I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Okay, which broadcast outlet is going to pre-empt for "Going Upriver," then?
Oneth!!!
Freakin' fine... as long as "Going Upriver" plays as well.
To the Hague with Sinclair bosses and executives when Kerry's in power.
OK who is going to air "Fahrenheit 9/11" in primetime????
That's just fine. Make an enemy of the democrats now. Just spit in their faces as hard as you can.
Come January 05' you are sooooooooooo going to be broken up and sold you pathetic goose setpping morons!
MYOB'
.
The show will be followed by huge open-air rallies with lots of flags waving and marching uniformed men saluting our Dear Leader high on his platform and YOU WILL LIKE IT, YES YOU WILL LIKE IT AND YOU WILL PAY HOMAGE TO HIS GREATNESS. .... splutter, gasp, wheeze, rant rant. SIEG HEIL MEIN FUHRER. AEEEIIIIIIRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!
.
You've got to be kidding me? Fuck, well, hopefully Kerry will have buried him by then.
Has anyone googled, etc. the questioners from last night's debate to figure out who were the shills?
Like that abortion question woman?
And what if my religious convictions don't want any tax dollars going to the death penalty (which we each pay a huge amount more for than any abortion related government programs)?
And what if my religious convictions don't want any opf my tax dollars going to any war, let alone one as massively f***ed up as Iraq?
Huh?!
And what
Sinclair Contact info here
http://www.sbgi.net/contact/cont...t/
contact.shtml
but basically, you know what you have to do...
Corporate Headquarters
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
10706 Beaver Dam Road
Hunt Valley, Maryland 21030
410-568-1500 (Main Telephone)
410-568-1533 (Main Fax)
Investor Relations Contact
Lucy A. Rutishauser
VP Corporate Finance and
Corporate Treasurer
investor@sbgi.net
Sales Questions
Darren Shapiro
VP Sales
410-568-1500
-or-
Jeff Sleete
VP Marketing
410-568-1500
Web Site Concerns
Mike O'Malley
Corporate Webmaster
webmaster@sbgi.net
Holy shit...can they legally DO that? Why has the press not picked up on this gross abuse?
This is BIG. This must be stopped, or at least we have to make a HUGE STINK about this. This is completely outrageous. Don't they owe the public any pretense of objectivity for using the public airwaves? It's not their job to try to manipulate the election. I will definitely follow up on this--but will we all be on top of this??
Wasn't there some complaint by the same people who tried to get Farienheit 9/11 ads banned from TV by the FCC. Maybe the DNC will buy time on a real network and air 9/11 and Going Upriver on Oct 30...just a suggestion
That's the problem with deregulation -- you get a lot of people with no ethical or moral scruples getting the power to do whatever they want. It's how you get crap like Enron, Halliburton, and the ongoing trainwreck that is the modern mainstream media.
It's why industry needs to be re-regulated. Because we can't trust these immoral fucks to act like law-abiding citizens without some actual laws they have to abide by.
Anybody in the mood for boycotting the sponsors? I sure as hell am.
Time to contact the corporate campaigning people at the AFL/CIO-- find out who buys advertising from Sinclair entities and put the squeeze on them.
You realize that this hands me the election on a silver platter to match my silver spoon! So there! Go Cheney yourself!
I think that calling attention to the movie will only give it a higher profile.
Liberals support the arts and free expression. The anti-Kerry folks have lost the credibility battle. The swifties are a joke. The sun has set on the Kerry as Fonda meme.
-
I felt concern last night that the Republicans were a little more dominant on the media spin on television last night.
I think we all need to write CNN--Ann Coulter was on Larry King and she was and is incredibly offensive in her views. She doesnt' represent your average Republican viewer or pundit, and I think Larry King shouldn't give voice to that sort of radical extremism.
Write cnn.com and complain!
Also, I think Kerry's real strength shone through on the Supreme Court question (not to mention Bush's total inadequacy and joking about the supreme court voting for him which was absolutely appalling).
He wants to be a uniter, a moderate and a voice for true law. That's what I think we need to write to the newspaper editorialists and emphasize.
you all know what to do...don't watch sinclair stations, boycott their sponsors...simple as that.
From houston chronicle
Note second to last sentence "news programming"
TV group to air film blasting Kerry
NEW YORK - The conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group, whose television outlets reach nearly a quarter of the nation's homes with TV, is ordering its stations to pre-empt regular prime-time programming just days before the Nov. 2 election to air a film that attacks Sen. John Kerry's activism against the Vietnam War, network and station executives familiar with the plan said Friday. Sinclair has told its stations — many of them in political swing states such as Ohio and Florida — to air Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, sources said. The documentary may be classified as news programming, according to TV executives familiar with the plan. The Kerry campaign accused the company of pressuring its stations to influence the political process.
