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Point-counterpoint: McCain vs. Sinclair

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) fired off a letter to Sinclair Broadcast Group criticizing the group's decision to pre-empt Friday's edition of Nightline. Here's part of the give and take:

McCain (R-AZ): "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.

He continued, "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."

McCain concluded, "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."

Sinclair's David D. Smith responded, saying "To those who would accuse Sinclair of censorship, we ask that they consider the daily decisions of network shows like "Nightline" as to what issues they are to cover and how they are to be presented, decisions taht necessarily involve ignoring other issues and points of view that the netowrks choose not to present to the American public."

Smith explained that it planned to present replacement programming looking at the war in Iraq from all points of view. He also cited a precedent to the Koppel show - - a Life Magazine article which listed a week's worth of fatalities in Vietnam which "...was widely credited woth furthering opposition..." to that war.