7 ABC Stations Censor 'Nightline'

Patriots are not those who would censor freedom of speech.

The Sinclair "group" are not allowing that it is the individual's right and responsibility to either watch the show or turn it off. It's censorship by any intelligent description. The Sincalir group is presuming that their viewers should not be allowed to see the pictures and names of those who have lost their lives in the war. It's as transparant as Saran Wrap.

Use any rationalization you want -- the purpose of not airing the show is as obvious as the nose on your face. To equate the dead from this war to a Cub's game is very telling indeed.

You guys......look it's okay to start a war...it's okay for people to die in it.....it's okay to broadcast how noble the war is every five minutes.....it's just not okay to specifically talk about the dead as real humans......too personal....too messy......too much pressure on the average American......this whole thing is an act of patriotic love.......no need in stressing anyone out.........

There's no question, just like on this site, that they are a private enterprise and can censor the show. Whether they will get away with it or cause more problems for themselves and this administration is another story. Of course, there's interpretation and what looks like jumping to conclusions here. Of course, it's to each individual's sense of fairness to intelligently decide why they would censor the show. Business decisions are not given a pass -- they are often as flawed if not more so than a personal decision. May I remind that Enronas well as others also made business decisons. This is the basic Achilles' Heel of laizzes faire -- that only honest, upstanding citizens run private enterprises and the people we can't trust are only in government.

`Nightline' divides audience
BY LIZ HALLORAN
The Hartford Courant
HARTFORD, Conn. - (KRT) - ABC newsman Ted Koppel's plan to devote tonight's "Nightline" to reading the names of the more than 700 U.S. servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq has stirred anger and praise, and prompted one media company to bar its stations from airing the program.

Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group said Thursday that the unique program is politically motivated and ordered its seven ABC affiliates, including WGGB in Springfield, Mass., not to air it.

"While the Sinclair Broadcast Group honors the memory of the brave members of the military who have sacrificed their lives in the service of our country, we do not believe such political statements should be disguised as news content," said Barry Faber, Sinclair's counsel, in a prepared statement issued in response to a request for comment.

The controversy comes as the American public is getting a look at photographs of flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq, and while a national debate is underway over the Bush administration's attempt to keep such images from the public eye.

Sinclair owns 62 television stations in 39 markets and its employees contributed more than $174,000 to political campaigns in 2000, 98 percent of which went to Republicans. Sinclair has sought to distinguish itself as a conservative news source and in recent months has undertaken an effort to report good news out of Iraq.

ABC News, which is owned by Disney, issued a statement disagreeing with Sinclair's decision to pre-empt the program, and characterizing the planned "Nightline" as "an expression of respect which simply seeks to honor those who have laid down their lives for this country."

Leroy Sievers, "Nightline" executive producer, said the hubbub over the program has surprised him.

"It never occurred to me that people would react this way," Sievers said. "Two weeks ago, President Bush said it's important to honor the sacrifice of people who died. That's what we're doing."

Sievers said both he and Koppel had been embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division during the early phase of the war, and had recently become concerned that the network's regular "In the Line of Duty" feature was not enough to recognize those who died.

"We wanted to make them individuals," he said. "Whether you agree with the war or not, these people are over there in our name, and paid the price with their lives.

"At least we can give them their names," he said. Some critics, including Lisa de Moraes of the Washington Post, have said ABC is using the program to pump up viewership during sweeps week, a charge Sievers denies.

"Unfortunately my defense is I'm too stupid to know it was sweeps," he said. "Going into this, we never thought this would be a ratings winner."

The half-hour program will be expanded several minutes to accommodate the reading of the names, which have been certified by the Defense Department. Koppel will read the roll while showing two photographs at a time with each person's name, age, rank, and service.

Jim Doyle of the Vietnam Veterans Association said the organization fully supports Koppel and the "Nightline" effort - especially in a month when the casualty figures are the highest since 1971.