NO!
Someone upthread brought up the question of GOPer shills among the "independents" at last nights debate. A couple of GOP shills were obvious, like the scowling woman in red and the no new taxes guy, but I'm not so sure about "that abortion question woman". When Dubya was limping through his memorized speech at the end, the woman who asked the abortion question of Kerry was caught on camera snickering. It looked to me like she was laughing derisively at Bush. I have a gut feeling she really was an independent or undecided who agonizes over abortion because of her religion but also thinks Bush is a moron.
A lust of Sinclair Stations:
http://www.sbgi.net/business/mar...rkets/
all.shtml
Actually it's a LIST not a lust. ;>)
http://www.sbgi.net/business/mar...rkets/
all.shtml
With all the atrocity of Iraq staring us in the face daily, some people STILL make the assumption that Kerry's responsible activisim against a very similar war thirty some years ago is something to "attack?"
Of course, I'm sure this "news program" will have the propagandist's touch, but the statement alone that Kerry was active in ending the Viet Nam conflict is probably a plus for Kerry these days--a heroic stand against a corrupt establishment intent on prolonging a lost and misguided war. Not that this film will portray it as such.
brucds - well that only works if in fact you believe the woman was asking out of a sense of principle. She could be pro-choice and have deliberately asked the question to allow Bush to hang himself and Kerry to be able to get his view on the subject out there.
There could be any number of motivations behind why the questioners asked what they asked. It doesn't have to be personal.
Actually. This could work to Kerry's advantage. I know there are plenty of veterans who have only heard about Kerry's speach and know only the hatred of others for it. Perhaps if they were to actually see and hear the speach, and if Kerry does feal that this was not a speach about the soldiers who were over there, then this could win over some vets who, after seeing it, might realize that Kerry was speaking for them not against them.
Does anyone else think this could be the case?
I for one don't see how any of us could complain about this if Kerry truly feals that the speech was being taken out of context. This might be a chance to clear the record on this issue.
MYOB'
.
"I have a gut feeling she really was an independent or undecided who agonizes over abortion because of her religion but also thinks Bush is a moron."
Don't the people who consistently vote on "social" and "moral" issues, such as abortion, ever wonder why the politicians that claim to support their side on these issues are nearly always a bit stupid, angry, and/or wacko? Does it not give them a clue that responsible, well-spoken, and apparently thoughtful politicians are nearly always of the "live and let live" persuasion?
Can anyone find out the sponsors in advance? Because I absolutely will boycott them forever and will write to them and let them know why.
Before getting too upset--some very rough numbers (please correct, where wrong) 
1/4 of country =75 million people
let's say 7.5 million to watch film
let's say 4 million eligible voters
let's say 2.5 million to vote
let's say 500,000 undecided or potentially undecided
let's say 150,000 in swing states
let's say 30,000 who vote Bush due to film
Costly, yes. But could lose more by givng the cretins free hype/publicity?
In other words, fight, but don't alienate the undecided. Sinclair would love to wrap itself in free speech flag.
SINCLAIR ARE THESE GUYS, REMEMBER ?
McCain rebukes Sinclair 'Nightline' decision
Station owner orders affiliates not to air program
Friday, April 30, 2004 Posted: 3:54 PM EDT (1954 GMT)
(CNN) -- The decision of Sinclair Broadcast Group, which ordered its seven ABC stations not to broadcast Friday's "Nightline," has received criticism from U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona).
Friday's show will air the names and photographs of the more than 500 U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war.
"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," McCain, a Vietnam veteran, wrote in a letter to David Smith, president and CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group. "It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly deserves."
In a statement online, the Sinclair group said the "Nightline" program "appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq."
SINCLAIR IS BROADCASTING THE ANTI-KERRY FILM BECAUSE, LIKE SO MANY GIANT CORPORATIONS, THEY LOVE THIER COUNTRY SO MUCH. YOU KNOW THE COUNTRY - THAT TINY OFFSHORE ISLAND THAT THEY DIVERT THEIR PROFITS TO TO EVADE U.S. TAXES.
Oh, and DfuckingNC,
Would you please use some of the $ I've sent you to buy tv time for Going Upriver? Everyone's seen F9/11 already.
Terry, for once in your goddamn life grow balls and use that $ effectively.
I should have added this to the above post.
What if the locals or the Kerry campaign were to demand that a panel of commenters were to discuss segments of the speach during small breaks in the airing?
This way more neutral, or pro-Kerry sponsors could be there to discuss and detail what Kerry was trying to say?
I for one think this could be done if people demand it enough.
MYOB'
.
