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February 18, 2005
WELCOME TO THE RIEFENSTAHL BROADCAST NETWORK
No one will be surprised to read another story about how ridiculous it is that Sinclair Broadcasting is allowed to continue functioning as the propaganda wing of the extreme right, all with a public license for your airwaves. But in this week's Rolling Stone, you get a very good look into the toilet bowl to see how much Sinclair floats.
An ex-producer says he was ordered not to report "any bad news out of Iraq -- no dead servicemen, no reports on how much we're spending, nothing." And a producer Sinclair sent to Iraq to report on the war calls the resulting coverage "pro-Bush." "You weren't reporting news," says the producer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "You were reporting a political agenda that came down to you from the top of the food chain." ... On Sunday, October 17th, Sinclair called a mandatory meeting for the entire News Central staff. According to several who attended, Leiberman stood up and voiced his opposition to "Stolen Honor." "Each and every one of us is going to lose our credibility if we lend our voices and our writing and our faces to this product that clearly isn't news," he said. "It's propaganda. It's meant to sway the election -- we've been told that by people inside the company." Sinclair's vice president of news, Joseph DeFeo, looked at Leiberman. "You may face consequences for not choosing to participate in this," Leiberman recalls him saying. Then DeFeo looked around the room. "Anyone else want to join him?" he asked. No one spoke up...The next day, after Leiberman made his concerns public, Sinclair fired him. (Sinclair refuses to comment on the incident.) Employees report a pervasive climate of fear at Sinclair. Staffers worry that management is listening to their telephone calls, and a recent notice sent to all employees warns that the company is monitoring their e-mail and Internet use. "We know if you use e-mail to send jokes to your friends and co-workers," the memo states. "We know if you view porn.... We know if you order parts for the car you are trying to restore.... We know how many people searched for Janet Jackson after the Super Bowl (97 searches)." Get a good look at the way the right wing wants things to be, kids. Have political beliefs that aren't extreme right wing? You're fired. Expect that your company will adhere to basic standards of conduct for its industry? You're fired. Daily threats and intimidation that the company knows everything about you... Sinclair is the right wing agenda in motion, kids. The funniest thing? Just like almost all conservative leaders who've made careers of playing morality police and trying to demonize anyone who doesn't match up with the evangelicals' view of the perfect citizen, the CEO of Sinclair is a phony. He's been arrested for soliciting a prostitute -- and then managed not only to get community service instead of a more serious penalty, but managed to get his employees to perform the community service for him. Yep, kids... the right wing in action. Do as we say, not as we do. (And if you don't do as we say, you're either fired or arrested.)
Smith's media connections came in handy in 1996, when he was arrested on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute who, police said, performed "an unnatural and perverted sex act on him" in a Mercedes owned by Sinclair. Charged with a misdemeanor sex offense, Smith cut an unusual deal: In lieu of doing community service, he ordered Sinclair to broadcast reports publicizing local drug programs. "The judge was outraged," former Sinclair reporter LuAnne Canipe told Salon. "He said, 'How can employees do community service for their boss?''"
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