ABC Nightline Pre-emption by Sinclair Broadcast Group

“The ABC Television Network announced on Tuesday that the Friday, April 30 edition of “Nightline” will consist entirely of Ted Koppel reading aloud the names of U.S. servicemen and women killed in action in Iraq. Despite the denials by a spokeswoman for the show, the action appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq.

There is no organization that holds the members of our military and those soldiers who have sacrificed their lives in service of our country in higher regard than Sinclair Broadcast Group. While Sinclair would support an honest effort to honor the memory of these brave soldiers, we do not believe that is what “Nightline” is doing. Rather, Mr. Koppel and “Nightline” are hiding behind this so-called tribute in an effort to highlight only one aspect of the war effort and in doing so to influence public opinion against the military action in Iraq. Based on published reports, we are aware of the spouse of one soldier who died in Iraq who opposes the reading of her husband’s name to oppose our military action. We suspect she is not alone in this viewpoint. As a result, we have decided to preempt the broadcast of “Nightline’ this Friday on each of our stations which air ABC programming.

We understand that our decision in this matter may be questioned by some. Before you judge our decision, however, we would ask that you first question Mr. Koppel as to why he chose to read the names of 523 troops killed in combat in Iraq, rather than the names of the thousands of private citizens killed in terrorist attacks since and including the events of September 11, 2001. In his answer, we believe you will find the real motivation behind his action scheduled for this Friday. Unfortunately, we may never know for sure because Mr. Koppel has refused repeated requests from Sinclair’s News Central news organization to comment on this Friday’s program.“

Sinclair Broadcast Group, a Maryland-based media company known for its conservative views whose holdings include 62 TV stations with markets in Kansas City MO, St. Louis MO, Minneapolis MN, Pittsburgh PA, Dayton OH, Columbus OH, Greenboro NC, Portland ME, Sacramento CA, and Nashville TN will pre-empt Koppel’s Nightline broadcast, claiming that the names of private citizens killed on 9/11 were never read on the air. That is not true. Their names were read on the air.

This looks to me like a right-wing attempt to once again cover up the ugliness of war and the cost of this war in American lives. Not only will we not be allowed to welcome home the veterans of this war, nor be shown the truth about what war is all about, we are dishonoring those soldiers and their families by not even acknowledging the fact that they gave their lives in this war. This move appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the men and women in uniform who are actually over there fighting.

“Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcasting is pre-empting the live “Nightline” program on its ABC affiliates, saying, “We find it offensive that Ted Koppel is trivializing the deaths of so many men and women. This is not a one-year anniversary of the war, or Memorial Day. This is ’sweeps week,’ and he intends to use a news platform for a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq.”” — via CNS

I find it offensive that the right-wing neo-conservative bloc in this country seeks to trivialize the human cost of war. I find it offensive that while men and women are over there dying in the desert, their veteran’s benefits are being cut. I find it offensive that American citizens are being illegally detained without counsel and without legal recourse or Due Process while their families are suffering without a breadwinner in the house. I find it offensive that we have prisoners who have been sitting in Guantanamo Bay Naval Station prisons for over two years, well out of the reach of legal avenues of recourse to even be able to say, “Hey, I’m innocent!” I find it offensive that Bush can air campaign ads wearing a flight suit with flags waving in the breeze when he was AWOL during Vietnam.

“The fact is, we’ve wasted far too many American lives on pumping up George W. Bush’s sense of masculinity, and the people who bring you this conflict don’t like to be reminded our people are dying over there. This is why they made such an issue of photos of caskets being flown back home.” — via StoryHunters

Damn right. Kudos to Ted Koppel and Nightline for honoring this country’s dead in Iraq.

“We are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable, and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.” — Edward R. Murrow

We can disagree about whether it was wise to invade Iraq, or about the policies we’ve pursued since the war “ended” a year ago. But surely we all agree that we must know what’s going on there - and fully appreciate the price we (and the Iraqis) are paying.

*Update [12:28PM EST] : Senator John McCain has just sent a formal letter of protest to Sinclair Broadcast Group over their decision to pre-empt the Nightline program. — via Ted Koppel telephone interview on AirAmericaRadio.com