As critics prepared to pounce Friday evening, Sinclair Broadcast Group aired its controversial news special "A POW Story: Politics, pressure and the Media" and portrayed itself as a victim of those who would try to suppress free speech, while clearly treading carefully to prove that it was presenting both sides of the story about Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam service and post-service anti-war activities.

Although the program began with a lengthy clip from the Kerry-bashing documentary "Stolen Honor," which claimed that his anti-war comments were used to intimidate US POWs held by North Vietnam, there was also a lengthy clip later from the pro-Kerry documentary "Going Up River," including the first hand account of a veteran who credits Kerry with saving his life while both were under fire. Two former POWs who oppose Kerry appeared in studio with anchor Jeff Barnd in Baltimore, which seemed to give them a slight advantage over two former POWs who support Kerry who appeared via satellite from Washington. One of those two was the head of the Veterans Institute for Security and Democracy, which had filed a complaint about the program with the FCC even before it had aired (10/21/04 RBR Daily Epaper #206).

At one point, Barnd delivered a detailed account of Sinclair's attempts to get Kerry to participate in the program. He said that at one point after the Kerry campaign asked for equal time, Sinclair offered "You pick the time and place and format. It never did," he said of the campaign's response. Nevertheless, the program included a clip of Kerry at an October 14th campaign appearance in Las Vegas responding to questions about Vietnam and his anti-war activities. There was also a brief account of the related controversy about President George W. Bush's Air National Guard service which didn't come to any conclusion about whether or not he fulfilled his duties.

Noting that several groups had been orchestrating efforts to have people file complaints against Sinclair for airing what critics had expected to be a denunciation of Kerry, Sinclair wrapped up the program by making its own appeal - - asking viewers to go the fcc.gov or Sinclair's own website to register their support for the company's airing of the news special.

RBR observation:
The finished product was clearly not the right-wing diatribe that Sinclair critics had expected. Although a Kerry campaign spokesman still insisted on calling it "a premeditated smear," some liberal activists who'd scheduled a telephone press conference shortly after the show aired were more subdued. "Sinclair certainly was acting like a broadcaster should tonight," said Consumers Union Director Gene Kimmelman, crediting public outcry with making Sinclair deliver a balanced account. "It appears that Sinclair listened to the court of public opinion," said former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani, who now heads the DC lobbying office of the United Church of Christ. What will never be known is whether the broadcast was pretty much what Sinclair had planned all along, or whether it was significantly modified. What is sure that while most Americans had probably never heard of Sinclair Broadcast Group a few weeks ago, they know the name now.