SINCLAIRAPALOOZA

I'm just going to stick all the helpful links in one place, rather than do any commentary, since you can probably guess my opinion about this.

The short and the shorter of it is: Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which own TV stations that reach 25% of the country, is planning to require all of its stations to show an anti-Kerry documentary film in the run-up to the election. The documentary has a lot of overlap with the Swift Boat Liars' A-material. Hence, should the doc be shown, voters in many parts of the country -- Sinclair owns a lot of stations in states that are up for grabs this year -- will be subjected to over an hour of uninterrupted anti-Kerry propaganda, including a rehashing of the charges relating to his war medals, an issue that was settled conclusively by the US Navy last month.

Sinclair, you may remember, is the same company that refused to allow its ABC affiliates broadcast Ted Koppels reading of the names of the Iraqi war dead on Nightline back in May.

Commence link dump!

--Sinclair's advertisers. As long as I stay away from Subway and Taco Bell for the time being, I think I'm ok. One of the advertisers, Sylvan Learning Center, has already annouced they're pulling their ads.

--Here's the DNC's action page. That page also includes a handy list of their affiliates and their locations, so you can know whether there's a Sinclair station in your area.

--"Sinclair Broadcasting Group, under fire for ordering its 62 networks to broadcast a film sharply critical of John Kerry’s opposition to the Vietnam War, is a major investor in a company recently awarded a military contract by the Bush Administration". That company is called Jadoo, a producer of portable power systems. It's enough to make one wonder if there's some sort of quid pro quo going on here. And naturally, Jadoo has done business with Enron.

--A charming statement from Sinclair spokesman Mark Hyman:

However, the accusations coming from Terry McAuliffe and others, is it because they are some elements of this that may reflect poorly on John Kerry? That it's somehow an in-kind contribution of George Bush?

If you use that logic and reasoning, that means every car bomb in Iraq would be an in-kind contribution to John Kerry. Weak job performance ratings that came out last month would have been an in- kind contribution to John Kerry. And that's just nonsense.

This is news. I can't change the fact that these people decided to come forward today. The networks had this opportunity over a month ago to speak with these people. They chose to suppress them. They chose to ignore them. They are acting like Holocaust deniers, pretending these men don't exist.

Naturally, Abraham Foxman has something to say about that lovely analogy. Meanwhile Jesse is wondering whether that Mark Hyman is the same Mark Hyman who recently trolled his blog.

--Here's a pretty straightforward take-action page.

--Lastly, Josh Marshall is all over most of the developments.