Sinclair Broadcasting retreats...a little bit
10-20-2004, 05:58 AM
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Sinclair Broadcasting retreats...a little bit
Facing advertiser defections, a viewer boycott and a plummeting stock price, as well as strong opposition from Democrats, Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. scrapped its plan to air a film that attacks the 1970s-era antiwar activities of Sen. John F. Kerry, and will instead run a special produced by its news division incorporating parts of the movie.
The decision not to run all of "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" came after several shareholder complaints against the company were announced Tuesday, sending Sinclair shares down 3.5% after a nearly 8% slide Monday.
Sinclair, which owns or controls stations that reach nearly a quarter of all American homes with televisions, also scaled back the number of outlets that would air the revised program, called "A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media." It will air Friday on 40 of Sinclair's 62 stations, including three each in the crucial swing states of Ohio and Florida.
According to a Sinclair news release issued late Tuesday, the program would look at the use of documentaries to influence voting in the 2004 campaign, as well as at media bias and the content of "certain of these documentaries." "Stolen Honor" was the only film cited in the news release.
Sinclair's announcement caps 10 days in which the company found itself under assault as a symbol of the effects of media consolidation. Its plan to air the film — never announced publicly but communicated widely to its employees, its stations, its network partners and "Stolen Honor" filmmaker Carlton Sherwood — drew sharp criticism after it was disclosed in The L.A. Times, partly because the proposed air date fell so close to election day in an intensely fought presidential race.
Sinclair executives are top donors to the Republican Party, and the company has previously been criticized for eschewing localism in favor of a centralized news operation run from its Maryland headquarters. Critics and even some Sinclair employees said that approach had blurred the line between journalism and right-skewing commentary.
The Sinclair news department got the assignment to do the news program on Sunday, according to Jon Leiberman, Sinclair's Washington bureau chief. Leiberman was fired Monday for violating company policy by telling the Baltimore Sun he had refused to work on the program. In an interview with The Times, Leiberman said he thought the program should be labeled commentary, not news.
Sinclair executives didn't return calls for comment. According to the press release, the program will air at 8 p.m. Friday (7 p.m. Central time) on stations including Sinclair's only California outlet in Sacramento. Previously, Sinclair had told the networks with which it was affiliated that its stations would preempt network programming for "Stolen Honor" beginning Thursday.
The company said it would limit the airing of the special to one station in each city to "minimize the interruption of normally scheduled programming." The firm has been a beneficiary of relaxed federal limits on the number of stations one company can control in a market; Sinclair runs two or more outlets in 21 markets nationwide.
Sinclair's actions came after a day of increased shareholder pressure and evidence that the controversy was drawing wider attention to its already-sinking share price.
On Tuesday, Glickenhaus & Co., an investment firm holding 6,100 Sinclair shares, sent a letter to Sinclair's board and its chief executive, David D. Smith, asking that they immediately "provide those with views opposed to the allegations in the film an equal opportunity to respond." The letter threatened legal action to stop the broadcast otherwise, citing Sinclair's obligation to shareholders. The action was underwritten by the left-leaning advocacy group Media Matters for America.
Also Tuesday, William Lerach, a San Diego attorney with Democratic ties who represents major institutional investors, wrote to Sinclair on behalf of clients — the only one he would name was the 1199 Service Employees International Union Greater New York Pension Fund — saying it was "extremely troubled" by the company's recent downward revision of its expected third-quarter earnings, due out Nov. 4.
Lerach asked that the board take action against what he said was possible insider trading by three senior executives in the last year. Such a request is standard prelude to a shareholder suit, which Lerach said could be filed soon.
New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, a Democrat, sent Sinclair a letter Tuesday in his capacity as trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which holds 256,000 Sinclair shares, questioning how the controversy "will improve performance and add to shareholder value."
Sinclair's Smith, in the press release, called the experience of preparing the special "trying for many of those involved."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...atsonkerryfilm
I'm encouraged but still not satisfied.
Hopefully the people that have been putting stockholder pressure on Sinclair will continue to do so until they scrap plans entirely.
The decision not to run all of "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal" came after several shareholder complaints against the company were announced Tuesday, sending Sinclair shares down 3.5% after a nearly 8% slide Monday.
Sinclair, which owns or controls stations that reach nearly a quarter of all American homes with televisions, also scaled back the number of outlets that would air the revised program, called "A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media." It will air Friday on 40 of Sinclair's 62 stations, including three each in the crucial swing states of Ohio and Florida.