MYOB
The "film" will surely cherry pick bits from Kerry's speech. If they were going to show it in its entirety, you might have a point, but they'll butcher it for sure.
A thought about a Dem response, and where to do it: Pay-per-view. Buy up a primetime slot and show Going Upriver for free.
Moonie Moonie Moonie Moonie Moonie
Carlton Sherwood, the producer or the movie, is a moonie. He wrote a favorable "biography" of Rev. Moon. The Kerry campaign or their surrogates should try to publicize the fact that the Moonies are among Chimpy's biggest supporters.
I am not sure this works against Kerry, unless it is like the Clinton Chronicles. Right about now Kerry's anti-war work might make him look good.
oh
and off topic
Virginia Readers,
HAVE TEA WITH MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
http://www.kenlongmyerforcongres...20041007-
01.htm
I just left a voicemail thanking them for showing "Going up River".
Haven't seen the program, but if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and walks like a duck; its a duck.
Equal time is due.
Actually it's a LIST not a lust. ;>)
http://www.sbgi.net/business/mar...rkets/
all.shtml
Stosine
'lust' is the right word: anyone got a link to the news item "head of Sinclair broadcasting busted by cops for johning a prostitute" that popped up a few months ago when Sinclair refused to run the Nightline Bush's Dead Soldiers tribute?
The sponsors are going to catch hell for this. We just have to join the chorus.
I like how the last paragraph of the L.A. Times article notes that "'Stolen Honor' was made by Carlton Sherwood, a Vietnam veteran and former reporter for the conservative Washington Times who is also the author of a book about the Rev. Sun Myung Moon." That is a little incomplete. Actually, his purportedly independent investigation of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, entitled Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon concludes that Moon and his followers "were and continued to be the victims of the worst kind of religious prejudice and racial bigotry this country has witnessed in over a century." I am sure his movie is equally hacktackular.
Tena...that was essentially my point. Somebody upthread mentioned that woman as an example of a GOP shill. I don't know what her precise motivation for the abortion question was. But it was pretty clear to me from her obvious snickering during the closer that she has zero respect for Bush.
Did anyone else get the impression that the audience appeared generally more responsive to Kerry ? It seemed like numerous folks were either scowling or had a "what the fuck is he talking about?" expression on their face during Bush's responses and his closer.
And although this isn't a debate thread, I'll say it again, the putznits were totally fucking awful - "liberals" who were too chickenshit to state that Kerry dominated the debate and Bush was constantly off-balance and often tongue-tied facing off against right wing hacks who were spinning Bush's obvious weakness into some kind of a comeback. I've found that of all the right-wing hacks, William Kristol on FOX has been the most reluctant to simply lie about Bush's debate performances. Incidentally, I didn't see it, but apparently Larry King had Coulter on. He should be excoriated for that. He's such a chickenshit that he probably bends to the flow of his emails.
Anyone in the Asheville NC area looking at doing something about this since the local ABC station (WLOS) will be affected by this BS? If anyone is working on this, please contact me.
has this piece of shit doc been vetted for accuracy ?
Wait. Pressuring the sponsors could feed right into their intentions. They're fanatical enough to eat the cost and run the thing without sponsorship. But if tens of millions of people threatened to boycott anyone who sponsors Sinclair stations at all...
This has to be dealt with aggressively, but effectively. Just thinking out loud.
BTW, mrs. illegitimus and i saw Going Upriver last Friday when it opened: pretty straightforward doc, shows Kerry in a very good light. the same guy did Pumping Iron to Ah-nold.
it definitly should be on teevee, it'll wash the bad SBLiars taste out of the mouth
anyone hear of any plans for this?
Time for Kerry to mobilize his Vietnam group again. Time for the rest of us to show our support!
but but but but... I thought it was inappropriate to air this kind of stuff so close to an election... at least that's what CBS said.
And also, how is this legal? Wouldn't it be like some kind of donation in kind or something to the Bush campaign. Hell, who needs to buy commercials when you can just buy the whole tv station.
Chuck - thanks for that info on the film's producer. So what we've got here is not simply a conservative takeover of a major media group, but - quite literally - hirelings and allies of foriegn fascists attempting to subvert our democracy. Nice.
brucds - Just goes to show I should have read the entire thread more closely before I commented.
I agree with you. It's impossible to know why people asked what they did, without talking to the questioners themselves. And yes, I did think the audience was responsive to Kerry as well. I watched their faces when he was talking and they seemed to be paying attention to him. But I agree with Bill Maher - the damned debates are too long. Everyone goes cross-eyed after awhile. I'd like to see more debates and shorter ones.
Does this mean CBS can run the Niger memo story now?
Good news at Donkey Rising!
