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Today's
Stories
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
October 19,
2004
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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October 20, 2004
A Long History
of Journalistic and Corporate Deception
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War
By
JASON LEOPOLD
Sinclair Broadcasting Group has tried
to influence the outcome of elections long before the media company
became a lightning rod for criticism due to its decision to air
a controversial documentary ten days before the Nov. 2 election
critical of Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry's activities
during the Vietnam War.
Two years ago, Duncan Smith, vice president of Sinclair, gave
then Maryland GOP gubernatorial candidate Robert Ehrlich extensive
use of a luxury helicopter Smith owned and billed Ehrlich's campaign-at
a discounted rate of $1,000 an hour-only after an inquiry by
the Baltimore Sun. Smith's company, Whirlwind Aviation, Inc.,
rents out the aircraft for $2,500 an hour. "Ehrlich used
the helicopter at least six times during and after the gubernatorial
campaign," according to a Nov. 20, 2002 Baltimore Sun story.
Smith said at the time that the remaining fee of more than $13,750
would be picked up by Whirlwind and listed by the company as
an "in-kind" contribution to Ehrlich's campaign.
The campaign donation appeared to violate campaign finance laws
because it wasn't reported in a timely fashion. Moreover, the
donation raised ethical issues for Sinclair. The media company
owns two television stations in Maryland and was providing Ehrlich's
campaign with favorable news coverage, while attacking Democratic
incumbent, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
"If you're an entity that owns a news outlet that is supposed
to provide fair and balanced coverage of the campaign, and yet
at the same time are providing aid to one of the candidates in
the campaign, that puts them in a severe position of conflict,"
Christopher Hanson, who teaches journalism ethics at the University
of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism, told the
Sun. "I don't see any way around that."
Sinclair never told its television viewers that it gave Ehrlich
use of Smith's helicopter during its coverage of the campaign.
Furthermore, none of the trips Ehrlich took in the helicopter
were reported in campaign finance documents his committee filed
months after Ehrlich first started using the helicopter, a violation
of state law requiring donations to be listed when they are received.
Sinclair's Smith refused to comment about the two-year old scandal.
But the conflict went even further and it highlights the problems
with relaxing federal rules governing media ownership. While
Ehrlich campaigned for governor, a campaign that he eventually
won, he also lobbied the Federal Communications Commission on
behalf of Sinclair who was embroiled in a licensing dispute with
the agency. The FCC chastised Ehrlich for intervening on Sinclair's
behalf without disclosing that the company provided him with
use of its helicopter.
In September, Sinclair and Ehrlich once again made headlines
as a result of the media company's cozy relationship with the
governor. Sinclair produced a series of tourism ads in which
Ehrlich appeared and waived its production fee on the condition
that the state of Maryland purchase $60,000 worth of time on
a Sinclair-owned station to air them, a deal which Ehrlich agreed
to.
A week after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Sinclair Chief Executive
David Smith and his three brothers who control the media company
handed down an edict to their news and sports reporters, and
even a weatherman, at the company's flagship Baltimore television
station, WBFF, requiring the broadcasters to follow up each on-air
report with a statement conveying full support for President
Bush and the war on terror.
The Sun reported that several journalists objected on the grounds
that it would undermine their objectivity. Reporters and management,
however, reached a compromise. The message read by reporters
on-air said that it came from "station management."
"Still, according to at least four people at WBFF, some
staffers believe they now look as though they are endorsing specific
government actions," the Sun reported in Sept. 18, 2001
story. "Several people interviewed at WBFF described the
choice as "no-win": do something that could erode their
reputations as objective journalists, or appear unpatriotic and
uncaring toward the victims of last week's terrorist attacks."
Sinclair also aired spots on its 60 other stations during the
aftermath of 9/11 declaring support for President Bush and other
government leaders to battle terrorist groups
The controversies continued
to pile up.
Then in December of 2001, Sinclair was fined $40,000 by the FCC
in December 2001 for exercising illegal control of business partner
Glencairn Ltd., the FCC determined after spending three years
investigating the companies' relationship.
The FCC's three Republican
commissioners said Sinclair and Glencairn were liable for misinterpreting
FCC policies. Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps wanted the
FCC to pursue harsher penalties against Sinclair, saying Sinclair
has repeatedly 'stretched the limits' of FCC ownership rules.
"Several factors contributed to the FCC's finding that Glencairn's
president and former Sinclair employee Edwin Edwards did not
exercise control of his companies," according to a Dec.
1, 2001 report in the trade magazine Broadcasting & Cable.
