Sorry for another Sinclair diary . . . ok, I'm not. See, almost everyone is missing the point here. Sinclair has not changed its position one bit. They are spinning, hoping to relieve the pressure of the boycott by giving a false impression of what they are doing. But what they are doing is
even worse than if they were airing
Stolen Honor in full. In fact, the whole thing is a winger's dream, a Free Republic version of the perfect media event.
I'll explain below . . .
You see, I've worked on dozens, maybe even hundreds of these types of panel shows. I've produced some myself. So let me break down the public utterances of Sinclair and explain what they're doing.
The news special will focus in part on the use of documentaries and other media to influence voting, which emerged during the 2004 political campaigns, as well as on the content of certain of these documentaries. The program will also examine the role of the media in filtering the information contained in these documentaries, allegations of media bias by media organizations that ignore or filter legitimate news and the attempts by candidates and other organizations to influence media coverage.
Contrary to numerous inaccurate political and press accounts, the Sinclair stations will not be airing the documentary "Stolen Honor" in its entirety. At no time did Sinclair ever publicly announce that it intended to do so. In fact, since the controversy began, Sinclair's website has prominently displayed the following statement: "The program has not been videotaped and the exact format of this unscripted event has not been finalized. Characterizations regarding the content are premature and are based on ill- informed sources."
While the news special will discuss the allegations surrounding Senator John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities in the early 1970s raised by a number of former POWs in "Stolen Honor," it will do so in the context of the broader discussion outlined above.
That's from the Sinclair press release today that everyone is citing as evidence that Sinclair is "backing down." But read it carefully and you'll see they are doing nothing of the sort. In fact, they are totally accurate in saying that they've maintained all along that they may not air it in full, as far as I can tell. But that's completely irrelevant! In fact, what they are doing is even worse.
To get a sense of what they're really doing, check out what Sinclair VP Mark Hyman said on CNN:
HEMMER: What's the motivation behind this airing now?
HYMAN: Well, this is definitely a newsworthy event. These Vietnam prisoners of war had suffered horrific abuse and unspeakable torture for many years. And they -- most of them maintained silence for 31 years and felt a need to respond to claims made by John Kerry.
They have only recently come forward and, as you may know, they've approached the broadcast networks who all said, "We're not interested in speaking to you folks." Nobody has earned a right to speak on the Vietnam experience more so than these men. There are a pair of Medal of Honor winners in this particular group. So, these folks have some standing.
Now, our goal here is to get John Kerry to sit down and talk with these guys, get a chance to tell them why he branded them as war criminals, why he accused them of committing wartime atrocities. These are questions...
Put the two together. What they planned all along was to air selected portions of the anti-Kerry propaganda and intersperse that with studio elements of former POWs and other veterans bashing Kerry. Think Swift Boat Unfiltered. This is far worse as a smear than if they had just aired the documentary. It reinforces the "message" of the documentary and updates it with the panel to make the charge seem fresh and alive.
But, wait, there's more. Remember all that about "the role of the media in filtering the information contained in these documentaries, allegations of media bias by media organizations that ignore or filter legitimate news and the attempts by candidates and other organizations to influence media coverage"? You see, all of this will be framed as a discussion about how the liberal media, following the lead of the Kerry campaign, has systematically ignored these claims and "filtered" the news. That's how they will claim that this is "news" and not just a recycling of old anti-Kerry smears. It's as if the Free Republic were programming a night of programming with the aid of FCC lawyers and the Bush campaign. It's intensely cynical and partisan.
And it is NOT a retreat. They're as brazen as ever. The pressure must be raised, not relaxed in any way.