In both those statistically tied ABC and Gallup polls, Kerry smoked among independents. Previous commenters' perception of audience reactions last night were dead-on.
www.emergingdemocraticmajorityweblog.com/
donkeyrising/
The public airwaves, indeed.
FAHRENHEIT 911 ON PBS. THEY OPENED THE DOOR.
Sinclair has the ONLY station that directly serves our area of western NC. Fortunately, it's coming up for renewal soon and folks here are getting pretty hot. I've been seeing a lot of letters to the editor screaming about Mark Hyman.
After the Nightline fiasco, a local media watchdog group emerged to fight the bastards.
Will the World Series still be on? Surely they must be praying for a Twins/Astros series, so people will be less interested, because if the Red Sox win the pennant, and go seven games against St. Louis, most people will be too baseball crazy to watch shit like this.
Sending the principals of Sinclair a piece of your mind is a pathetic and masturbatory waste of time, and theirs. It's like these e-mails I get about some atrocity or other that the Bushies are planning: "Tell President Bush that you want to stop the wetlands from becoming a Six Flags and a toxic waste dump"... LIKE THEY CARE. Gimme a break.
No, times like these are when I always get to see just how much attention y'all were paying to politics in the 20 years before Bush... slim and none, generally. Hasn't been a "Fairness Doctrine" since Reagan, and when it was all going down, the silence you could hear on the matter rivaled that at a High Mass between the prayers and hymns.
Unless the Kerry campaign itself wants to do something here, we're pretty much stuck with this (but I do love the idea above that we ship the Sinclair guys off to The Hague, in a Kerry Administration!).
And what the Kerry campaign or MoveOn.org can do is to organize a boycott in each city against each Sinclair TV station itself. THAT would be enough to attract attention... and contrary to one opinion expressed above, attention IS good, because it throws light on this fascist company. And I don't think a great percentage of Americans understand who these fuckers are and why they're dangerous.
Otherwise, The Stupids might actually buy the notion that, "Duh! Here's an interesting NEWS PROGRAM ABOUT KERRY..!" Which is exactly the deception Sinclair's attempting to pull off, here. And this is all the proof you need that we need to re-regulate media NOW.
Disclaimer: not something for which I'm holding my breath, even in a Kerry Administration. Not after his big dick-suck, last night, to "tort reform".
Kerry did NOT have to triangulate that issue, Clinton-like, last night! Contrary to the way the politicans and the media are making it sound, there is simply NO groundswell of popular opinion that we need the system of litigation tampered with, in order to "cap damages" and protect big, rogue corporations from getting sued!
This is solely, and should remain solely, a plank of the right-wing agenda. Kerry fucked us bigtime on this one, and after he's Prez, we (sigh) have more work to do, in holding his feets to the fire and making sure he does NOT get involved in this shit!
When they take away our "trial lawyers", the corporations will NOT be giving up their "corporate lawyers"!
The conservative-leaning Sinclair Broadcast Group
They must use those shoe extensions that comedians used to use if Vaudeville. They can't lean any farther to the right they're horizontal now.
Smash the broadcasting corporations to pieces, give the pieces to non-profits. Investegate the sweetheart band giveaways to big media and force them to pay a fair amount for what they've already been given.
Make them have fewer commercials and cut cable rates and the people will let you really make mass media serve the public good instead of the corporate state.
Who ever thought Big Brother would look so much like a schmuck as the Sinclare Big Brother M. H. ?
We need to start contacting there advertisers and sponsers. There are enough people in the liberal blogsphere to make people very testy about us boycotting their goods.
Look for low down dirty tricks from the Repubs after the third debate, when Kerry can't repudiate them to a mass audience. I'm expecting devious mud slinging and trumped-up charges. They hope to accomplish two things thereby, one praying that enough sticks in the voter's mind to create enough doubt to allow Bush to squeak by and also to turn off the undecideds that are leaning Kerry but are repelled by confusing negativity.
Save your letters for your hometown newspaper folks, writing Sinclair is a waste of time.
This is outright illegal. Running a partisan smear on public television the eve before the election? A court order to stop this is surely in the works.
Carlton Sherwood also has a book out on Rev. Moon. I think he needs some more reviews on amazon.
Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido...=glance&
s=books
OK so CBS is removing criticism about Bush's policies before the election so as not to appear biased but it's okay for Sinclair Broadcast Group to broadcast this? Maybe CBS should rethink it's new policy. Why should one side get have the advantage?
Maybe the individual stations can be persuaded to rebel and not run the film.
Barry Champlain - "...big dick-suck, last night, to tort reform..."
Right. So the only thing that should be regulated, as far as you are concerned, are corporations, including the media. Nothing else. You aren't prepared to say that perhaps regulation on both sides of an issue isn't a bad thing.
