Anti-Kerry Documentary to air in Swing States

[Drbio]

Up to 62 television stations owned or managed by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group - many of them in swing states - will show a documentary highly critical of Senator John Kerry's antiwar activities 30 years ago within the next two weeks, Sinclair officials said yesterday.

Those officials said the documentary would pre-empt regular night programming, including prime time, on its stations, which include affiliates for all six of the major broadcast networks in the swing states of Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Called "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," the documentary features Vietnam veterans who say their Vietnamese captors used Mr. Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony, in which he recounted stories of American atrocities, prolonging their torture and betraying and demoralizing them. Similar claims were made by prisoners of war in a commercial that ran during the summer from an anti-Kerry veterans group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Two of the former prisoners who appeared in the Swift Boat advertisement were interviewed for the movie, including Ken Cordier, who had to resign as a volunteer in the Bush campaign after the advertisement came out.

Sinclair's plan to show the documentary was first made public by The Los Angeles Times on Saturday.

Mark Hyman, Sinclair's vice president for corporate relations, who doubles as a conservative commentator on its news stations, said the film would be shown because Sinclair deemed it newsworthy.

"Clearly John Kerry has made his Vietnam service the foundation of his presidential run; this is an issue that is certainly topical," he said. Asked what defined something as newsworthy, Mr. Hyman said, "In that it hasn't been out in the marketplace, and the news marketplace."

Because Sinclair is defining the documentary - which will run commercial free - as news, it is unclear if it will be required by federal regulations to provide Mr. Kerry's campaign with equal time to respond.

But acknowledging that news standards call for fairness, Mr. Hyman said an invitation has been extended to Mr. Kerry to respond after the documentary is shown. "There are certainly serious allegations that are leveled; we would very much like to get his response," he said.

Asked if Sinclair would consider running a documentary of similar length either lauding Mr. Kerry, responding to the charges in "Stolen Honor" or criticizing Mr. Bush, Mr. Hyman said, "We'd just have to take a look at it."

Aides to Mr. Kerry said he would not accept Sinclair's invitation.

"It's hard to take an offer seriously from a group that is hellbent on doing anything to help elect President Bush even if that means violating basic journalism standards," said Chad Clanton, a Kerry spokesman.

Sinclair's plans put Mr. Kerry's campaign in an awkward position similar to the one in which it found itself in August, when the Swift Boat group first began running commercials against him containing unsubstantiated charges that he lied to get his war medals. Mr. Kerry's aides at first held back from responding, so as not to give the group and its charges more attention - a decision that some Kerry aides now acknowledge cost him in public opinion polls.

Mr. Clanton said Mr. Kerry's campaign would call on supporters to stage advertiser boycotts and demonstrations against Sinclair's stations.

A group of Democratic senators, including Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Dianne Feinstein of California, readied a letter calling for the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the move, arguing that the documentary was not news but a prolonged political advertisement from Mr. Bush and, as such, violated fairness rules.

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, an advocacy group promoting greater media regulation, said he did not think the film would qualify for a news exemption. And, he said, even if it did fall under equal time provisions, those are based on candidate appearances and in this case, since it is Mr. Kerry who appears, "albeit disparagingly," stations would be required to show Mr. Bush or possibly the independent candidate Ralph Nader, if they requested it.

Sinclair was already a galvanizing force for Democrats. The political donations of its executives have gone overwhelmingly to Republicans, according to a review of donations on Politicalmoneyline.com. In April Sinclair refused to run an episode of "Nightline" on its stations in which the anchor Ted Koppel spent the entire program reading the names of American soldiers killed in Iraq.

"Stolen Honor" was produced by Carlton Sherwood, formerly a reporter with The Washington Times. His Web site says he received no money from any political party or campaign but got initial funding from Pennsylvania veterans.

The documentary has been distributed by mail order and via streaming Internet connections. Mr. Hyman said Sinclair was not paying for the right to broadcast it.

[Drbio]

As expected....kerry is running like a weasel and avoiding the opportunity to address core issues brought up by the film.

[dalmations202]

The documentary has been distributed by mail order and <u>via streaming Internet connections.</u>

If anyone has a link, I'd like to see what the veterans have to say.

[Drbio]

I've been looking. So far...nada. Whoever finds it first, please share.

So far, I've only found Stolen Honor.com which sells the video for $4.99.

[jacktruth]

"It's hard to take an offer seriously from a group that is hellbent on doing anything to help elect President Bush even if that means violating basic journalism standards," said Chad Clanton, a Kerry spokesman.

This quote is fascinating considering the obvious liberal media bias as represented by Dan Rather and the pro-Kerry ABC news memo that came out over the weekend.

it's maddening!

[dalmations202]

Stolen honor documentary... may sink Kerry's presidential boat



Kaye Grogan

Kaye Grogan
August 25, 2004


Democrats acted as though they had lost their capacity to speak — when many were confronted with the 59 lies presented so transparently in Michael Moore's "pathetic" President Bush bashing documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11. To them it was just good entertainment. In fact, Moore received preferential treatment at the Democratic National Convention which brought out the Democrats true colors, and they weren't red, white, and blue either.

Now the battle lines have been drawn, and a scathing documentary is scheduled to air, bashing John Kerry by former Viet Nam POWs — only chances are very good this documentary is not going to be fictional or lathered up in lies.

War is hell — is going to be emphasized to a much greater degree when the documentary hits the airwaves in about two weeks. The documentary has no direct link with the Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth, but they are probably delighted and looking forward to front row seats — as many other people are.

The documentary Stolen Honor — will detail how the Prisoners of War felt betrayed by John Kerry when they learned of his antiwar stance back in the United States. Just like the pictures aired 24/7 by the liberal news media dealing with the prisoner abuse at the Iraqi prison camp Abu Ghraib by American soldiers endangered captives held by al-Qaida operatives to a much higher level, the same was true when John Kerry spoke openly about alleged war atrocities by his comrades in Viet Nam. Boy. . .talk about being hung out to dry.

While the alleged war atrocities were horrible if they are accurate — it was endangering the POWs lives still being held captive in Viet Nam. Sleeping with the enemy is never a good idea. Before the liberals start getting their underwear twisted up in a knot, they need to put themselves in the shoes of the POWs for just a minute, to see how they would feel if they were being held captive and one of their comrades went over the public airways relating war atrocities to the world, and the enemy.

While John Kerry has called on President Bush to halt the infamous ads produced and aired by the Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth — he has only batted his eyes and turned a deaf ear to the ads that have bashed the president for nearly a year from his camp or by his supporters. Kerry needs to practice what he preaches and call off his own gang of attack dogs. But isn't that just like a Democrat? They have the right to smear, but they scream foul — when the shoe's tightening up on the other foot.

With all of the paramount problems strangling Americans in dealing with terrorists, do we really need a leader who voted to take action in Iraq and then said if he had known the outcome he wouldn't have voted for the action? How can anyone know the outcome of a war? We don't even know what is going to happen tomorrow, much less a week, month or year from now.

With all of the negativity surrounding politics in the 21st century — along with war. . . politics can be viewed as hellfire and brimstone. . . to many Americans.

[kg_veteran]

The DNC is going to file an FEC complaint on Tuesday.

Typical.

[Drbio]

Who didn't see that coming? Maybe they should just call this a documentary and let the dimocraps stew in their own feces.