"We think it's absolutely the right idea," said Doyle, who lives in Fresno. "They won't let us see the flag-draped coffins, at least we should see their faces."

Russell K. Terry, a Vietnam veteran who runs the website "http://www.iraqwarveterans.org" said he believes the "American public is entitled to see and hear everything - that's what they are over there fighting for."

"I support the fact that we hear all their names - and it doesn't matter to me who reads them. It could be Howard Stern for all I care," he said. "Everybody needs to know."

All of this has a somewhat familiar ring to Av Westin, who spent 55 years in the television business - including running ABC News during the Vietnam War.

"Each week during the Vietnam War we posted on the evening news a body count which listed the number of North Vietnamese or Viet Cong who were killed as well as American casualties," he said. "As the war went on, the listing of the American casualties became much more of a political factor than it had been at the beginning of the war.

"This was particularly true as the public's perception of the war was shifting from `We're in it,' to `Why are we there?'"

Westin said he believes that Sinclair's action, which is an owner's right, is an example of how the war has become politicized and predicted it will lead to criticism of the media company in the communities it serves.

"Sinclair is trying to position itself as a junior Fox News," he said. "Those who don't support the war will come away from the `Nightline' program angrier, and those who support it will come away with resolve that we can't walk away from this."

Chris Westerkamp, station manager at WGGB in Springfield, said Sinclair "wants to distinguish itself from other media."

"They have a particular point of view, and it's more conservative, that's all," he said. "If you look at it from their standpoint, there's the feeling that the media is more liberal than it should be and this is a way to take a different tack."

As to what ABC viewers in Springfield will see tonight in place of "Nightline" and the list of war dead, Westerkamp said: "I don't know yet. We'll have something. Maybe a sitcom."

© 2004, The Hartford Courant

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) issued the following letter today to Mr. David Smith, President and CEO of Sinclair Broadcast Group, in response to the preemption of this evening's Nightline program:

I write to strongly protest your decision to instruct Sinclair's ABC affiliates to preempt this evening's Nightline program. I find deeply offensive Sinclair's objection to Nightline's intention to broadcast the names and photographs of Americans who gave their lives in service to our country in Iraq.

I supported the President's decision to go to war in Iraq, and remain a strong supporter of that decision. But every American has a responsibility to understand fully the terrible costs of war and the extraordinary sacrifices it requires of those brave men and women who volunteer to defend the rest of us; lest we ever forget or grow insensitive to how grave a decision it is for our government to order Americans into combat. It is a solemn responsibility of elected officials to accept responsibility for our decision and its consequences, and, with those who disseminate the news, to ensure that Americans are fully informed of those consequences.

There is no valid reason for Sinclair to shirk its responsibility in what I assume is a very misguided attempt to prevent your viewers from completely appreciating the extraordinary sacrifices made on their behalf by Americans serving in Iraq. War is an awful, but sometimes necessary business. Your decision to deny your viewers an opportunity to be reminded of war's terrible costs, in all their heartbreaking detail, is a gross disservice to the public, and to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces. It is, in short, sir, unpatriotic. I hope it meets with the public opprobrium it most certainly deserves.

One of the reasons I took ABC news off my DirecTV list (and I have to order it separately, because I'm in a rural area) is because I dislike the clear bias against our president in wartime. In my opinion, that's unAmerican.

Additionally, I'm going to make it a point to find out who Ted Koppel's Nightline sponsors are, and contact THEM about my anger over his program tonight.

Anytime a perceived liberal biased network shows America's war dead, it is NOT to support or respect the dead, it is to denigrate America's war effort. That's very clear to, not only me, but my friends. Many of us have relatives in the military, and wherever they serve, they are quite clear as to who their philosophical friends and ENEMIES are in the media.

ABC should be ashamed. Apparently Ted has no real content, he's climbing on American heroes for his "show." I'm disgusted.

Sincerely,

Judith Anne (my full name)