Ubiquity -
Sincere thanks for a principled response to my above post. The information you provide is interesting, and it's accurate up to a point...
The information you provided are the changes and interpretations as of 1997; essentially what McCain was proposing.
The text of the actual bill is found here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:s.27.es:
Title II, Subtit. A represents the legislation enacted that covers your point. To the extent that there is a "disbursement" of $10,000, I agree... a report may be required. But that is an ex post facto report, so if it's required, Sinclair hasn't "violated" Mc-F "yet". As Sinclair owns the stations on which the program is to air, I don't know if it'd be a "disbursement," frankly.
A few points to clarify from my earlier rant -
I don't know whether
Stolen Honor is "anti-Kerry". What it does is juxtapose Kerry's statements from his post-Vietnam celebrity period against the statements and remembrances of contemporary POWs. So if one is hypersensitive about any critique or contextualizing of this period in Kerry's life, they'd certainly call it "anti-Kerry."
Second, Sinclair has invited Kerry to participate in the broadcast and to provide his comments/opinions contemporaneously with the broadcast -- essentially offering "equal time", though they don't have to.
AFAIK, Kerry has declined the offer.
Lastly, I concede that in my zeal I did refer overbroadly to the "application of" Mc-F. The reporting requirement of "disbursements" could apply to broadcasters, though again I don't know that broadcasters make "disbursements". But if they do, a simple filing is all that's required, without the true burdens of Mc-F that apply to donors, political groups and political parties.
The claim that
Stolen Honor -- or Sinclair's broadcast thereof --violates Mc-F remains spurious. If (big if) there is any requirement on Sinclair, it is only to report "disbursements" Sinclair has made following the broadcast, b/c only upon broadcast would Sinclair's obligations (if any) arise. It's still a petty DNC scare tactic.
JP