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News :: Media |
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Sinclair phones flooded with censorship protests |
Current rating: 15 |
by nytimes via gehrig
Email: zemblan (nospam) earthlink.net (verified) |
01 May 2004
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"For most of the day it was impossible to get calls through to the main number at the company's headquarters in Baltimore." |
Debate Over 'Nightline' Tribute to War Dead Grows, as McCain Weighs In
By BILL CARTER
Published: May 1, 2004
The decision by the Sinclair Broadcast Group to pre-empt a broadcast of "Nightline" devoted to reciting the names of every member of the military killed in action in Iraq ran into a torrent of protest yesterday from viewers, media watchdog groups, and one prominent veteran of the Vietnam War, Sen. John McCain.
Senator McCain made public a letter he had sent to the chief executive of Sinclair, one of the country's largest owners of local television stations. He wrote that he found Sinclair's removal of the "Nightline" news program from the eight ABC affiliates it owns "deeply offensive."
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"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," he added. "It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly deserves."
ABC was able to secure alternate options for viewers in six of the eight cities affected, including St. Louis, Mobile, Ala., and Columbus, Ohio.
The controversy surrounding the "Nightline" broadcast comes as the news media focuses increased attention on the cost of the war. News reports have highlighted that more members of the armed forces were killed in April than in any other month of the war. Yesterday, at least two newspapers, USA Today and The Washington Post, displayed rows of photographs of the war dead. The New York Times published a page of photographs of war dead on April 15.
Sinclair, whose top executives have made substantial donations to Republican politicians and which has editorialized on its stations in favor of the war in Iraq, said earlier this week that the reading aloud of the names of the war dead, accompanied by photographs, amounted to an antiwar statement.
Yesterday, Sinclair's executives did not back down. For most of the day it was impossible to get calls through to the main number at the company's headquarters in Baltimore. Company executives did not respond to messages left on their individual voice mail systems.
But Sinclair released a letter from its chief executive, David D. Smith, to Senator McCain in which he wrote that "responsible journalism" requires that a discussion of the cost of wars "must necessarily be accompanied by a description of the benefits of military action and the events that precipitated that action."
He added: "It is `Nightline's' failure to present the entire story, however, to which Sinclair objects. `Nightline' is not reporting news; it is doing nothing more than making a political statement."
Last night, Sinclair planned to broadcast on its ABC affiliates a debate about the issue.
ABC News executives declined to comment yesterday. Ted Koppel, the anchor of "Nightline," said earlier this week that the program was intended to honor the dead and remind viewers of the human cost of war.
Sinclair's decision was attacked by some critics as political. Media watchdog groups like Common Cause and Free Press denounced it and said they would instigate challenges to renewals of broadcast licenses of stations owned by Sinclair.
ABC made a late flurry of deals with other outlets in the cities affected. Micah Johnson, the news director at WHNS, in Greenville, S.C., a Fox affiliate owned by the Meredith Corporation, said he contacted ABC about picking up "Nightline."
"I disagree with Sinclair," he said. "I think people should decide themselves based on the program, not because a particular group is making the decision for them."
(c) New York Times, 2004
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