Keeping the SIN in Sinclair
You may have heard the Sinclair Broadcasting Group (the people that brought us the protest of Nightline's recitation of the Iraq War dead a few months back) is requiring its stations to run an anti-Kerry film in the days leading up to the election. The film was made by Carlton Sherwood, whose claim to credibility includes a book "exposing" the US Government's persecution of Rev. Moon.

Josh Marshall has the letter written by former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt to Sinclair executives. Kevin Drum links to the complete list of Sinclair stations (there are 2 owned and operated in Nashville). Matthew Yglesias has the phone number ((410) 568-1780) with Sinclair's automated response to the controversy--seems they're trying to make this qualify as a "news event" maybe with interviews after or something ridiculous like that.

Today's Times has a piece on the fiasco. Atrios offers the contact info of Sinclair execs to allow us to express our feelings, and also reminds us of the Sinclair president's affinity for hookers.

I bring it all together so you don't have to.

My thoughts are that TV stations seem to respond much better to phone calls than to letters/emails. If you want to take some action, I'd suggest calling your local Sinclair station and encouraging them to pressure the corporate parents to back off. Ultimately the local folks will have little say directly, but if we can inspire a bit more shrillness in their protests upstairs, it might have an impact.

Owned and operated Sinclair stations in Nashville are Fox 17 (615) 244-1717 and UPN 30 (615) 259-5630.