That's balanced.
Kerry repeatedly came down on corporations last night. But I don't expect you to hear that, Barry, because you just won't. Kerry isn't Nader, and thank god. There are two sides to most stories, though I doubt you will acknowledge that that is so. It's about balance and I think that is what Kerry is saying about most things - our government has lost any balance it once had. This country is not exclusively yours or anyone else's and there isn't a damned thing wrong with trying to reconcile some competing interests. In fact, that is exactly what our system of civil justice is about.
If you don't believe that there a frivolous lawsuits filed by the thousands every day, then you must have failed to hear about the Repug Party suing Michael Moore.
A rant directed at no one in particular regarding the magical, world-changing panacea of tort reform:
The whole hubbub about lawsuits driving doctors out of practice is complete bullshit. If there is a wrongdoer in all of this, it is Big Insurance.
Insurance companies have been absolutely raping doctors by raising their insurance rates completely disproportionate to the actual risk of a big malpractice award.
Literally, it's like insurance companies saw a few big malpractice payouts and decided, "Boys, the time to act is now! Let's jack up the rates and everyone will blame the lawyers!"
Amazingly enough, it's worked completely. Insurance companies are like the Phantom Menace, secretly playing lawyers, politicians and patients against each other while profiting the whole time.
Tort reform has a negligible effect on insurance rates. States that have enacted it can testify to that fact. Further, if you think insurance companies will decide to actually lower rates because of tort reform, you are seriously delusional. Let's face it: They are NEVER going to surrender the ridiculous profits they have been hauling in the past few years.
Ugh...such utter scare-tactic bullshit. The insurance companies have managed to villainize an entire profession. Everyone hates lawyers until their doctor completely fucks up, or until some business doesn't bother to use due care, etc.
Sigh. It's funny how everyone hates Big Pharma, but ignores the blood-sucking insurance companies.
This concludes my rant. Thank you.
My review of Persecution:
The Deforestation of the Enemies of God:
I met Mr. & Mrs. God in the sixties. I was just a lowly, dirty hippie, smoking dope and wasting my life, when members of Mooms family pulled me off of the streets of Berkeley and gave me the opportunity to travel around the country, sleeping on the floor of dirty vans and working 20 hours a day for no wages selling flowers and trinkets to help build the celestial media & real-estate kingdom for Father.
They showed me that the love of my earthly family was a deception and thankfully I never had to see them again. For a while I got tearful letters from my mother who pretended to love me and worry about me, but I was assured that it was a pack of lies and that my mom & dad were actually working for Satan.
I was also relieved of all of the horrible pressures of dating as I met my wife at our wedding at Madison Square Garden. She doesn't speak English, but I think she kind of likes me. We are helping to populate the world with true children of Moon's love.
I was never more proud than when members of Congress crowned Father king of the universe at a Senate office building. Soon thanks to the truth reported by Father's Washington Times and our members of Congress, we'll be able to overturn the devil's work on the separation of church and state and we'll all be the beneficieries of Fathers wise theocratic rule.
Thank you for a great book Carlton, great is your reward in heaven.
Sinclair Contact info here
Don't bother trying to change their minds.
They don't care what you think. They have made up their minds about what is best for themselves, and fuck the rest of us. Don't bother with them. After Kerry is inaugurated, then we can work on having Sinclair's broadcast licenses revoked for grossly abusing the public trust.
For now, attack Sinclair's sponsors. Shit where they eat. They only respond to threats against their bank accounts, so destroy them. Find out who's buying commercial time for this little dose of Riefenstahl-inspired dreck, and contact them. Make sure to cc: the Sinclair people though, just so they understand how badly they've fucked up.
I'd suggest the following approach:
1-Get MoveOn to take this up as a major cause and organize a massive phone/letter/fax blitz on the FCC (yeah I know Michael Powell is about as likely to actually do anything about it as Tom deLay.)
Pound on the fact that the airways are public property and belong to everyone, and are given to broadcasters as a public trust, and that in a national political campaign, allowing a large broadcaster to blatantly favor one candidate over another by giving them free airtime is morally wrong and in fact an injustice.)
2- Remember the hundreds of thousands of folks who earlier unloaded on Congress and the FCC over their proposed rules which would have allowed still further consolidation of station ownership? Their concerns were clearly justified and what is happening here is living proof of the dangers to democracy of allowing too much power over the airawaves to be concentrated in the hands of too few broadcasters. How can they be re-mobilized to fight this? Get out letters to the editor, blog postings, etc.
3- Note that Mr. Bush has already gotten free airtime from major cable broadcasters by lying beforehand and saying he was going to be making a major policy address. Such free time gives him an unfair advantage when the speech he DID deliver was clearly a standard campaign stump speech.
