Posted on 04/30/2004 1:28:03 PM PDT by lainie
"Nightline" divides audience
HARTFORD, Conn. - (KRT) - ABC newsman Ted Koppel's plan to devote tonight's "Nightline" to reading the names of the more than 700 U.S. servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq has stirred anger and praise, and prompted one media company to bar its stations from airing the program.
Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group said Thursday that the unique program is politically motivated and ordered its seven ABC affiliates, including WGGB in Springfield, Mass., not to air it.
"While the Sinclair Broadcast Group honors the memory of the brave members of the military who have sacrificed their lives in the service of our country, we do not believe such political statements should be disguised as news content," said Barry Faber, Sinclair's counsel, in a prepared statement issued in response to a request for comment.
The controversy comes as the American public is getting a look at photographs of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, and while a national debate is underway over the Bush administration's attempt to keep such images from the public eye.
. . .
As to what ABC viewers in Springfield will see tonight in place of "Nightline" and the list of war dead, Westerkamp said: "I don't know yet. We'll have something. Maybe a sitcom."
(Excerpt) Read more at centredaily.com ...
Is it a coincidence that they are doing this on April 30, which is Walpurgisnacht, the night pagans believed witches hold an orgy?
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