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Tuesday, October 19, 2004 |
On October 9th, the Los Angeles Times broke a story that one of the major broadcasting corporations in the country, Sinclair Broadcasting, announced that they were going to air an anti-Kerry film titled Stolen Honor days before the election.
Within days, DailyKos, Atrios, and Josh Micah Marshall helped instigate a major offensive on Sinclair, calling for viewers to contact Ad Managers and Sales Reps for station advertisers in their local Sinclair affiliate. After ten days, and under extreme pressure from shareholders and advertisors, Sinclair announces it will not air Stolen Honor.
How effective was this offensive? In less than ten days, $100 million dollars in shareholder value has been erased, according to Atrios.
Below is a compilation of some of the key moments from the past ten days (from posts from the three bloggers mentioned above):
October 10
- Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt sent a letter to the executives at Sinclair Broadcasting Group admonishing them not to air Stolen Honor. An excerpt of the letter:
How can it be part of a broadcaster's public interest obligation to aspire to alter the perceptions of the audience about a presidential candidate by showing biased content that in no way reflects either breaking news or even-handed treatment of the issues? Why should a broadcaster keep its licenses if it behaves in this manner? I hope you will reconsider your edict --
October 12
- Sinclair's VP Mark Hyman gets rebuffed by the Anti-Defammation League for his comment that Kerry and the Democrats were "acting like Holocaust deniers."
- The movement to get advertisors to pull funding from Sinclair news channels gains some legs. Josh Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo instructs readers on who to contact. Josh starts getting word that advertisers are contacting Sinclair about their concerns.
- CEO David Smith arrested and charged with committing a perverted sex act in a company-owned Mercedes.
October 14
- Non-shareholders continue calling Sinclair advertisors to pull funding for airing Stolen Honor.
October 15
- A Lehman Brothers analyst report titled Mgmt Chooses Politics over Shareholders states that the airing of Stolen Honor is potentially damaging, resulting in lost ad revenues. Because of the risk, they reduced the 12-month price target to $9 (from $10).
- Eighteen senators, all Democrats, wrote last week to the Federal Communications Commission to ask it to investigate Sinclair's plans.
October 16
- The FCC refuses to intervene in the Sinclair controversy.
October 18
- Sinclair fired their Washington Bureau chief Jonathon Lieberman after denouncing Sinclair's move to show Stolen Honor in an interview for the Baltimore Sun. His comment:
"It's biased political propoganda, with clear intentions to sway this election.... For me, it's not about right or left -- it's about what's right or wrong in news coverage close to an election."
- Sinclair stock dropped approximately 8 percent.
October 19
- (Morning) New York State Comptroller, Alan Hevesi, which owns 256, 000 shares in Sinclair, sent a letter expressing concern to Sinclair on behalf of the state's $115 billion dollar common retirement fund. He posed over 10 questions to David Smith, CEO of Sinclair, directly, requesting that he reply with answers at the close of business today. The letter can be found at Atrios site, link here.
- (Approx. 10:00 AM) Glickhenhaus & Co, in conjunction with Media Matters, sends letter to David Smith representing their clients who demand that Sinclair "provide those with views opposed to the allegations in [Stolen Honor] an equal opportunity to respond....in terms of timing, format, and content."
- (Approx. 11:00 AM) SINCLAIR BROADCASTING SHAREHOLDERS DEMAND OFFICERS RETURN PROFITS FROM INSIDER TRADING. Officers Who Ordered Stations to Show Anti-Kerry Film Also Sold Stocks at High Mark, then Drove Values Down
- (Approx. 1:00 PM) California philanthropist Deborah Rappaport and her husband offered to pay for an hour of air time on Sinclair stations to air the documentary "Going Upriver," a positive portrayal of Kerry's service in Vietnam, before the Nov. 2 election day.
Mother Jones Magazine offered Sinclair a half-hour video of four prominent Republicans — including John Dean and Pete Peterson — condemning the Bush administration.
- Sinclair shares dropped more than 3 percent, falling 23 cents to $6.26 a share on the NASDAQ market.
- Sinclair's CEO David Smith says that it was a misconception or rumor that Stolen Honor was going to be played (despite the TV guide offered at Yahoo listing it in their upcoming schedule). Instead, they will be playing A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media. This is what the financial news report had to say about the change:
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."
The film replacing Stolen Honor will examine "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."
In closing, Josh Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo wonders if Sinclair will simply leave the content of film in tact and just change the title.
With stocks plummeting and shareholders preparing to cry "off with their heads," I don't know if they would be so foolish. But to discredit myself, in favor of Josh -- Josh is good at playing the sixth sense with corporate and/or government antics such this.
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