4- Insist in all arguments that if Sinclair is allowed to broadcast the program so close to the election, then Kerry MUST be given equal and proximate airtime on all of their stations (and Going Up the River by all reports would be a good candidate, since it responds to the Moonies charges on Kerry and Vietnam.)
5- Finally, raise questions as to whether this isn't an illegal campaign piece...financed by a church which is not supposed to engage in politics.
Tena:
If you want to be helpful to the cause, you need to take everything in perspective, including the fact that Kerry is our best possible hope... PERIOD. This does not necessarily mean that he walks on water. Like the old Glen Campbell song, it took a whole lotta "compromisin'" for him to get where he is today... so close to the presidency you can smell it. I, too, want to get him over the hump.
But then, I want to make sure we all don't find ourselves in the same boat as African-Americans, when it comes to how forcefully THEY'VE been represented by Establishement Democrats, over the last 20-odd years (ask Al Sharpton about that).
Kerry should be considered, if not a tabula rosa upon which we may all impose our agendas, at the very least a guy who, when he gets to the mountain, has a bill to pay... OURS. And as such, we can't allow his debts to big contributors to influence his priorities. Those big contributors are the same corporations and insurance lobbies that Ralph Nader has been warning you about, when he says that both Dems and Repubs serve the same masters.
But you'll notice, did I hang in with Nader, this time around? Nope. I'm going with the guy who CAN win, who has the grease and the muscle and who can motivate millions like you and me to rise up energetically and get it done. But I gotta tell you, once he's in there, I'm not gonna shut my face, when he starts giving payback to those who are gonna hurt us.
Brings me to tort reform and your question. Put simply, no, in fact, I DON'T believe that there are "frivolous lawsuits filed by the thousands". Do you even know what a "frivolous lawsuit" IS? It's a suit that the judge in the case has the power to douse at the very outset, and assess penalties to the Frivolous. Always has been that way, in fact.
Now Tena, you're a whole lot smarter and more hep to the jive than the average dittohead. So lemme ax ya: do you honestly, sincerely believe that the organized and heavily-moneyed forces behind "tort reform" are motivated by the social good? Do you think that George W. Bush and the people who run him are genuinely concerned about the damage allegedly done to your pocketbook by these "thousands" of conniving, larcenous bastards, filing all these "frivolous" lawsuits?
Or just possibly... do ya think George W Bush and co. MIGHT JUST HAVE ANOTHER MOTIVE, HERE? Ohhh let's see... big corporations... people... OMG, what to DO???
Tena, you are too valuable to the cause. You need to drop the rose-colored glasses on Kerry NOW, because when Kerry gets into the White House, our work... YOUR work... is just beginning. It's up to you: you want a Howard Dean Democrat? Or a Tom Daschle Democrat? 'Cuz what we get is really gonna be the product of how determined YOU are to follow-through.
Dweb, all great suggestions.
The time has come for all good people to come to the aid of their party.
Seriously...enough whining that "this is not right" and it's time to do something about it.
How CAN we get a list of the major advertisers on SBG? Let's do it, boycott the damn stations, AND send email to the adcertisers saying we will boycott their products and why.
It takes sacrifice. Gotta do without whatever the biggest advertisers are selling, gott turn off that station.
Enough of this. Along the same lines, write to your congressman and demand they stop letting public domain of the airwaves be monopolized.
AND we want equal time laws back in place.
This is unconsciable....
Pull their goddamn FCC license.
Time to get F9/11 on the networks.
by the time this shrill drivel pollutes the airwaves many millions of us will have already voted early or absentee anyway. encourage others to do the same. remember the ghouls who tried to foist this crap on us, change the effing channel, and drive on to victory.
You can always tell when we're about to get a new Premier because Pravda starts showing endless ballet programs day and night without interruption.
Sigh. It's funny how everyone hates Big Pharma, but ignores the blood-sucking insurance companies.
This concludes my rant. Thank you.
Johnny Gentle, Famous Crooner
JohnnyG, thank you. This is a huge point I think Kerry and/or (or maybe even especially Edwards) ought to be hitting on.
I have long maintained we could give affordable health care to everyone in this country IF all the money paid for health care went to providers thereof. Instead we keep a system where more than half the money spent on "health care" is actually siphoned off by the insurance industry.
Anybody who's ever had a claim denied hates Big Insurance. It's a hell of a voting bloc.
The cure for Big Pharma on the other hand is simple: ban direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs. With the money saved they can easily lower prices drastically and still keep as much to "fund new research" as they presently do.
is anyone here a stockholder? You could sue under maryland law in state court in maryland for an injuction against the directors of Sinclair on a breach of fiduciary duty.
arguing that theere is little economic merit, you could make the argument that the board of directors are putting their personal interest in front of the economic interest of the company.
