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October 14, 2004
Stop Sinclair
This week I've been spending a lot of time on the Sinclair/Stolen Honor controversy. Even though I think that Kerry's got this election in the bag now (barring a crazy October Surprise from Mr. Rove), the Sinclair thing really burns me up....and unfortunately, the whole situation is merely a symptom of a much larger problem, one that will still be around on November 3rd: corporate media consolidation and how deregulation has allowed a wealthy, powerful few to amass control of large numbers of radio and television stations, "public interest" be damned. I started trying to kick around some ideas about the best ways to respond to Sinclair locally, and Ruby kindly invited me to write a guest post for OrangePolitics. So below is a semi-long post that I just sent her....if this sort of thing interests you and you live in The OC (NC version), read on after the image...
Many of you have probably heard about the controversy regarding Sinclair Broadcast Group and its plans to require the 62 local TV stations that it owns to broadcast an anti-Kerry "documentary" shortly before the November 2nd election. The film, Stolen Honor, is reportedly a blatant political hatchet-job on John Kerry - it might as well be called Swift Boat Vets: The Movie. But while the Bush/Kerry race is on everyone's mind at the moment, this particular controversy is much more than just another development in the 2004 presidential race. The real issue at hand is the considerable effect that corporate media consolidation can have on local TV markets. Including this one.
Many of us in Orange County receive 2 of Sinclair's 62 stations: WRDC ("UPN 28", the UPN affiliate) and WLFL ("WB 22", the WB affiliate), both based out of Raleigh. If you've watched the WLFL 10 o'clock "local news" recently, you may have noticed that only a portion of the news is actually "local". Most of the stories come from a remote "NewsCentral" desk that pipes out the same "local news" to dozens of other Sinclair stations. The nightly commentary ("The Point") is done by Sinclair Vice President of Corporate Communications Mark Hyman, and Hyman's editorials tend to be extremely biased right-wing propaganda masquerading as a "fair-and-balanced" viewpoint. Like Sinclair, Hyman is based out of Baltimore, MD. To help put this into perspective, consider that at least Jesse Helms' infamous WRAL editorials were actually expressing a local opinion.
So, what can you do?
Well, if you as a resident of Orange County are bothered by the fact that our local airwaves are being misused by a large media corporation with considerable financial and political ties to both the defense industry and the Bush administration, you have several courses of action:
1) Sign the Stop Sinclair petition at StopSinclair.org. This first one's really easy. Personally I'm not that sure how effective a petition will be, but since it will be presented to the FCC, to Sinclair, and to Sinclair's major advertisers, it would be great for this petition to have at least 100,000 signatures.
2) Contact advertisers directly, especially local advertisers, and politely let them know how you feel about Sinclair and their plans to air an anti-Kerry program. A growing database of advertisers specific to WLFL and WRDC is available here. Feel free to add to it while watching TV! And remember when you call or email these advertisers that some of these folks are probably sympathetic to your concerns....they just may not realize who or what their advertising dollars are going to support. I called the Raleigh-based Law Offices of James Scott Farrin on Tuesday afternoon after seeing an advertisement. I was at least the second caller that they had received that day, and by Wednesday afternoon the firm had pulled all advertising from both WLFL and WRDC. This may not work with all advertisers, but if just a few advertisers pull their ads out, the stations will definitely take notice, as this directly effects their bottom line.
3) File either an informal objection or a formal "Petition to Deny" with the FCC regarding the upcoming license renewals of both WLFL and WRDC. As luck would have it, the licenses for both of these Raleigh stations expire on December 1st of this year. As Steve Soto of The Left Coaster has pointed out, the FCC rules allow anyone with an interest, presumably a local interest, to file a formal or informal objection as long as it is received one month before the license expiration date. For the Raleigh stations, that is November 1st. These objections must meet specific FCC requirements....I don't know these specifics, unfortunately, and it would be great to have a communications/media law expert weigh in here with more details. Remember, the FCC grants licenses to local TV stations and allows them to use goverment-owned airwaves with the expectation that the stations serve the public interest of their local community and that they provide reasonably accurate and balanced coverage of political races. If you do not feel that the Orange County community is being properly served by Sinclair's franchised version of homogenous "local news" or by right-wing propaganda designed to influence pre-election opinion, you have the right to tell the FCC this as they consider whether or not to renew the licenses of these stations!