"His incorrect report
on the amount of debt Glencairn would assume with the purchase
of several Sullivan stations. Purchase rights held by Sinclair
for Glencairn stations at prices well below market rate. Glencairn's
agreement to sell all but two of its stations to Sinclair as
soon as the FCC relaxed rules restricting ownership of local
TV stations," the trade publication reported.
The controversies surrounding Sinclair's blatant political leanings
took its toll on the company's stock, but none more so than an
announcement the company made on Christmas Eve 2002 by Sinclair's
board of directors who voted in favor of investing $20 million
in cash in Summa Holdings Ltd., which owns auto dealerships,
retail tire franchises and a leasing company controlled by Sinclair
CEO David Smith.
In a post-Enron world, the deal appeared to be a serious conflict-of-interest.
Sinclair said Summa would spend money to advertise its auto dealerships
on Sinclair-owned television stations. The deal sent Sinclair's
stock plummeting 17 percent on Christmas Eve, a historically
light day for trading, and sparked shareholder outrage, with
many stockholders calling for a Securities and Exchange Commission
investigation and threatening to file shareholder lawsuits.
Sinclair told its shareholders at the time that it set up a special
committee of outside directors to evaluate the investment and
approved the deal, saying a conflict did not exist.
"Because the automobile
industry represents the largest category of advertisers for television
stations, and because Summa is a profitable and well-run company,
we believe that the Summa investment is an attractive one for
Sinclair," said communications attorney Martin Leader, who
chaired the committee of outside directors.
Now, two years later, Sinclair
plans to air a controversial documentary on Friday, 10 days before
the Nov. 2 election, highlighting Democratic Presidential candidate
John Kerry's antiwar activities during the Vietnam War. But the
move is backfiring on the company big time.
More than 80 of Sinclair's advertisers have abandoned the media
company's five-dozen television stations since last week, according
to National Public Radio, due to fears of a massive public boycott.
Moreover, Sinclair's stock has been battered over the past two
days, falling 10 percent to settle Tuesday at a 3 year low of
$6.35-a direct result of its decision to air the anti-Kerry film,
"Stolen Honor," on a majority of its television stations.
The company's decision to broadcast the documentary and its impact
on Sinclair's shares has led to another shareholder revolt and
at least one prominent securities litigator, William Lerach,
has threatened to take legal action against the company.
But on Tuesday, David Smith, Sinclair's chief executive, said
Sinclair would not air the anti-Kerry documentary "Stolen
Honor." Instead, Sinclair stations will broadcast a "special
one-hour news program" entitled "A POW Story: Politics,
Pressure and the Media," which will "focus in part
on the use of documentaries 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," according to the news release.
But, according to the company's news release, excerpts of "Stolen
Honor" will be aired "in the context of the broader
discussion outlined above" and 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."
Joe DeFeo, Sinclair's Vice President of News said, "As with
all news programming produced by Sinclair's News Central, 'A
POW Story' is being produced with the highest journalistic standards
and integrity. We have not ceded, and will not in the future
cede, control of our news reporting to any outside organization
or political group. We are endeavoring, as we do with all of
our news coverage, to present both sides of the issues covered
in an equal and impartial manner."
Sinclair claimed on Tuesday that company executives have met
privately with members of Kerry's campaign, "including a
recent face-to-face meeting with senior campaign officials, for
approximately two weeks in order to negotiate participation in
the special by either Senator Kerry or his designee."
Kerry has declined Sinclair's invitation.
Smith said those involved in producing the documentary "have
endured personal attacks of the vilest nature, as well as calls
on our advertisers and our viewers to boycott our stations and
on our shareholders to sell their stock. In addition, and more
shockingly, we have received threats of retribution from a member
of Senator John Kerry's campaign."
A spokesman for the Kerry campaign vehemently denied the allegations,
and Wall Street doesn't buy it either. Many of Sinclair's largest
shareholders have said privately that Smith has failed to take
responsibility for the firestorm he created and has blamed Democrats
for the toll his actions have taken on the Sinclair's finances.
Indeed, as Jim Glickenhaus, general partner of Glickenhaus &
Co., a Wall Street firm whose clients own about 6,100 shares
of Sinclair stock, said Tuesday in an interview with CBS Marketwatch,
Sinclair "management is not acting in the interest of shareholders.
By showing something that's clearly propaganda, they are damaging
the (broadcast) network."
Jason Leopold is the former Los Angeles bureau chief
of Dow Jones Newswires where he spent two years covering the
energy crisis and the Enron bankruptcy. He just finished writing
a book about the crisis, due out in December through Rowman &
Littlefield. He can be reached at: jasonleopold@hotmail.com
Weekend
Edition Features for October 16 / 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
/
|