Back when Sinclair Broadcasting was threatening to broadcast an election eve smear of John Kerry, Steve Soto floated the interesting idea of raising the cost to Sinclair affiliates of cooperating with their right-wing corporate heads by
challenging their FCC license renewals. While largely a symbolic gesture, it might be useful leverage against ABC's current intransigence on their planned broadcast of the "Road to 9-11" hit piece. And fortunately, some of the
most valuable local licenses in the country are up for renewal in the next 12 months.
The FCC offers
instructions on its website for filing formal petitions to deny renewal of a broadcast license as well as informal objections (scroll down). Note that filing a formal petition is unadvisable unless you are or have the assistance of an attorney.
So if you live, for example, in one of the expensive media markets in California (petitions/objections due November 1, 2006), Massachusetts (petitions/objections due March 1, 2007), New York (petitions/objections due May 1, 2007), or Pennsylvania (petitions/objections due July 1, 2006), maybe you should write a letter letting your local network affiliate know how you feel about their plan to air the Republican party's revisionist history of anti-American terrorism--and don't forget to let them know that you're sharing your discontent with the FCC.
See the original description of the effort against Sinclair Broadcasting at The Left Coaster for more details.