I love pumpkin carving. Ben did the jack o’ latern face for Jaycie and I carved the bats for Max. The picture didn’t turn out that well, but they look really cute in person. Happy Halloween!!!!

Thanks to you, along with the hard work of many other great organizations, we were able to counter a plan to tilt the election to George Bush. By insisting on news from our media companies and not propaganda, you stood up for what is right. Together, we stopped Sinclair.

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Thank you,

the Stop Sinclair, Concerts for Change, and Run Against Bush Team

Jodi, Ben and I went to the Rock for Karl benefit last night at the Quest. The night was quite interesting.First of all, the crowd was so different. It’s so hard to explain. The crowd was older, not your typical Quest or First Ave crowd. There were people in suits and ties, women with sweaters around their necks. It’s was just crazy. I spotted a couple women wearing “Mom jeans.” You know those jeans with the waist above the belly button and tapered legs. It

From Tiff-Here’s to small victories
Feeling heat, broadcaster backs off airing anti-Kerry film
Frank Ahrens and Howard Kurtz, Washington Post
October 20, 2004 SINC1020

Under mounting political, legal and financial pressure, Sinclair Broadcast Group on Tuesday backed away from its plan to air a film attacking Sen. John Kerry’s Vietnam record, saying it would use only portions of the movie in a special scheduled for Friday.

“The experience of preparing to air this news special has been trying for many of those involved,” Sinclair chief executive David Smith said in a statement. “The company and many of its executives have endured personal attacks of the vilest nature, as well as calls on our advertisers and our viewers to boycott our stations and on our shareholders to sell their stock.”

Chad Clanton, a spokesman for the Kerry campaign, which had demanded equal time to respond to the planned airing of the 42-minute film “Stolen Honor,” said Sinclair “has … a partisan agenda.”

Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the nonprofit Media Access Project, called the Sinclair move “a surprising cave-in” and said the 62-station TV company “clearly felt a lot of pressure and this is an attempt to find a face-saving way out.”

Democrats have complained to three federal agencies about the special, noting that Smith and his three brothers, who run the Baltimore-area company, have contributed heavily to President Bush and the Republican Party.

Sinclair said it will produce “A POW Story: Politics, Pressure and the Media,” hosted by Jeff Barnd, an anchor at Sinclair’s WBFF in Baltimore, using footage from “Stolen Honor” and other political documentaries while also examining allegations of media bias.

The company now maintains it never intended to air “Stolen Honor” in its entirety, although Sinclair commentator and Vice President Mark Hyman had told the Washington Post that the movie would air unless Kerry agreed to an interview, in which case only portions might run.

“I am not personally aware that he ever said that, but if he said it, that was not company policy at the time,” said Sinclair lawyer Barry Faber. Sinclair’s position on the film has been “evolving,” he said, and journalists and critics had made a “leap to judgment.”

Political uproar

The film features 17 former prisoners of war criticizing Kerry’s 1971 allegations of U.S. atrocities in Vietnam. Asked if the political uproar had prompted Sinclair to change its plans, Faber said, “We did not and do not make programming decisions because of political pressure.” Sinclair also generated headlines after firing its Washington bureau chief, Jon Leiberman, on Monday, for criticizing plans to air the movie.

Sinclair’s stock has dropped more than 15 percent since the controversy erupted 10 days ago. Alan Hevesi, the Democratic comptroller of New York whose state pension fund holds 257,000 shares of Sinclair, asked in a letter to the company Tuesday whether airing the movie would further depress the shares.

The Sinclair announcement came hours after Deborah Rappoport, a major Democratic donor with her husband, Andy, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, said they had offered to buy one hour on Sinclair stations. This would finance a 42-minute version of a pro-Kerry Vietnam documentary, “Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry.”

Rappoport said she was “deeply, deeply outraged” by Sinclair’s action and was offering $1 million more than the company’s usual ad rate in response.

Also Tuesday, James Beardsley Jr., an attorney for a former Vietnam veteran who is seen in an anti-war protest in “Stolen Honor,” said he would sue Sinclair if it airs the movie. The veteran, Kenneth Campbell, now a University of Delaware professor, sued filmmaker Carlton Sherwood for libel this week. Sherwood’s lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, called the suit “completely spurious.”

A message from Stop Sinclair

Email your friends and tell them to vote at www.StopSinclair.org

Contact the Sinclair station near you and tell them to STOP. Find the station in your area:
http://www.sbgi.net/business/television.shtml

Contact your senators and representative in Washington and tell them to address this issue on the floor of Congress. Find your senators here:
http://www.senate.gov. Find your representative here:
http://www.house.gov.

Contact Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who criticized Sinclair when they refused to air Nightline. Ask him to stand up to Sinclair again:
http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Contact.Home

Contact Michael Powell, FCC Chairman, and tell him to STOP Sinclair: Michael.Powell@fcc.gov

Keep fighting for the TRUTH about John Kerry!

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I just have to share my excitement of how horrible Bush was last night. I can’t believe how childish he was at times. I have to laugh. His facial expressions and his breaking of the rules were just crazy. I was proud that for the most part Kerry stopped when his time was up and didn’t ask for additional time for another rebuttal. Bush did it at least 3 times which made him look horrible. I haven’t been very confident in Kerry’s ability to defeat Bush in the election, but my confidence in him has risen. I just can’t get over Bush’s cattiness. The guy never ceases to cause further embarrassment that he is our president.

Basically, I assess his whole foreign policy to be playground bully tactics: He will use people when he wants, but if they are in his way he will beat the crap out of them. He will never admit he was wrong because then people might think he is weak. Ugh! He needs to grow up! WE NEED A NEW PRESIDENT!!!!