WEDNESDAY
watch what i say and not what i do
memo to all the elderly running around looking for flu shots
who heard president bush in the last debate
say its your civic duty to forgo a flu shot
if you dont think you really need one
free flu shots available on capitol hill no matter
how young and healthy you are
this applies to everybody including staffers, etc
who work in the capitol complex
senator frist say they need protection cause they
shake so many hands
just thought id let you know where to go
stolen honor: the power of the press
sinclair broadcasting, a major media outlet
that reaches a quarter of all american homes
and has been previously accused of rightwing bais
recently announced inhouse that it would preempt local programming
on the friday before the election to run a viciously antikerry documentary, stolen honor,
accusing kerrys antiwar protests of adversely affecting the treatment of
pows during the vietnam war
this blatant attempt by a media outlet to influence the election
raised issues of the undue power of media consolidation
when it was made public in an latimes article and fanned
by intense coverage in blogs like talking points: memo
sinclair was already under pressure: it has received regulatory
exemptions that allow it to own more than one station in certain
markets and has been consistently accused of rightwing bais
in its ‘news’ department
ensuing protests have caused sinclair to back down some
but not nearly enough
instead of the documentary they now say they will do a
‘news special’ on the documentary entitled:
a pow story: politics, pressure and the media
which will look at the use of documentaries to influence elections
and the contents of these documentaries, of which stolen honor
is the only one mentioned in the press release
(this is what the neocons call being subtle)
this is also the result of enraged democratic officials and partisans
applying every pressure possible on them
they have been called up on regulatory issues, they have been losing advertisers
institutional investors have threatened shareholder lawsuits,
and their stock has dropped 11% since Monday to a 52 week low
this is the kind of pressure that media mavens understand
their little subterfuge of now calling it a news commentary is not sufficient
whatever little pressure you can bring to bear, please do so
the media monitoring site news hounds suggests contacting the following folk
410-568-1506-david smith, president
410-568-1505-fred smith, vice president
410-568-1508-duncan smith, vice president and secretary
410-568-1504-mark hyman/cam smart, vp for corporate relations
410-568-1507-rob smith, director
410-568-1509-helen smith
410-752-2468-steve thomas, outside counsel, thomas & libowitz
with some polite and informed commentaries of your own:
why are you showing this attack film against john kerry? are you trying to insure that bush wins? is this a suitable role for a media conglomerate to play.
im going to contact the FCC to urge them to deny your stations a license renewal.
im going to contact all of your advertisers and ask them not to buy time on your stations.
im a holder of mutual funds that currently have sinclair in their portfolios; and that I'm going to urge them to drop you.
or just email them: comments@sbgi.net
as many times as you like
and of course it wouldnt hurt to actually follow thru on these threats if you have the time
this is a good model for putting pressure on rightwing media powers whenever necessary
sinclair recently put out a press release saying they been abused in this controversy
quote unquote: "We cannot in a free America yield to the misguided attempts by a small but vocal minority to influence and trample on the First Amendment rights of those with whom they might not agree."
well, allowing a blatantly partisan media conglomerate to use its immense powers to blatantly influence a close election is not exaclty what the first amendment had in mind
though it may be news to them this is still america
MONDAY
forgive me my guilty pleasures
first it was rush the druggie and now its o reilly the fiend
what tickles me when these conservative
holier than thou family value icons go down
is exposure of the hyprocrisy
so, feeling somewhat tawdry, i nevertheless
went to the smoking gun to see if the woman who accused
bill o reilly of sexual harassment had a good case on him
being that it is more the political implications than the phonesex
that tantalizes me, i found the following excerpt page 11 particularly juicy
If any woman ever breathed a word Ill make her pay so
dearly that she'll wish she never been born. Ill take her
through the mud, bring up things in her life and make her
life so miserable she will be destroyed, and besides she wont
be able to afford the lawyers I can or endure it financially as
long as I can. And nobody will believe her, it will be her word
against mine and who are they going to believe, me or some
unstable woman making outrageous accusations. Theyd see
her as some pyscho, someone unstable. Besides Id never
make the mistake of picking unstable crazy girls like that.
If you cross FOX NEWS CHANNEL, its not just me
its (FOX President) Roger Ailes who will go after you
Im the street guy up front making loud noises about
the issues but Ailes operates behind the scenes,
strategizes and makes things happen so that one day BAM?
The person gets whats coming to them but never sees it
coming. Look at Al Franken, one day hes going to get a
knock on his door and life as hes known it will change forever.
That day will happen. Trust me.
apparently by the kind of unstable, crazy girl
hes referring to is any woman willing to challenge
him and the legal dept of fox
im impressed that mackris took him and fox on
in spite of his not so veiled threats
hes clearly confident that he and FOX have deep enuf pockets
to wear her down and have already filed a countersuit
i have to say i just love it when these
conservative icons show us what they
really mean by family values
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