28 television and 34 radio stations, would not comment yesterday. The company had $126 million in sales in the first half of this year.
Police said undercover Officer Gary Bowman, on a prostitution detail, was talking to DiPaulo about 9: 15 p.m. in a car at St. Paul and Read streets. She left the undercover car after telling Bowman that ``she had just seen her regular date driving in the area,'' according to court documents.
Police said DiPaulo ran across the street to a 1992 Mercedes, registered to Sinclair, and got in on the passenger side. Police followed the car onto the Jones Falls Expressway, where they said they witnessed the two engage in oral sex while Smith drove north.
Police said they followed the car back to Read and St. Paul streets, where they arrested Smith and DiPaulo, who lives in the 700 block of Washington Blvd.
Sir O Wrote:Quote:Who cares what a station chooses or doesnt choose what to air. At least he's not being led along like the rest of the sheep of ABC, blindly airing all the shit that the network feeds them
Right, Sinclair Media is completely unbiased.
I do wonder why Bush supporters are so up in arms against Ted Koppel reading the names of American soldiers who were killed in Iraq. There are plenty of people, like Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, who are simply not aware of how many American soldiers have died thus far in the war against Iraq.
Mr. Koppel should be praised in his effort to inform the American people, and Paul Wolfowitz, of the facts on the ground.
Now here's where The Jays, pwned once again, tells me to lighten up, instead of discussing the issue...
Hey dick, did I say they were unbiased? I said the affiliates have the choice whether to run the network programming or not, and if they feel that programming is against certain values they hold or whatever, they can adjust accrordingly. How is that exactly a bad thing? Maybe there are stations that lean left, and maybe there are stations that lean right; are you ever gonna get straight shooting from the news media? Do you trust the media for your news?
And automatically, you assume that I'm against reading these names on the air. Why don't you take your pwnage and go fuck yourself. I did tell you to lighten up, because all you do on this board is respond the several debate threads that come along every once an a while and seem to have some uncanny desire to pontificate how incredibly smart you are when it comes to all these political issues.
I have stated more times than naught how little I know on many issues, and yet I offer my opinion anyway, and have asked numerous questions hoping to guide my own opinion making decisions, yet when I do, I know I am going to regret it because I dread it when you eventually post in the thread and go on a rampage to prove just how little I know. And I know that this must be your pasttime, that you must jump at the opportunity to prove morons wrong. I imagine you trying out for the Special Olympics just becaue you can beat all the mongoloids in running. You must crap you pants with joy when one of us morons actually decides to give some opinion in these threads. It must be the only thing that gives you joy on this board, since you never post in any other forum that we have. Not in Laz's, not in sports, I seen one in the radio thread, never in any other threads in The Pit. Your only joy comes from putting others down intellectually, and that is why I told you to lighten up.
Jays, this is an internet messageboard. Here's a fact: you might not ever meet me, or you might. So don't give a crap about when or where I post, cause I don't give a crap about you. I'll post in sports or music or the pit, it doesn't matter, and if I go a few days or a few weeks without posting, I hope you don't care. I'm not a central part of the board - I guess you think you are - I won't dispute that, you post more than I do, but fuck you for pulling some superiority shit.
I've posted in the sports forum, and to be honest, I don't think there are many here with my baseball knowledge. Other sports, sure, but baseball, no. And challenge me on wrestling before 2 years ago when it got so bad I just stopped watching....I still have the tapes so I'll still own your ass.
But Jays, I'm not trying to make you look bad. But when you say **SHIT THAT IS NOT TRUE** I will speak up and say you're wrong. Sorry when you're wrong, you're wrong. And you're wrong, often.
I bet I can do pretty well against you in baseball trivia
ok, someone create 10 or 20 random baseball trivia questions and we can both PM our answers to him and he can grade them. No cheating!
Damn I wish I could even come up with one baseball trivia question that Google can't answer.
I promise I won't use Google, and I trust you will do the same.