Would need to contact a lawfirm, but as this decision will hurt the stockholders of Sinclair, I think it is worth a shot.
Wait thats gotta be illegal. What ever happened to equal time?
Geeze they will do anything to win
Well, from looking at the stations list on Sinclair's website, they appear to be almost all UPN or WB or Fox stations. So, no one will really be watching anyway.
People, this is the flip side of the first amendment. Equal time went out with Reagan - if you go around chanting that you're as wacky as the Libertarian in Philly that Atrios lampooned the other night for not knowing that Reagan had also merged the Federal pension system into Social Security.
and for whoever was fantasizing about Going Upriver on PBS - the PBS board currently includes Norm Ornstein from AEI; former Illinois Republican senator John Porter; Tom Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telephone Industry Association; Rex Adams, who was a career executive for Mobil before becoming dean of Duke University's business school; and ex-AOL executive David Cole. The current board chairman is Alberto Ibarguen, publisher of the Miami Herald.
oh, and describing Sinclair as "conservative-leaning" rather than simply just another tool of the Bushies is an insult to real conservatives.
Well, from looking at the stations list on Sinclair's website, they appear to be almost all UPN or WB or Fox stations. So, no one will really be watching anyway.
Think again slappy. Our only ABC affiliate is Sinclair.
Equal time? That was the fairness doctrine, which was abolished during the Reagan administration.
Well, from looking at the stations list on Sinclair's website, they appear to be almost all UPN or WB or Fox stations. So, no one will really be watching anyway.
you mean that no white liberal boomers will be watching.
I don't watch enough television any more to know who the core audience for these networks are, but there must be some group of viewers that are going to feel shit on by this.
oh, and don't forget that it's Fox carrying the National League playoffs.
sundance channel is showing the bruce springsteen/rem/dave matthews/dixie chicks/bonnie raitt/jackson browne concert on monday. come on by the house and watch it with us, or host a party of your own.
"now i work down at the carwash
where all it ever does is rain
don't you feel like you're a rider
on a downbound train"
"these mills they built the tanks and bombs
that won this country's wars
we sent our sons to korea and viet nam
now we're wondering what they were dyin' for"
I just looked at the list of stations and they don't control the WB or Fox stations up this way. Who watches WB or Fox anyway? People who won't vote or are already in the Bush camp. Why give them the added publicity of making a stink about it? Don't overreact - that's what they want. Remember Franken's book and all the free press Fox's suit brought. Keep focused on what will get us across the finish line and not be diverted by this type of stunt.
This seems to me, at least, like an enormous corporate donation to the Bush campaign, and I think that, if it goes through, it should be counted as such, at the cost of purchasing all of that air time, with appropriate penalties imposed.
You can always tell when we're about to get a new Premier because Pravda starts showing endless ballet programs day and night without interruption.
Thank you for a much-needed laugh, even if it is black humor...
Two good things to do to bring fairness back to the airwaves while the Fairness Doctrine is down for the count:
1. As suggested above, form a citizens' committee to challenge the license of blatantly rightwing stations. An organized effort like that will be noticed...and it will cost the station money to beat back the effort.
2. File complaints (legitimate ones only PLEASE, such as over this propaganda flick) with the FCC. The station will have to spend money on lawyers to answer the complaints. Which is why it's a good idea to make sure they're legitimate--they really will have to defend their bloated corporate butts.
Some NPR news program did a story on FCC hearings about the deregulation. Two points stuck in my mind: Only the liberals on the FCC commission have bothered to show up at the hearings (guess it doesn't suit Bush's cocksuckers to listen to the plebes); and every hearing has been packed with people pissed off royally about the lack of local content. Stations no longer give a damn about the communities they "serve".
This must be done as a grassroots effort. Fight at the local level, because that's where you can make a noticeable difference. Believe me, any local successes will be noticed in corporate headquarters.
Regarding the "abortion question woman", did anyone else notice her taking a snapshot of Kerry while he was hanging out with the audience afterwards? It would seem she was a Kerry admirer. She wasn't exactly scowling or frowning.
I saw this (I think) while watching the debate on CNN.
I'd say ignore the corporate offices -- they'll be used to this stuff -- and focus like a lazer on the station(s) nearest you.
For example: Sinclair has *two* stations with news in Vegas.
http://kfbt33.com/lasvegas_nv/
http://wblasvegas.com/lasvegas_nv/
Whenever I can bear to do it, I'll watch the half-hour news and note Every Single Local Sponsor. (In Vegas, these are usually the big casinos, car dealerships, house developers, grocery stores, etc.)
