Letter to the Sinclair affiliate in Madison, WI:
Marshall Porter, General Manager
WMSN-TV FOX 47
7847 Big Sky Drive
Madison, WI 53719
Dear Mr Porter,
I understand from the Los Angeles Times that Sinclair Broadcasting Group intends to throw the election to George Bush with the last-minute airing of an anti-Kerry film along the lines of the Swift Boat Veterans' smear. Further, that they intend to force you and all their affiliates to run that smear.
I heard about it on Air America today also as the final corruption of a free press, the best and last guarantor of our liberties from the fascist threat. Well, we still have some political options in this country.
I don't know you or whether you know Madison, but I do, having lived and worked here for thirty-five years. I've raised a family, contributed (I hope) to the community, raised my kids here and been politically active all that time.
I swear to God, if you do this, I will not rest until you are driven out of the Madison market. I don't care if it takes ten years, my every waking moment will be consumed with making you rue the day.
Sincerely,
MikeB
I mean it too. This is a terrific opportunity to grind these wingnuts into dust. I've done business in this town for thirty-five years and am sending letters to every advertiser on the list: Porta Bella and Paisan's Restaurants, Don Miller Auto, all of them. I emphasize that Sinclair and their affiliates are a vicious partisan organization masquerading as a legitimate business, and I refuse to do further business with them in any way if they continue to support these renegades.
Everybody gets it, this is over the top. And therein lies the opportunity. We must utterly destroy Sinclair. If we do not, they and their ilk will continue this reign of terror. They must be disciplined. It's not going to be all that hard, Atrios and others have pointed out their shaky financials. Destroying these bastards will give a terrific boost to the Democratic-minded blogosphere, will build our sense of power as we and others see it.
Secondary boycotts can be terribly effective, they certainly were in the labor movement before being made illegal by the Taft Hartley Act of 1948. They were ruled out exactly because they were so effective. A secondary boycott is one where you pressure not the party you have a dispute with, but people who do business with them (like Sinclair advertisers), so they will in turn pressure the principal. Although outlawed in industrial disputes, secondary boycotts are perfectly legal in the political and consumer sphere. The modern Teamsters Union was created after WWII with an annihilating secondary boycott: the principal target was non-union trucking employers, but pressure was exerted on the union employers who interlined (exchanged freight) with them. The union ordered unionized employers not to do business with targeted non-union employers on penalty of being struck. Listen people, that's how power is built. Wake up.
The caterwauling about Rove reminds me of General US Grant's remark about Lee when he finally came east to kick Confederate ass once and for all -- Grant, the consummate master of offensive strategy:
Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what are we going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do.
What Grant did and the tack he took are why we're here today. Get to work people, be worthy of that tradition.