Quote:
Originally posted by Overpaid Slacker
Ubiquity --
I believe (but I'm willing to be educated otherwise) that Mc-F does not contemplate the opportunity costs you refer to as "disbursements." Also, even if they're going to "bump" another program to run the documentary, it almost certainly won't "cost" them anything, given viewership and ratings/advertising.
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Not quite, Sinclair is ordering the piece to be run “commercial free”. I guess the local channels would be free to find a sponsor for the piece that would defray the loss. Some channels it may actually boost viewership, but imagine in as many it would decrease.
I can’t say anything about the opportunity-cost / disbursement issue. Are broadcast companies the ‘new’ soft-money???
The RNC threat to the tv networks was related to the Moveon ad competition of a few months back. Moveon had some type of online anti-Bush ad competiton (one of the entries was the Bush-Hitler ad) and the winning ad (showing children performing heavy-labor jobs) was broadcast in several states. I don’t know the basis of why the RNC thought it was illegal, just that their intent was to make the networks believe that it was (
Now that you have been apprised of the law, to prevent further violations of federal law, we urge you to remove these advertisements from your station's broadcast rotation.). The ads ran, Moveon and the networks haven’t been charged with anything, leading me to believe it was a scare tactic- make them fear us & they won’t dare run the ad.
The request to review ‘The Reagans’ before screening for accuracy in
the RNC’s eyes was made by the head censor (Ed Gillespie, obviously also the RNC chairman). Admittedly their goal was not to prevent the movie showing (well maybe that would have been the next step if CBS conceded to the demands, based on how bad the movie sounds), rather to force their own message claiming inaccuracy to run over it. I wonder if Sinclair would allow similar demands from the DNC regarding the Kerry documentary. If they are allowed a prescreening & determine, in
their judgment, that it is not accurate would Sinclair be ok with adding a similar message? Would that be a more appropriate way for the DNC to proceed on this matter? If Sinclair acquiesced & put the piece on an obscure pay channel rather than 250 local free-to-view channels would the DNC reaction be tempered?
