The real problem with Sinclair

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns 62 TV stations, prompted an outcry with its plan to broadcast an entire anti-Kerry documentary called "Stolen Honor." Sinclair backed down and the outcry went away. But the bigger problem remains.

What's most wrong is not that "Stolen Honor" was meant to sway voters. It's OK to try to sway voters. We do it in this column on this page. Properly labeled, opinion is part of the flavor of democracy. The content of "Stolen Honor" may be fair or unfair, but in America we do not allow the government to determine that. This page defends Sinclair's right to broadcast a biased program. What we don't defend is its right to own 62 TV stations that reach 24 percent of American households. That is the problem.

A free society requires not only free presses, but many owners, and the trend has been the opposite. The apparent future is giants like Viacom and AOL/Time Warner. Sinclair Broadcast Group, based in Baltimore, is in the second rank among these, owning stations mostly in the "red" states. But it is still too big.

Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, warned in the July/August issue of the Washington Monthly that media industry was becoming dominated by a handful of sluggish oligarchs.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2002076820_mediaed31.html

[Demeter]

1. Break Up The Corporate Monopolies!

and Take back the public airwaves.