This Democratic cryfest brought to you by.......All the Little Peasants that want Truth In Advertising!!!!!!
C'est la Gar!.......Bush in 04'!
Posted on 10/11/2004 1:13:07 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON (AP) The Democratic Party and 18 senators are objecting to a broadcasting company's plan to air on 62 TV stations a critical documentary about John Kerry's anti-war activities after he returned home from Vietnam three decades ago.
Sinclair Broadcast Group has asked its television stations -- many of them in competitive states in the presidential election -- to pre-empt regular programming to run the documentary as part of an hourlong program two weeks before the Nov. 2 election.
Based near Baltimore, the company owns or manages affiliates of major broadcast networks in several states, including Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania. Among its affiliates are WPGH, a Fox station, and WCWB, a WB station, in Pittsburgh.
Mark Hyman, a vice president of corporate relations for Sinclair who also is a conservative commentator for the company, said Monday the show would contain some or all of the 42-minute film as well as a panel discussion of some sort. He said final details had not been worked out.
The documentary, called "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," chronicles Kerry's 1971 testimony before Congress and links him to activist and actress Jane Fonda. It includes interviews with Vietnam prisoners of war and their wives who claim that Kerry's testimony -- filled with "lurid fantasies of butchery in Vietnam" on the part of U.S. troops -- demeaned them and led their captors to hold them longer.
The Democratic National Committee planned to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday contending that Sinclair's airing of the film should be considered an illegal in-kind contribution to President Bush's campaign. Also, 18 Democratic senators sent a letter to the Federal Communication Commission asking that it investigate whether Sinclair's plan was an improper use of public airwaves.
However, Sinclair's Hyman said, "The documentary is just a part of a special news event that we're putting together. We've invited one person to be a guest. That's Senator John Kerry." The company posted a note on its Web site Monday afternoon urging people to call Kerry's headquarters to urge his participation.
Chad Clanton, a Kerry campaign spokesman, said, "Everything is on the table but it's hard to take an offer seriously from a group with such a fierce partisan agenda, a group that's clearly not interested in the truth."
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said the company was acting as a mouthpiece for the Republican Party rather than a legitimate news outlet.
"In this election cycle, they have put their money where their right-wing mouths are," he said. "Sinclair's owners aren't interested in news. They're interested in pro-Bush propaganda."
Campaign finance records show that the company's executives have donated thousands of dollars to Bush's campaign. In April, the company was in the news for refusing to run a "Nightline" show in which hundreds of names of American troops killed in Iraq were read by ABC anchor Ted Koppel.
Hyman called the allegations about the documentary "absolutely absurd."
"Would they suggest that our reporting a car bomb in Iraq is an in-kind contribution to the Kerry campaign? Would they suggest that our reporting on job losses is an in-kind contribution to the Kerry campaign?" he said. "It's the news. It is what it is. We're reporting the news."
Carlton Sherwood, a Vietnam veteran and former journalist who made the film, said Monday that he felt the media had not explored the period of Kerry's life after he returned from Vietnam, including when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee alleging atrocities in Vietnam.
"For 33 years, we've been saying that how Kerry portrayed us was utterly false. It was purgatory of the worst kind. It was slander," Sherwood said. "But no one wanted to talk about it. Everybody ran for cover."
Sherwood, based in Harrisburg, Pa., said the film took six weeks to make, and Sinclair contacted him last month upon the film's completion. He said he was told last week of the company's plans to run it, and that the company was not compensating him for the film.
LIBERALS have already shown Moore's propaganda hit piece in schools.
The MSM has pushed it and promoted it.
Moore is hoping for an Academy Award.
I mean, really!
What are they crying about ? Kerry said that he was PROUD of what he has done. If he so proud of his senate testimony, I would think he would want it out there and covered right before an election.
Put it out there for the world to see over and over again.
Bump!
Yours was my initial thought, too, when I first heard the news early this morning. My step took on a sudden burst of energy, relishing as I walked the "foul play sirens" we'd be hearing all week.
Bring it on, and let the play begin!
Best as always . . . Penny
Kerry can sue if he feels it's slander.
I'm sure he can find a lawyer to represent him.
This old infantryman's heart would weep with joy were this to really come to pass.
After thirty years of waiting in vain for a measure of justice, I don't dare hope.
This Democratic cryfest brought to you by.......All the Little Peasants that want Truth In Advertising!!!!!!
C'est la Gar!.......Bush in 04'!
You need to contact members of any veterans group that you may belong and ask them to contact Sinclair to thank them for showing this newsworthy film.
Here's the email I sent:
I've purchased and watched this documentary and will be proud to watch it again on television. It was a tremendous endeavor on the part of Carlton Sherwood both journalistically and personally.
I think it shows the important role John Kerry played in our Nation's history during that particular period. He, himself, has said that he was proud of his actions when he returned from Vietnam and protested the war...proud of his testimony in front of the Senate.
He should have no problem, then, with this documentary being shown to the public.
Thank you for your reporting,
Thanks.
Personally, I don't think either Farenheit 9/11 or Stolen Honour should be allowed on TV before this election.
Both in their own way are a special form of propaganda and I believe democracy is not well served by either.
The fascists on the Left must be worried. You can always tell, you know, when they call on the government to censor free speech.
Liberals are seething ideological fanatics who care nothing for rights. They care about power.
The fascists on the Left must be worried. You can always tell, you know, when they call on the government to censor free speech.
Liberals are seething ideological fanatics who care nothing for rights. They care about power.
I love the sound of democrats whining in the morning. It sounds... it sounds like victory.
Don't forget Dan Forger's 1988 "documentary, The Wall Within, which supposedly detailed 5 or 6 "Vietnam veterans", who described the "atrocities" that they committed in Vietnam. B.G.Burkett,no,not that Burkett, co-author of Stolen Honor, totally debunked Forger's story by proving that 5 of the 6 had never been to Vietnam, and the 1 that had never saw any combat. When confronted with the facts, Forger said,"we stand by our story".
Why was this "documentary" shown in 1988? When was GHWB running for President?
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