Sinclair In Trouble (Also Gets Sued by Vet who claims propaganda film distorted what he said 180 degrees, as usual for smearvet propaganda)
Sinclair to DC buro chief: You're fired!
Well, that didn't take long. As War Room readers will recall, yesterday morning, the Baltimore Sun published remarks from Sinclair Broadcast Group's Washington bureau chief Jon Lieberman criticizing Sinclair's unprecedented decision to pre-empt programming with anti-Kerry propaganda days before the election. By Monday afternoon, Lieberman was out of a job. There was no subtle demotion here, no slow move to the crappy office, no attempt on Sinclair's part to even pretend there was room for in-house dissent on the "Stolen Honor" controversy. Instead, Lieberman's public criticism earned him a Trump-like "You're fired" from Sinclair honcho Mark Hyman. But hey, at least Lieberman still has his dignity -- and we'd think a much better chance at getting hired by a media outlet with acceptable standards, one that doesn't consider a one-sided hit piece on a presidential candidate "news."
In his statement on Lieberman's letting-go, Hyman said: "Everyone is entitled to their personal opinion, including Jon Leiberman," said Mark Hyman, Sinclair's vice president for corporate relations. (Everyone is entitled to their opinion, they should just, apparently, keep it to themselves.) Hyman also pulled out the old "disgruntled employee" argument against Lieberman, diminishing him as someone with an axe to grind. But what Sinclair editorial staffer with any credibility wouldn't be disgruntled, we wonder?
The Baltimore Sun found another recently departed former "disgruntled employee" of Sinclair, Lisa Modarelli, who left in August 2004 because the pay was so low and out of frustration over Sinclair's decision to block its ABC stations from airing the Nightline program featuring Ted Koppel reading the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. "Our sources didn't trust us anymore, even though we didn't make that decision," Modarelli told the Sun. "They didn't want to work with us anymore because whatever we did, the story would turn out biased."
She added: "For me, it's just about ethical journalism."
-- Geraldine Sealey
[07:25 PDT, Oct. 19, 2004]
Sinclair stock in free-fall
Stock in the Sinclair Broadcasting Group continues to drop like a rock. Since the company announced its unprecedented move to air a one-side hit piece on its 62 stations nationwide the eve of a presidential election (i.e. "Stolen Honor," the anti-Kerry documentary), Sinclair shares have plummeted from nearly $8 to $6.50, losing more than 20 percent of their value in just six trading days. The current value not only marks a 52-week low for the company's stock, but it's the lowest level since Feb, 2001, and comes dangerously close to surpassing the stock's five-year low. Sinclair's Republican stunt proves once again that mass communications and partisan politics don't always mix, especially with irate Democrats voicing their outrage over Sinclair's move and urging advertiser boycotts. As one Sinclair employee told Salon last week, "They have no idea what they've unleashed."
The picture for Sinclair shareholders is even more grim if they step back and look at what the stock was valued at just six months ago; $13. That was the last time Sinclair decided to use the public airwaves for blatantly political purposes, refusing its ABC affiliates from airing special "Nightline" during which the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq were read off. Since then, the stock has lost nearly half its value. Of course if longtime Sinclair shareholders really want to gnash their teeth over the company's inept management, they can just think back to the glory days of 1995 when their $6.50 Sinclair stock was worth…$45.
-- Eric Boehlert
[07:02 PDT, Oct. 19, 2004] |
