Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

October 11, 2004

Sinclair's Gift to the Bush Campaign

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Times ran a report that the Sinclair Broadcast Group, "whose television outlets reach nearly a quarter of the nation's homes with TV, is ordering its stations to preempt regular programming just days before the Nov. 2 election to air" the film Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, "that attacks Sen. John F. Kerry's activism against the Vietnam War."

"Sinclair's programming plan, communicated to executives in recent days and coming in the thick of a close and intense presidential race, is highly unusual even in a political season that has been marked by media controversies."

The New York Times and Washington Post have more on this important story.

Meanwhile, Josh Marshall is outraged: "It's not a 'fairness' or a free speech issue. It's a massive and quite public case of election and campaign finance fraud." And Daily Kos is urging its activist community to target Sinclair.

But Rick Hasen makes a very important point: "It is certainly unusual for a broadcast station to run what amounts to a long commentary against a candidate for federal office... But -- from the point of view of federal election law -- this is really no different from the New York Times endorsing a candidate for president (or running an oped supporting or opposing such a candidate)."

It will be interesting to see if a left-leaning media group runs Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, which is now out on DVD.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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