Sinclair Broadcasting to preempt "Nightline" reading of names of dead US soldiers (1 Viewer)

[Ken Chan]

I guess that depends on what you mean by "war" and "success". Karzai is mayor of Kabul, and does not control a unified Afghanistan. The fact that we don't hear more about this is further indictment of... many players

 

[Sathyan]

Sinclair owns two of the four commercial network stations in my local network and I'm not at all surprised that they would do this. They are the only stations that I've seen do _editorials_ as part of the nightly news broadcast (like what you would read in a newspaper).

But when it comes down to it these are commercial for profit entities that have no obligation to serve the public interest beyond the little the FCC demands. The network is the same way. In this local market, they'll probably get away with as republicans dominate and the other major commercial media outlets are also conservative. They also censor entertainment regularly.

Sinclair seems to have stations mostly in conservative areas but also in progressive markets: Madison, St Louis, Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

Sathyan Sundaram
Columbus, Ohio

P.S. Many stations report when a local soldier dies, how is this different?

 

[Joseph S]

Sinclair is full of it. Instead of compling with FCC regs they paid for helicopter trips for a mayoral candidate and bought a used car dealership for the CEO.

Let's see them comply with the FCC requirements for DTV before they put out another press release.

 

[Rob P S]

I'm still waiting for someone to explain how reading the names of the deceased soldiers is considered opposing the war.

This should be aired in prime time.

 

[Jack Briggs]

We're skirting too close to personal political commentary here, so be advised.

And given those limits, it's hard to discuss what the real culprit is here: continued media consolidation, which gives too few corporate entities too much power in determining what gets broadcast. And the driving force here is the FCC's never-ending desire to further relax media-ownership rules.

This is what's in play here, and, honestly, I am at a loss as to how that can be discussed at HTF.

Saw the broadcast, and it was in no way inflammatory. And I fail to see how it differs — in spirit — from, say, how PBS's The News Hour with Jim Lehrer ends each evening's broadcast with the pictures and names of soldiers who have died in Iraq, in respectful silence.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Because it's a local interest story, with some information, hopefully about who they were and what they accomplished.

Just reading a list of the dead with no context (that I'm aware of; too be fair, I didn't watch it.), seems like it wouldn't be anything but a stunt. Ted Koppel's Nightline has been suffering ratings-wise for a while, and this gave them some much-needed publicity. In that way, Sinclair played right into their pocket.

 

[Chris]

Saw the broadcast. Not really inflammatory. Just a statement of facts. Do understand that, per code, families who have their children/father/husband named against their wishes is a bad thing, and they should have all been consulted beforehand.

That is all.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

Post deleted in order to avoid lock.

 

[Matt Goddard]

I don't watch Jim Lehrer, but I would expect that the news program provides some sort of context.

 

[Michael Harris]

Then you will have to watch because its just exactly as described. Jim Leher just states that they will be showing the names and faces of recently confirmed killed service men and women. No "context" unless there was a war related story in the main body of the broacast but that is coincidental. Once the photos are shown Lehrer just does his standard sign off.

IMHO Lehrer gets away with it without any controversy because his show has been doing it for a long time and many conservative groups have already given up on PBS as being a liberal mouthpiece with a small audience while ABC has a higher profile and larger audience.

Sinclair's action just brought more attention to Nightline then anything that ABC could have done. You can't buy that kind of publicity. The only losers in all of this are the people in Sinclair's market who did not have the right to choose whether to watch it. I don't watch Nightline since I am usually in bed after watching The Daily Show and only heard about this because of Sinclair's action. I still did not watch it because I did not need to. I work in the building that houses the Army's personnel command and they have an honor roll of the fallen outside the office that handles casualties. Thats all the reminder I need.

 

[Steve Schaffer]

I would like to congratulate Republican senator John McCain for his outspoken condemnation of Sinclair's decision. Here's one self-professed conservative Reagan Republican who still remembers what this nation is all about while too many of the neocons seem to have forgotten.

 

[Rob P S]

Agreed.

 

[Jack Briggs]

And that is a line of discussion we cannot pursue either.