Sinclair Spokesperson Discusses His Former CIA Job and Whether He Will Air Anti-Kerry Special
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We speak with Mark Hyman, Vice President for Corporate Relations at Sinclair Broadcast Group, which created an uproar last week when plans surfaced it ordered its 62 TV stations to pre-empt regular prime-time programming in favor of airing what many call an anti-Kerry film. Before working for Sinclair, Hyman served as an officer in Naval Intelligence and did work for the Central Intelligence Agency. [includes rush transcript]
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The Sinclair Broadcasting Group created an uproar last week when plans surfaced it ordered its 62 TV stations to pre-empt regular prime-time programming in favor of airing the film "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal." The documentary was produced by Carlton Sherwood, a former Washington Times reporter who used to work for Department of Homeland Security director Tom Ridge while he was governor of Pennsylvania.
In response, 18 Democratic Senators urged the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Sinclair"s decision to air what they view as an unpaid 90-minute attack ad against Kerry. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps released a statement calling Sinclair's decision to air the program a "abuse of public trust." And some groups complied databases of all of Sinclai"r advertisers so individuals could contact these companies and directly threaten to boycott their businesses if they did not pull their ads.
Well last Friday, I had a chance to speak with the Vice President for Corporate Relations for Sinclair, Mark Hyman. He joined me on the air in Canada while I was guest-hosting a radio show for CBC, Canada"s national public broadcaster.
Mark Hyman, Vice President for Corporate Relations for Sinclair Broadcast Group.
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AMY GOODMAN: I began by asking Sinclair's Mark Hyman why he decided to air the documentary two weeks before the election.
MARK HYMAN: Well, I want to make certain I set the record straight. We probably all remember that telephone game we played in primary school where someone starts a story at one end of the class and it ends up being changed at the end, except in this particular instance, this all came about, at least the controversy, if you will, based on a very deeply flawed article that appeared in The Los Angeles Times. I think their adage must be, "We want to get the story first, instead of getting it right." Which sadly, kind of started a lot of the brouhaha, as we've made it clear on many, many, many, many, many media outlets here in the last several days. We have not finalized plans for this. What we want to do is investigate specific allegations that arose in this particular documentary. We don't know what we're going to -- what the finished product is going to look like. What we do know is that we wanted Senator John Kerry to be a part of it. That's why we quietly had invited him probably close to two weeks ago now to participate in this process, because we wanted to examine what certainly were new revelations, new claims made by people who previously had not come forward.
AMY GOODMAN: Your argument, when you told ABC affiliates not to air Nightline's program when they named the soldiers who died in Iraq was that it was too partisan. What is your response to those who are saying that what you're doing right now. to say the least, is partisan?
MARK HYMAN: Well, obviously, that's an absurd comment. If you recall the Nightline issue it was George Stefanopolis on April 25 who made the announcement that Ted Koppel was going to do the tribute to coincide with President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech. He didn't say it was a memorial to recognize the fallen men. It was meant to embarrass the president, which is fine. When we first heard that comment, we called ABC News and we said, "We'd like you to clarify what the intention is, because if you want to run a commentary, fine, just say it's a commentary. We're okay with that. If you want to tell people it's news, well then, we have concerns, because Stefanopolis just told us the day before, told America, that it wasn't a newsworthy event." We further told ABC, "Look, if you want to run it on the anniversary of the war, that makes absolute sense."
AMY GOODMAN: And do you consider--
MARK HYMAN: [inaudible] thought. Or we said, "If you want to run it on Memorial Day, we will support this and we will definitely promote it, but to try to run it during the second night of the television sweeps rating period, and as Stefanopolis mentioned it was meant to coincide with the `Mission Accomplished' statement, that does not sound correct to us. Call it a commentary, we're okay with it, but don't call it news."
AMY GOODMAN: Do you not consider the deaths of 700 U.S. soldiers news?
MARK HYMAN: Absolutely, it's news. But this wasn't a surprise to anyone. We know each and every day that people are dying in all of those. We reported those each and every day. So, the question was, why did Ted Koppel pick out the anniversary of the president's "Mission Accomplished" speech as the one day to announce this, when he could have done it five weeks earlier on the anniversary of the start of the war. He could do it a month following on Memorial Day, which certainly is the sort of the period in our country that we say we always recognize our people. Of course, Koppel dismissed Memorial Day as a weekend of keg parties and picnics. As a veteran, I kind of take exception to that characterization, but that's his view.
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