Shows Ignored or Denounced Swifties Now Upset by Sinclair (ABC Sawyer Interview's Durbin & Hyman)

MRC ^ | Wednesday October 13, 2004 | BrentBaker, Jessica Anderson

[fight_truth_decay]

ABC's Good Morning America. The MRC's Jessica Anderson caught Diane Sawyer's October 12 segment. Sawyer introduced it in the 7am half hour reserved for the most important news of the day:

"The sparks are flying this morning about what's fair in TV and politics. The Sinclair Broadcast Group runs the nation's biggest chain of TV stations, 62 of them, covering several key swing states. A big Republican contributor, Sinclair has decided to preempt its regular programming and have its stations play a documentary, fiercely critical of Senator John Kerry, in primetime two weeks before the election. The film, 'Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal,' targets John Kerry's anti-Vietnam war statements."

GMA gave the film its first ABC air time four months after the show ran a long clip from Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11.

Man #1, in documentary: "We were held captives longer because of the anti-war people, from the Kerrys to the names of Fonda and Hayden, the ones we knew over there. They encouraged the enemy to hang on."

Man #2: "It took the anti-war movement to help them win what they had to win. So those people that participated in that anti-war movement, they delayed the war, they caused additional American casualties, and as an incidental, by the way, they kept me in jail longer, none of which I appreciate."

Back on live, Sawyer continued: "Well, needless to say, the Democratic National Committee is going to battle to try to stop this from happening. Joining us now from Hunt Valley, Maryland, Sinclair Broadcast Group Vice President Mark Hyman and from Chicago, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, one of 18 Democratic Senators calling for government action to prevent it, and we thank you both for being with us. Okay, Senator Durbin, Sinclair has said, 'Look, this is a news documentary. These are former POWs that have a right to express the truth that they see.' So what's wrong with their running it?"

Durbin: "Sinclair Broadcasting is not dedicated to the public interest, they're dedicated to a political agenda..."

Sawyer: "Mr. Hyman, your response, because as you heard Senator Durbin say, and a lot of people think this is just pushing a political agenda and a broadcast owner should not be doing that."

Hyman: "Well, let me first state up front that we haven't even decided on a final format. We're still waiting for John Kerry. We're hopeful that he's going to agree to participate with us because, frankly, if this issue wasn't raised today, we wouldn't even be talking about these Vietnam POWs, men who suffered horrific abuse and unspeakable torture for many, many years in captivity. They, more than anyone else, have earned the right to speak, and most of them ended 31 years of silence to reply to comments made by John Kerry. They have a right to be heard and we think this is an issue that's very newsworthy..."

Sawyer: "But back to this question for a second about an owner of stations pre-empting programs to do this. I think some people have argued, it's one thing to do it in newscasts as news, and the issue has been covered. It's another thing to pre-empt programming to do it."

Hyman: "Oh, that's absolutely nonsense to suggest otherwise. The broadcast industry, both network and local TV, have been accused by many advocacy groups of shirking their responsibilities of discussing political debates, discussing political issues. We've been accuse as an industry of shuffling these issues off to paid political advertisements. I think it's irresponsible for us to expect that people should get all their information from advertisements..."

Sawyer: "I just want to say, again, I tried to check on what ABC, what had happened at ABC on that end, and was unable to find the person who had done that, if you say that's the case. But let me just turn to you, Senator Durbin. What about this? If Senator Kerry appears and responds, isn't this just more debate and in America, debate's a great thing?"

Durbin: "Listen to Mr. Hyman and you can understand the arrogance of a media giant that has decided in the closing days of the campaign they can call it news so long as they invite Senator Kerry to attend. And understand what this is: This is a scurrilous documentary put together by a man who used to work for the Washington Times, a right-wing publication, a man who prepared a biography of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who thinks he's the second coming of Christ. Now that's the man who put this together and Mr. Hyman now believes the American voters are entitled to hear this and the Bush campaign's entitled to this free air time. It's an illegal corporate contribution."

Sawyer: "But Senator, do you want the FCC, in effect, to censor them, to prevent this, to block this?"

Durbin: "Well, this clearly is not in the public interest, and I must remind Mr. Hyman, like it or not, he has the right to use America's airwaves because the government has licensed him and his company. He doesn't own the airwaves, and for him to decide to use them for one political campaign is, frankly, wrong and violates the FEC rule against corporate contributions to the Bush campaign."

Sawyer: "Mr. Hyman, if the FEC says don't do it, are you going to not do it?"

Hyman: "Diane, there's two points here. First of all, one, I don't know what part of this is considered scurrilous: that these men were Vietnam veterans, that they were prisoners of war, that they suffered abuse and torture? Is that what's scurrilous? The second part is it's sort of an old tactic, that if you can't discredit the message, attack the messenger, and in the case of the producer, 33 years of service, including Gannett where he won a Pulitzer prize, a Peabody in television, he won several Emmys, he's worked for television stations, he worked for CNN. A 33-year career, and Senator Durbin pulls out the less than one year he worked for a particular newspaper to try attack this particular man. It's 'shoot the messenger because we don't like the message.' That's a tactic that, frankly, the American public should look past..."

