Sinclair: We're Political Whores!
(and it shows!)
Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns both the Fox and WB affiliates in Baltimore, is pushing an anti-Kerry "documentary" to be broadcast during the next two weeks, encouraging affiliates to pre-empt their regular programming.
This is fierce partisanship by a major broadcaster (a problem, because the airwaves belong to the public and play a critical role in a free democratic discourse--see Reed Hundt's letter on Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo for a nice succinct take on this), completely ethically inappropriate, and potentially illegal.
Sinclair's defense of their plan has also been completely foul--their VP Mark Hyman referred to those opposed to show the propaganda as being akin to Holocaust deniers, drawing a rapid rebuke from the ADL.
The blogosphere is on fire with this one. ( Josh Marshall has been blogging this pretty intensely, so The Malcontent thanks him for doing most of the legwork for what is linked in this entry.)
The Malcontent is based in Baltimore, and watches Fox for morning news and The Simpsons. Not anymore. We'll be boycotting advertisers, AND we'll be letting the local stations' sales managers know this. Some advice on effective boycotting can be found here and here. Contact email for Sinclair executives? Here.
So what can The Malcontent add? Well, there was a boycott website, but it is either down or overloaded. So if you live in the Baltimore area, please feel free to comment with the names of advertisers on Baltimore's Fox 45 or WB affiliate. (That way, when you call the sales manager, you can let them know exactly which businesses you will be contacting to inform them that you will no longer be buying their services or products.)
Some local businesses that I know advertise on Fox?
Sylvan Learning Centers/Laureate.
Antwerpen Auto.
This is fierce partisanship by a major broadcaster (a problem, because the airwaves belong to the public and play a critical role in a free democratic discourse--see Reed Hundt's letter on Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo for a nice succinct take on this), completely ethically inappropriate, and potentially illegal.
Sinclair's defense of their plan has also been completely foul--their VP Mark Hyman referred to those opposed to show the propaganda as being akin to Holocaust deniers, drawing a rapid rebuke from the ADL.
The blogosphere is on fire with this one. ( Josh Marshall has been blogging this pretty intensely, so The Malcontent thanks him for doing most of the legwork for what is linked in this entry.)
The Malcontent is based in Baltimore, and watches Fox for morning news and The Simpsons. Not anymore. We'll be boycotting advertisers, AND we'll be letting the local stations' sales managers know this. Some advice on effective boycotting can be found here and here. Contact email for Sinclair executives? Here.
So what can The Malcontent add? Well, there was a boycott website, but it is either down or overloaded. So if you live in the Baltimore area, please feel free to comment with the names of advertisers on Baltimore's Fox 45 or WB affiliate. (That way, when you call the sales manager, you can let them know exactly which businesses you will be contacting to inform them that you will no longer be buying their services or products.)
Some local businesses that I know advertise on Fox?
Sylvan Learning Centers/Laureate.
Antwerpen Auto.
posted by The Malcontent at 1:33 PM
1 Comments:
Sylvan said they're pulling adverts. Booyah!
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