4) Finally, call or write the stations directly and let them know how you feel. They may refer you to Sinclair's corporate headquarters, but it can't hurt to let them know that there are local TV viewers who do not approve of Sinclair's actions. Here is the contact info for WRDC and WLFL:
WLFL: (919) 872-9535
http://www.wlfl22.com/raleigh_nc/
WRDC: (919) 878-6198
http://www.upn28tv.com/
Address for both stations:
WLFL & WRDC
3012 Highwoods Blvd, Ste 101
Raleigh, NC 27604
Posted by Tim at October 14, 2004 05:44 PM
Comments
It's now up at http://OrangePolitics.org/2004/10/stop-sinclair/
Thanks Tim!
Posted by: Ruby Sinreich at October 14, 2004 10:07 PM
I have to say, I'm pretty surprised you think Kerry has the whole thing wrapped up. Even up here in yankee liberal country, most people think Kerry has an outside chance at best. People prefer the evil (and the tax cuts) they know. It's sad, really. So what's your reasoning? What gives you that hunch?
Posted by: bo at October 15, 2004 02:12 AM
I don't know that Kerry has it in the bag...yet, but I'm starting to feel better about the chance that he could take NC. I was the 5th person to cast a vote in the downtown board of elections office and there was a nice line of voters. The parking lot was packed with kerry/edwards stickers, and that was nothing compared to Hillside:
http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-533067.html
Paul
Posted by: Paul at October 15, 2004 10:37 AM
Has Anyone considered buying a few shares of Sinclair (SBGI) and filing a lawsuit against the board of directors? I think pissing off roughly half of America is good reason for stockholders to feel betrayed by their leadership!
Posted by: Patrick at October 15, 2004 10:41 AM
It's a great idea, and I have actually read some talk of shareholder lawsuits. Some folks have even suggested shorting SBGI!
Posted by: Tim at October 15, 2004 11:33 AM
Bo, you are such a pessimistic Massachusetts liberal! Seriously, though, I realize that the dynamics of the race could somehow change over the next 18 days due to some event or screwup...but as things stand now, Kerry is in extremely good shape. The debates completely changed the dynamic of the race....now Kerry just has to avoid screwing up and Bush has to somehow convince people that he's way better than the man they saw on the stage. But even more than those intangibles, I believe these things:
(1) the polls are significantly undervaluing Kerry's support. They undermeasure the younger/cellphone-using/caller-ID-using folks who will trend towards Kerry. Many polls are also based on models of "likely voters" ("did you vote in 2000?") and turnout is going to obliterate those faulty assumptions this year.
(2) Even though the polls may be "wrong", the trend lines over time are real...and they're all moving in Kerry's direction.
(3) Barring some sort of terrorist-induced scare tactic, the current "undecideds" will break towards the challenger by an overwhelming margin. They already know Bush, they're still getting used to Kerry.
(4) The ground game getting put together by ACT (Americans Coming Together), MoveOn, and the Democratic Party is going to be the best-funded, most-effective GOTV effort ever. And it will pay off in huge Democratic turnout.
(5) Based on appearances and TV advertising, Bush-Cheney seems to be giving up on Pennsylvania. They can still win without it, but they are retreating and defending states that they would like to have in the bag by now. And Kerry's got a really good shot at Ohio now.
(6) Tossup races for the Senate and House are trending Democractic, and races that were supposed to be safe Republican holds are turning into real tossups that Dems have a shot at winning. This is starting to look like 1994, only in the other direction.
(7) The media and the polling outfits want this to be a dead-even horserace to the very end but there's no reason it has to be. The other election year that 2004 is starting to resemble is 1980. Carter and Reagan were deadlocked in the late autumn polls but Reagan decisively won their one and only debate and he won the race going away. No way is Kerry going to win 480+ electoral votes, but I think he can bag at least 300.
Of course, these are my personal beliefs and speculations based on various things that I read...and are not an invitation for anyone to rest easy or take victory for granted. Sorry if my optimism seems like it's getting carried away. I certainly haven't factored in voter fraud, lawsuits, Diebold machines, last-minute surprises, etc.
Posted by: Tim at October 15, 2004 04:29 PM