Flash: Conservative media company orders broadcast of anti-Kerry film

On October 9, the Los Angeles Times reported that Sinclair Broadcast Group is ordering the 62 TV stations it owns or operates to preempt primetime programming in order to air a film attacking John Kerry. Sinclair Broadcast Group is best known as the conservative media organization that has given more than $60,000 to Republicans this cycle and blocked its ABC affiliates from broadcasting an episode of Nightline in which anchor Ted Koppel read the names of American soldiers who died in Iraq. Senator John McCain called that Sinclair decision "a gross disservice to the public, and to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces" and "unpatriotic."
The film, Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, was made by Carlton Sherwood, a former Bush administration official, and attacks Kerry for his antiwar activities in the early 1970s.
Conservative defenders of Sinclair and Stolen Honor claim that critics of the film and Sinclair's decision to broadcast it (such as MMFA) are disingenuous, as they haven't yet seen the film. The Wall Street Journal, for example, editorialized: "None of 'Stolen Honor's' critics appears to have actually seen the show. ... We haven't seen 'Stolen Honor' ... Sinclair Broadcast Group doesn't own a station in our metro New York City market, though we're now tempted to hop on a plane to Buffalo or St. Louis to check out what all the fuss is about."
Well, we at Media Matters for America are familiar with a little thing called the Internet -- you'd think the august Wall Street Journal would be as well -- so we checked Stolen Honor's website. Turns out you can watch the film online, for $4.99.