By Jon Friedman, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 6:11 PM ET Oct. 19, 2004
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Shares of Sinclair Broadcasting Group fell further Tuesday and hit a 3 1/2-year low in the wake of a the television station owner's controversial decision to run a film critical of Sen. John Kerry's military service.
Sinclair shares have dropped about 15 percent since just over a week ago, when the company said its 62 television stations would show the documentary, "Stolen Hours," from Oct. 21-24.
The company's stations reach about 24 percent of the U.S. households that have television sets.
Sinclair's stock (SBGI: news, chart, profile) declined 29 cents to $6.17 by the close of trading.
Sinclair has come under pressure to provide equal time on its stations to allow the Kerry campaign to rebut the film's main charges.
Glickenhaus & Co., a Wall Street firm with clients who own about 6,100 shares of Sinclair stock, sent a protest letter to Sinclair Chief Executive David Smith and the company's board of directors.
Glickenhaus general partner Jim Glickenhaus, whose firm has about $1 billion in assets under management, said, "Let there be a rebuttal, so no one can accuse you of taking a position."
"Simply, as a fiduciary matter, we have to protect our shareholders," Glickenhaus said. "This has nothing to do with politics."
A call placed to the office of Sinclair's Smith seeking comment wasn't returned.
Some sponsors have already withdrawn their commercials on Sinclair stations in response to the decision.
"Management is not acting in the interest of shareholders," he said. "By showing something that's clearly propaganda, they are damaging the network."
Additionally, some public interest groups have expressed anger over Sinclair's decision and have vowed to oppose its stations when their broadcasting licenses come up for renewal.
"They could lose their licenses," Glickenhaus said. "They're going incur all sorts of challenges to their licenses."
Jon Friedman is media editor for CBS.MarketWatch.com in New York.
I'm getting all ready to watch with everybody I know encouraged to watch on Saturday night at 7:PM on Channel 13, KOVR in Sacramento!!!
This company is paying a huge price to show it. That's so sad!!!
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