Good Morning America has already promoted one side's partisan screed film. On June 22, GMA spent about seven minutes showcasing Fahrenheit 9/11's highlights of how after President Bush was informed a second plane had hit the World Trade Center, he stayed in front of elementary school kids for another seven minutes. "Was valuable time wasted?" asked Charlie Gibson at the top of the June 22 show. Diane Sawyer imparted great meaning to the time passage: "It was seven minutes in the life of a President, seven minutes in the history of the nation, it's seven minutes a lot of people are using as a kind of Rorschach test." See: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20040623.asp#1

[fight_truth_decay]

Excerpt: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20041013.asp

CBS Evening News, October 12. Dan Rather announced: "In the presidential campaign, there's a whole new twist tonight to negative campaigning on television."

On Tuesday night, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who in August denounced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads as a new "low" in politics and proceeded to try to discredit them, led with how "the Democrats prepare for war over an anti-Kerry film to be shown on a string of right-wing TV stations," though they are mainly small market Fox, WB and UPN affiliates with little, if any, news programming, and he soon asked a guest: "Is this still political discourse at this point or has it moved closer to Lyndon LaRouche or the American Nazi Party demanding air time?"

Olbermann's first question: "Is the Moore thing less of a danger zone journalistically here because you have to buy it, you have to go out and actually agree to watch it, and he's not presenting it as news, but the airing of 'Stolen Honor' is being presented over the air and served up as essentially unadulterated fact?" Interview with Mort Zuckerman, New York Daily News, Publisher)

When posted, this Wednesday's Alert will be available at: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2004/cyb20041013.asp or http://www.mediaresearch.org/

[elbucko]

It's payback for the "Daisy Ad" of 1964.

[Mach9]

Keep covering the controversy, and keep showing those clips!

[lesser_satan]

ping

[marty60]

Hyman sounds Jewish to me......Pretty soon it's going to be a Jewish conspiracy. Just watch.

I posted on this when this happened, thank you for the actual transcript. It was outrageous. But the VP held his own and more. Shut ole Durbin mouth.

[Spok]

The Democrats do hate turnabout, don't they? What scares me is the serious public discussion about whether censorship and prior restraints should be imposed based on partisan cries of unfairness. The die is cast-to bar this broadcast would be censorship of the worst kind, and absolutely unprecedented.

[Viet-Boat-Rider]

Dear lying, cheating, misleading, whining Liberal Democrats,

SHOVE IT!

Yours Truly, A Vietnam Veteran accused by John Kerry on the floor of the Senate of beheading people like the subhumans in Iraq that are beheading people, and had to explain to his 13 year old daughter why a U. S. Senator would make such an outrageous claim against her father.

[billhilly]

Keith Olberman proclaimed at the end of an interview with two guests discussing the upcoming final debate between Kerry and Bush. "I, of course, will determine who is the winner."

[hapy]

Wow! Du has their bowels in an uproar over this. I just love it

[ravingnutter]

"Was valuable time wasted?" asked Charlie Gibson at the top of the June 22 show.

Oh please...

Hypocrite Kerry 'Couldn't Think' for 40 Minutes on 9/11

Rangel is such an idiot.

[GSWarrior]

The Sinclair Broadcast Group runs the nation's biggest chain of TV stations, 62 of them, covering several key swing states

FWIW, Sinclair stations reach 24% of households. That would place them in 6th place in that regard, trailing Viacom (, Fox, General Electric, Paxon Communications and Tribune Broadcasting

[6ppc]

I'm amazed at how hard the dims are fighting this. They have to know that fighting the Swift Vets was what gave them such a boost and fighting this will have the same effect. They must really be scared!

[ravingnutter]

My mistake...realized as soon as I hit post it was actually Charlie Gibson...but apparently he's an idiot too if he truly believes that garbage. I have been so incensed over Rangel's draft tactics that every time I see the name Charlie, I just get mad.

[USMC-EOD]

I fail to see the legitimate difference between this and the PBS documentary "Frontline: The Choice 2004". This was a documentary that is horribly biased toward glorifying everything that Kerry stood for and worked on, and demeaning everything that President Bush has done in his life.
Not to mention that it's done on a publicly funded station that relies upon tax dollars to even GET on the air.

Oh yeah, sorry...I was thinking logically, and since libs don't tend to use that portion of their tiny little brains, that would just confuse them.

[rwfromkansas]

Sawyer actually sounds pretty fair here.

[Mr. Silverback]

Notice how they showed the clips that can be interpreted as an attack on the anti-war movement as a whole, rather than anything with Kerry or the other leaders like Hayden and Fonda. I figured this would be a tactic they would try. They are hoping to make the Swiftees and POWs look like they are saying that everyone who opposed the war is a traitor, when they are really saying that John Kerry and the VVAW leadership were traitors.

[UCANSEE2]

Kerry is an accomplice to murder of US citizens.

How many MIA's died because KERRY (put in charge of finding MIA's) came back and said there weren't any?

[UCANSEE2]

Kerry is an accomplice to murder of US citizens.

How many MIA's died because KERRY (put in charge of finding MIA's) came back and said there weren't any?

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Click Here for NY Sun 10/13/04
Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge

http://www.nysun.com/article/3107

Click Here for
the Stolen Honor documentary that Kerry
and the Democrats do not want YOU to see.

http://www.stolenhonor.com/documentary/samples.asp

Send this url to your e-mail lists and media contacts.

Media contacts in all 50 States

http://congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/

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ALL the Swift Boat Vets Ads!

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Hanoi Jane at least was a Viet Cong!
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[caisson71]

Ditto!