Then I'll get the phone book (or open a web browser) and call each and every advertiser:
"Hi, I notice you have a commercial on Channel 33 News at 11. That station is going to air an anti-John Kerry movie just before the election. It should be illegal, but at best it is corrupt and evil. I want you to know that I'll be boycotting your business until you remove your advertising from Channel 33. I'm a Democrat, just like half the people in Vegas. Do you want to lose half the customers in this city?"
It takes a few minutes, but it's worth it -- way more effective than sending email or letters to Sinclair corporate, where they're used to this kind of thing.
Here's a list of stations owned by Sinclair. If you live in those cities or know someone who does make sure they let the stations know how they feel about this and that they will not be watching this "news" program.
WTTA - Tampa
KMWB - Minneapolis
WPGH & WCWB - Pittsburgh
KOVR - Sacramento
KDNL - St. Louis
WBFF & WNUV - Baltimore
WTTV & WTTK - Indianapolis
WLFL & WRDC - Raleigh - Durham, NC
WZTV & WUXP - Nashville
WCGV & WVTV - Milwaukee
WSTR - Cincinnati
KSMO - Kansas City, MO
WTTE & WSYX - Columbus, OH
WFBC & WLOS - Asheville, NC
KABB & KRRT - San Antonio
WTTO & WABM & WDBB - Birmingham, AL
WTVZ - Norfolk, VA
WUTV - Buffalo, NY
KOCB & KOKH - Oklahoma City
WXLV & WUPN - Greensboro, NC
WKEF & WRGT - Dayton, OH
KVWB & KFBT - Las Vegas
WCHS & WVAH - Charleston, WV
WRLH - Richmond, VA
WEAR & WFGX - Mobile, AL
WSMH - Flint, MI
WDKY - Lexington, KY
KDSM - Des Moines
WSYT & WNYS - Syracuse
KBSI & WDKA - Paducah, KY
WUHF - Rochester, NY
WGME - Portland, ME
WMSN - Madison, WI
WEMT - Tri-Cities, TN
WGGB - Springfield, MA
WYZZ - Peoria, IL
WTWC - Tallahassee, FL
WMMP & WTAT - Charleston, SC
WICS & WICD — Springfield, IL
KGAN — Cedar Rapids, IA
Sinclair Headquarters
10706 Beaver Dam Road
Cockeysville, Maryland 21030
Phone (410) 568-1500
Fax (410) 568-1533
www.sbgi.net
source link
http://www.latimes.com/business/...-home-
headlines
OOPS, sorry for the second URL for the LA Times story.
Actually to put on an anti-Kerry movie on television before the election is against the law, is it not? The FEC should know about this.
Fairness Doctrine is gone and if they call it "news" they can do almost anything they want. I think that's the way they are looking at it.
Does anyone have or know how to develop information on major concerns with big advertising buys on Sinclair.
It strikes me that it might be more effective to communicate with them.
One might even be able to organize consumer abstinence activities which could have effect before the end of the month.
Can we physically beat these people yet?
Please?
One thing is absolutely certain. Kerry CANNOT ignore this and hope it will go away. That was his initial "brilliant" strategy against the Swifties. Had he responded when we were screaming for action he would now be decisively ahead in the polls instead of merely moderately ahead.
This is Kerry's election to lose. Unfortunately, the DNC show great aptitude for doing just that.
I think we may have lost it when Moveon said they didn't support the "Bush is a nazi fascist bastard" video. He is and we didn't stand by it. We lied to ourselves and others, we knew he was. You know what they say..once you lie you never stop.
Gore Lawsuit Challenges Australian Election Results
(2004-10-09) -- Just hours after the polls closed across Australia, and Prime Minister John Howard headed for his fourth term, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore filed a lawsuit in international court at the Hague alleging "irregularities" in the balloting.
The election was seen by many as a referendum on Australia's participation in Operation Iraqi Freedom and the subsequent efforts to bring democracy to Iraq. Mr. Howard's opponent, Mark Latham, had promised to withdraw Australian troops from the Coalition.
"Somebody was disenfranchised or coerced down under," said Mr. Gore, now an itinerant professor. "John Howard betrayed his country. He played on their fears. There's no way they could have re-elected him legally. We'll fight this result all the way to the U.N. Security Council if need be."
Democrat presidential contender John Forbes Kerry expressed displeasure at the Australian election outcome.
"This is the wrong election result, in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mr. Kerry said. "Think of the precedent this sets."
A movie theater next to an Afghan restaurant in the Little Kabul area of Fremont, Calif., displays a sign thanking President Bush for the elections in Afghanistan.
Sinclair's CEO agreed to air the film in exchange for oral sex while driving around town.
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