April 29, 2004

Sinclair to Preempt `Nightline' on ABC Stations, Cites Politics

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. ordered its ABC affiliates to preempt tomorrow's broadcast of "Nightline,'' which will air the names and photos of U.S. military personnel who have died in combat in Iraq, saying the move is politically motivated.

"Despite the denials by a spokeswoman for the show, the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq,'' the company said in a faxed statement. Sinclair, which owns 62 U.S. television stations, said ABC is disguising political statements as news content.

Nightline anchor Ted Koppel will read the names of the more than 500 members of the U.S. armed forces killed in Iraq as their photos air in pairs, the network has said. Their names, ranks, branches of service, hometowns and ages will be listed under the photos. The entire broadcast will be devoted to reading the names.

The 30-minute program airs at 11:35 p.m. New York time on ABC, a unit of the Walt Disney Co. It will include those certified as killed in action by the Pentagon between March 19, 2003, and the date of the broadcast. Because of the list's size, Nightline will only be able to devote seconds to each casualty, executive producer Leroy Sievers said Tuesday.

Sinclair owns stations affiliated with ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, WB and UPN in 39 markets.

In an e-mailed statement, ABC said the broadcast "is an expression of respect which simply seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country.''

The Sinclair company is absolutely right!
This was designed to be a hit piece on President Bush and "his" War on Terror, nothing more, nothing less.
It was timed to air on the 1st "anniversary" of President Bush's landing on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Lincoln so that the Left could mock him again about that and the "Mission Accomplished" banner that was displayed behind the President when he spoke there.
(The "Mission Accomplished" was for the crew of the Lincoln, who had been deployed overseas for over a year, and to signal that major combat action to topple Saddam, was accomplished, too; it was not to say, as the Left would have it, that our work in Iraq was over.)
In that ABC has never devoted airtime to reading the names of the soldiers the US has lost in any other wars or even to the names of the 3,000 civilian citizens we lost on 9/11, it is beyond doubt that they planned this special Nightline as just another partisan attack on the President and the policies of his Administration.
BRAVO to Sinclair for doing what they did and stating the truth publicly about the political aims of a major Liberal media organ like ABC.
What we've all been saying amongst ourselves privately for years about "Liberal media bias" has now been stated openly and in the media itself.
'Bout time!
And kudos again to Sinclair for putting their foot down and refusing to be a part of it!
The times (and the political climate in this country), they are a-changin'.
Here's Sinclair's own statement which is even more clear as to their reasons for the show's preemption:

ABC Nightline Pre-emption

The ABC Television Network announced on Tuesday that the Friday, April 30 edition of "Nightline" will consist entirely of Ted Koppel reading aloud the names of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq. Despite the denials by a spokeswoman for the show, the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq.

There is no organization that holds the members of our military and those soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in service of our country in higher regard than Sinclair Broadcast Group. While Sinclair would support an honest effort to honor the memory of these brave soldiers, we do not believe that is what "Nightline" is doing. Rather, Mr. Koppel and "Nightline" are hiding behind this so-called tribute in an effort to highlight only one aspect of the war effort and in doing so to influence public opinion against the military action in Iraq. Based on published reports, we are aware of the spouse of one soldier who died in Iraq who opposes the reading of her husband's name to oppose our military action. We suspect she is not alone in this viewpoint. As a result, we have decided to preempt the broadcast of "Nightline' this Friday on each of our stations which air ABC programming.

We understand that our decision in this matter may be questioned by some. Before you judge our decision, however, we would ask that you first question Mr. Koppel as to why he chose to read the names of 523 troops killed in combat in Iraq, rather than the names of the thousands of private citizens killed in terrorist attacks since and including the events of September 11, 2001. In his answer, we believe you will find the real motivation behind his action scheduled for this Friday. Unfortunately, we may never know for sure because Mr. Koppel has refused repeated requests from Sinclair's News Central news organization to comment on this Friday's program.

May God rest the souls of those American troops who have lost their lives in Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as those who've made the ultimate sacrifice in the larger War on Terror.
And may the Lord continue to guide and comfort their bereaved families and love ones of those who have fallen.
And I'd like to add a special invocation of blessing for Sinclair Broadcasting--a great American organization!