According to a Sinclair news release issued late Tuesday, the program would look at the use of documentaries to influence voting in the 2004 campaign, as well as at media bias and the content of "certain of these documentaries." "Stolen Honor" was the only film cited in the news release.
Sinclair's announcement caps 10 days in which the company found itself under assault as a symbol of the effects of media consolidation. Its plan to air the film — never announced publicly but communicated widely to its employees, its stations, its network partners and "Stolen Honor" filmmaker Carlton Sherwood — drew sharp criticism after it was disclosed in The L.A. Times, partly because the proposed air date fell so close to election day in an intensely fought presidential race.
Sinclair executives are top donors to the Republican Party, and the company has previously been criticized for eschewing localism in favor of a centralized news operation run from its Maryland headquarters. Critics and even some Sinclair employees said that approach had blurred the line between journalism and right-skewing commentary.
The Sinclair news department got the assignment to do the news program on Sunday, according to Jon Leiberman, Sinclair's Washington bureau chief. Leiberman was fired Monday for violating company policy by telling the Baltimore Sun he had refused to work on the program. In an interview with The Times, Leiberman said he thought the program should be labeled commentary, not news.
Sinclair executives didn't return calls for comment. According to the press release, the program will air at 8 p.m. Friday (7 p.m. Central time) on stations including Sinclair's only California outlet in Sacramento. Previously, Sinclair had told the networks with which it was affiliated that its stations would preempt network programming for "Stolen Honor" beginning Thursday.
The company said it would limit the airing of the special to one station in each city to "minimize the interruption of normally scheduled programming." The firm has been a beneficiary of relaxed federal limits on the number of stations one company can control in a market; Sinclair runs two or more outlets in 21 markets nationwide.
Sinclair's actions came after a day of increased shareholder pressure and evidence that the controversy was drawing wider attention to its already-sinking share price.
On Tuesday, Glickenhaus & Co., an investment firm holding 6,100 Sinclair shares, sent a letter to Sinclair's board and its chief executive, David D. Smith, asking that they immediately "provide those with views opposed to the allegations in the film an equal opportunity to respond." The letter threatened legal action to stop the broadcast otherwise, citing Sinclair's obligation to shareholders. The action was underwritten by the left-leaning advocacy group Media Matters for America.
Also Tuesday, William Lerach, a San Diego attorney with Democratic ties who represents major institutional investors, wrote to Sinclair on behalf of clients — the only one he would name was the 1199 Service Employees International Union Greater New York Pension Fund — saying it was "extremely troubled" by the company's recent downward revision of its expected third-quarter earnings, due out Nov. 4.
Lerach asked that the board take action against what he said was possible insider trading by three senior executives in the last year. Such a request is standard prelude to a shareholder suit, which Lerach said could be filed soon.
New York State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, a Democrat, sent Sinclair a letter Tuesday in his capacity as trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which holds 256,000 Sinclair shares, questioning how the controversy "will improve performance and add to shareholder value."
Sinclair's Smith, in the press release, called the experience of preparing the special "trying for many of those involved."
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...atsonkerryfilm
I'm encouraged but still not satisfied.
Hopefully the people that have been putting stockholder pressure on Sinclair will continue to do so until they scrap plans entirely.
10-20-2004, 06:33 AM
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Originally Posted by atlaccordguy
Blah blah wish someone would boycott the idiot MM.
I've been saying all along that if Sinclair or anyone else wants to put this movie in theaters or on DVD just like Fahrenheit 9/11 then they can go right ahead and do it.
I have no issue with the film itself, just that someone is trying to sneak it on the airwaves as a campaign ad right before the election. That's the problem, and hopefully enough of Sinclair's shareholders think it's a problem to make the zealots running the company think twice about what they're doing.
10-20-2004, 06:42 AM
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Originally Posted by MrFatbooty
That's the problem, and hopefully enough of Sinclair's shareholders think it's a problem to make the zealots running the company think twice about what they're doing.
10-20-2004, 07:11 AM
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Well, according to the L.A. Times article, alleging insider trading is a standard action prior to filing a stockholder suit. So who knows whether they did or not.
The spiteful side of me wouldn't mind if they ended up spending a few months in a federal minimum security country club though.
The spiteful side of me wouldn't mind if they ended up spending a few months in a federal minimum security country club though.