[Media-watch] Bush-boosting Network Pushes Anti-Kerry Documentary

[antony_wright at blueyonder.co.uk]

BUSH BOOSTING NETWORK PUSHES ANTI-KERRY DOCUMENTARY
Watchdog groups have found a new poster child for the evils of media deregulation with the news that a powerful broadcasting conglomerate will show a documentary excoriating Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry just days before the presidential vote. 

The company, Sinclair Broadcast Group, has ordered its 62 stations to cancel regular programming to show the privately-funded, 42-minute film, 'Stolen Honour: Wounds that Never Heal', which features Vietnam veterans and former prisoners of war slamming Kerry for his 1971 testimony to Congress about atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers during the war. 

The former soldiers say Kerry's words resulted in them facing harsher treatment from their captors.

Sinclair's management has taken unabashedly pro-administration stances in the past, banning its stations from airing a respected television news show in which the anchor read the names of U.S. war dead in Iraq, and ordering its employees -- including weather and sports commentators -- to read statements affirming their allegiance to President George W Bush shortly after the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The timing of 'Stolen Honour,' just days before the Nov. 2 vote, has also raised eyebrows. The Maryland-based company's television stations reach 24 percent of the U.S. public, including 14 in states where the two main candidates are running neck-in-neck.

Critics argue that as a leading advocate of looser media ownership rules, Sinclair has an especially keen interest in the outcome of the vote. The company is financially embattled, shedding nearly one-half its stock price this year, but market expansion plans that could give it a boost have been thwarted by current ownership caps.

Existing rules say one company cannot own two or more stations in the same market unless there is significant competition, and cannot own TV stations reaching more than 35 percent of all homes.

Earlier this summer, a federal appeals court overturned a series of controversial industry-backed rule changes by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) -- whose chairman Michael Powell is the son of Bush's secretary of state, Colin Powell -- that would have allowed a single company to own three TV stations, eight radio stations and the monopoly newspaper in a single market.

According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, Sinclair spent almost 67,000 dollars in this election cycle backing Republican candidates who support its deregulation agenda. http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72887826?-573" target="_blank">[MORE...]


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Also from todays globalecho !
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BUSH POLICIES 'FUEL VIOLENCE', Say 500 U.S. Scholars
The Bush administration's failure to accept advice on Iraq from its military and foreign service officers has led to policies that have fuelled the insurgency against U.S.-led forces in the occupied nation, says a letter signed by some 500 national-security specialists. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72887827?-573

NEW FLEXIBILITY ON THE EVIL AXIS?
Word that the administration is holding talks this week with its European allies on their proposal for a deal with Iran on safeguarding its nuclear programme is raising new questions about whether President George W Bush is easing his confrontational approach to the Islamic Republic. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72885599?-573 

U.N. OBSERVERS NEEDED FOR U.S. Vote - Groups
A coalition of U.S.-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has petitioned the United Nations seeking international observers to monitor the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72885598?-573

Britain: MORE LIES OVER IRAQ WAR
The admission by the Iraqi Survey Group (ISG) that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction prior to the US-led invasion should have been a body blow to Prime Minister Tony Blair. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72885597?-573

ISRAEL WITHDRAWS CHARGE THAT DRIVER LOADED ROCET INTO UN AMBULANCE.
The Israeli Government has withdrawn its charge that video footage showed a United Nations ambulance driver handling a rocket, acknowledging that the object was a stretcher as the world body had asserted. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72883909?-573

GAME. SET. MATCH.
"Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations." - George W. Bush, 10/13/04
"So I don't know where he is. Nor - you know, I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you. I...I truly am not that concerned about him." - George W. Bush, 03/13/02 - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72883908?-573

BLAIR FACES COMMONS OVER IRAQ WAR
Opponents of the war that toppled Saddam Hussein were willing to tolerate the Iraqi dictator’s atrocities, Tony Blair said yesterday, desperately trying to fend off continued attacks over the conflict. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72872575?-573

ISRAELI TAIL WAGS AMERICAN DOC
In a U.S. election campaign that is more about foreign policy than any presidential race in decades, one issue is completely off-limits: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72870489?-573

AMERICA'S 'STRONGMAN STRATEGY' REDUX
Once again America invades a country on the pretext of instituting democracy and once again America, at best, promises to deliver the worse kind of military terror state. In case any of you missed it, on national television, during the Vice Presidential debate Dick Cheney extolled the virtues of the strategy used to turn El Salvador into hell on earth and promised the same for Iraq. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72870487?-573

BREAKING SHARONS 'IRON WALL' - Death Of The Roadmap To Peace
On Wednesday, September 14th, Occupation forces began in earnest the process of building a new settlement on Izbat Salman and Izbat Jalud lands, near Qalqiliya district in the West Bank. Earlier in August, the Occupation forces began moving in bulldozers to clear the way for settlement expansion including the uprooting of 5,000 olive trees during the construction of the Separation Wall. The new settlement, named Nof Hasharon, annexed 350 dunams of Izbat Salman and Izbat Jalud lands. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72870486?-573

Meditations: PREPARE FOR BUSH
America lost its soul with the first Gulf War under George the First, and thereupon took over the mantle of “evil empire” from the Soviet Union. Now, because a sufficient minority of Americans hasn’t acknowledged the death of this nation’s soul, George the Second will be re-elected. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72869176?-573

JAMES BAKER'S DOUBLE LIFE
When President Bush appointed former Secretary of State James Baker III as his envoy on Iraq's debt on December 5, 2003, he called Baker's job "a noble mission." At the time, there was widespread concern about whether Baker's extensive business dealings in the Middle East would compromise that mission, which is to meet with heads of state and persuade them to forgive the debts owed to them by Iraq. - http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NGoto/72842563?-573

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